Saxby Chambliss: “Well, I can tell the gentleman who is going to go after that, because the 48th brigade of the National Guard of the…”

“Well, I can tell the gentleman who is going to go after that, because the 48th brigade of the National Guard of the State of Georgia has been called up, and they are in preparation and training right now to go to Bosnia in March. So they will be going about the time the group the gentleman is talking about is coming home. The gentleman from Minnesota and I actually went to Bosnia together, and we saw the troops over there and saw the activity going on. And just like my colleague from Georgia, I was opposed to getting involved in that. I failed to see a national security interest of the United States that was in jeopardy. But once we were there, once our troops were committed, then everybody here was absolutely and totally committed, and the gentleman from Minnesota and I had a great visit with those folks over there. Unfortunately, probably 90 percent of the men and women that we saw serving in Bosnia were either in the reserves or the National Guard, which means that they were called away not just from their families but from their jobs. They are not sure what is going to be there when they get back, and it really is a situation where the OPTEMPO in the military has been called to the brink. It is something that we are addressing now in the Committee on Armed Services.”