Rob Andrews: “Mr. Speaker, the system that is over 200 years old in our country has been a very wise one indeed. It is a system in…”

“Mr. Speaker, the system that is over 200 years old in our country has been a very wise one indeed. It is a system in which we vigorously debate and often disagree about what direction our country's policies should go in before we engage in conflict. But it is also a tradition that says that, once we engage in conflict, we unify. It is the wisdom of this motion to instruct that reflects that tradition, and it is because of that wisdom that I rise in strong support of the motion. This motion appropriately looks both backward and forward. It looks backward to say thank you to a lot of people who made a tremendous effort to make the successful result in Kosovo possible, to our very brave and noble troops, to their families who supported them back home, to our allies who stood with us, to the front-line States who endured, and, yes, to the leaders of our country, the military leaders in uniform, the diplomatic leaders at the State Department, Secretary Cohen at the Defense Department, and certainly to the Commander in Chief, to President Clinton.”