Steve Buyer: “this is not easy for me. This is not easy for me because I have covered the waterfront like the gentleman from Missouri…”

“this is not easy for me. This is not easy for me because I have covered the waterfront like the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Skelton) on this issue. We had a good discussion at a hearing this morning with the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and General Wes Clark. I thought it was a very productive hearing the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Skelton) held with the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Spence) of the Committee on National Security. It was some time ago the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Skelton) and I and the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. McHale), we brought some resolutions to the floor, three of them. As a matter of fact, the first one that we brought with regard to Bosnia was we do not like where the Dayton Accord is going. We heard a lot of the discussions coming out of Dayton, and what was happening was that the President got the parties to the table, and there was some sort of anxiety to get something on the paper and to use U.S. ground forces to separate the warring factions. So they were anxious to do that. But the House stepped forward with a vote of 315 Members that said, wait a minute, do not use U.S. ground forces to separate the parties. Focus, force the parties to focus on the real reasons they are killing each other. That is how we will move to cure. That is what was the vote of this House.…”