Joel Hefley: “I do not recall the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Hamilton] when the President set a date certain when we went into Bosnia…”

“I do not recall the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Hamilton] when the President set a date certain when we went into Bosnia that we would be out by November of 1996 saying, ``Mr. President, that is folly for you to set that date.'' We all accepted that date. The President assured me we would be out by that date. That was our commitment. We would be there until November and get the shooting stopped, get the killing stopped, and then we would come out. We also had a commitment to spend $1.2 billion at that time. I want to refer my colleagues to this chart here. By 1998, we will be at $7.3 billion. So do not talk to me about us backing down on our commitments. We have kept our commitments. Recently, at a meeting of the North Atlantic Assembly, it was quite clear to me that all of our allies sitting out there at the assembly were convinced that we were there for the duration; that we were going to be there forever, if necessary; that we were going to have another Korea, if necessary. Fifty years later, we might still be in Bosnia as we are still in Korea. I told them then as I tell Members now, so far as I am concerned, we are bringing our troops home from Bosnia, and we need to set a date certain to do that so that we can do it in an orderly kind of fashion, so it is not precipitous, so that our European allies know that this is what is going to be done, so that they can make preparations.”