Max Cleland: “I truly believe that such an approach is the best, if not the only, way to resolve the difficulties in Bosnia and…”

“I truly believe that such an approach is the best, if not the only, way to resolve the difficulties in Bosnia and Kosovo-- allowing our troops eventually to come home but avoiding an unacceptable security vacuum in southeast Europe--and is definitely in the best interest of the United States and Europe. Two years ago this week, the Senate was debating the expansion of NATO, and I should add that I found that discussion to be perhaps the finest deliberation on national security issues that I have witnessed in the time I have served in the U.S. Senate. The debate raised serious questions regarding both the makeup and purpose of NATO, but, in the end, I, and a large majority of the Senate, concluded that extension of NATO membership to Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary was in our, and NATO's, best interest because NATO was the only entity ready and able to fill the security void in northeastern Europe. Much has changed in the time since that vote, including the launching of the first offensive military operations in the history of the alliance last year in Kosovo and Serbia, an action which also represented the first time NATO asserted the right to intervene in the internal affairs of a sovereign nation.”