Norman D. Dicks: “Thank you. Wouldn't you feel better if we could add, as a fifth item in this list of things, suppression of enemy air…”

“Thank you. Wouldn't you feel better if we could add, as a fifth item in this list of things, suppression of enemy air defenses? The reason I say that is I think we're going to have a difficult time doing any of these other missions unless we have suppression. I was just over there at Aviano and Sigonella, and we were told by the Navy that the allies do not have enough suppression to be able to continue to do these bombing missions without U.S. help. I think it would help if we could clarify that that is not somehow abandoned. Mr. McKEON. Reclaiming my time, my good friend from Washington, there are a lot of things that would make me feel better. If we could go back and start this whole thing over, there are a lot of things that would make me feel better. But the President has said we're not engaged in hostilities. And I think we would agree that when we're firing missiles, when we are having missions with our fighter planes suppressing ground fire, I believe that would be--most of us agree that that is hostile. The NATO people, we met with the military from Great Britain. They told us what we have in here would allow them to continue successfully their missions. I urge my colleagues to join me in support of this bill.”