Bob Dole: “last year's congressional uproar over United States blunders in Somalia, Bosnia, and Haiti, has prompted some to call…”

“last year's congressional uproar over United States blunders in Somalia, Bosnia, and Haiti, has prompted some to call for a review of the War Powers Act. However, in my view, at the root of Congress' balking about these foreign policy flops and flip-flops is not the relationship between the Congress and the Executive, but the relationship between the United States and the United Nations-- and the lack of a statutory congressional role in that relationship. The problem in Somalia, Bosnia, and Haiti was not the unilateral pursuit of United States national interests. Each of these foreign blunders was the result of the administration deferring to or depending on the United Nations to define U.S. policy. Our policy in Somalia went awry when the mission changed from carrying out humanitarian aid deliveries to carrying out the U.N.'s vendetta against General Aideed, and when feeding people turned into nation-building. Instead of supporting Bosnia's right to self-defense under article 51 of the U.N. charter, at the urging of fellow members of the U.N. Security Council the administration tentatively pledged 25,000 troops to implement a U.N.-mediated plan which would reward aggression and dismember Bosnia-Hercegovina, a U.N. member state. In the case of Haiti, only a mob scene prevented the commitment of United States troops to a U.N.-commanded deployment with a murky mission and inadequate security.”