Joe Biden: “we have had many debates on the floor of the Senate, genuinely heartfelt debates about the role of the United States of…”

“we have had many debates on the floor of the Senate, genuinely heartfelt debates about the role of the United States of America in the world and the use of American force in the world. We have had a split in this body between the parties, and within the parties, about whether or not it is appropriate for the United States to take a leadership role in Europe, including, on occasion, the use of force to promote our national interest and that of our allies. There are several political cancers that exist in various parts of the world. And the one remaining cancer on the continent of Europe--the primary one--is Slobodan Milosevic. I suggest that we all take a lesson from what is going on now in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia--in Serbia. Many of us, Democrat and Republican, have argued--myself; Senator McCain; Senator Lieberman; Senator Dole, when he was here--that the United States had an obligation, in its own self-interest and in the interest of our allies, and in the interest of humanity, to intervene, to stop the genocide and the ethnic cleansing that was being perpetrated by Slobodan Milosevic's vile nationalism. I have been arguing for some time now that, absent our involvement in that region of the world, there would be chaos in, if not the heart, then the belly of Europe, and that if we acted with dispatch--swiftly and with resolve, and a willingness not to back away--Slobodan Milosevic, as with most thugs, would be stopped and would be eliminated.”