John Mica: “I come reluctantly to the floor to oppose the use of United States troops on the ground in Kosovo. I do that because of…”

“I come reluctantly to the floor to oppose the use of United States troops on the ground in Kosovo. I do that because of two reasons. First, because of the lack of trust and confidence that I have in this President, and secondly because of the pattern of experience. When I got elected in 1992 and began service in 1993, this President inherited the question of Somalia which President Bush had started as a humanitarian rescue effort. President Clinton turned that into a national tragedy, a loss of our troops as we saw our troops drug through the streets of Somalia. Where are we in Somalia 4 or 5 years later? Just a few days ago 60 were killed in Somalia. Then we had Haiti, our second experience in nation-building. And what have we done in Haiti? We have traded one corrupt government for supporting another corrupt government at the cost of billions to our taxpayers. This President and this administration opposed an international pan-African force in Rwanda before the genocide of our time took place. That was the experience then, they said no troops then, and after the genocide we sent our troops into that area. Bosnia. Time and time again we have set deadlines for our troops in Bosnia, and our troops are still in Bosnia and our troops are spread thin across the globe with these deployments from this President, this administration.”