C. W. Bill Young: “I continue my opposition to the amendment. The House has already voted on this issue. Every Member has had a chance to…”

“I continue my opposition to the amendment. The House has already voted on this issue. Every Member has had a chance to be recorded, and I think all of us agree that we would hope American ground troops would not be deployed anywhere unless the very direct security interests of the United States is threatened. But here is why I oppose this amendment today. This is real. This is an appropriations bill. It is real. I just do not think Congress should micromanage any kind of military activity, number one. Number two, it is a mistake to tell an enemy what we will do and what we will not do in a military situation. If we tell Milosevic that we are not going to send any ground troops to the area, Milosevic then only has to focus on the air war. He can put all of his attention on the air war. If we do not give him any direct answer one way or the other on ground troops or anything else, then he has got to plan for all kinds of contingencies, he has got to make his preparations very diverse, and it is not easy for him to do that. It is easy for him to focus just on the air war. So I think we would make a big mistake by adopting this amendment.”