Charles E. Schumer: “I think that this is one of the most difficult proposals that we will have to vote on, and I have been thinking a great…”

“I think that this is one of the most difficult proposals that we will have to vote on, and I have been thinking a great deal about it. I would say in terms of the practical arguments, does this help the Bosnians or not, we can hear both sides on that. But ultimately you have to listen to the Bosnians themselves. They believe it will. So we can rationalize and debate, but the people who are asking for our help and who have been slaughtered say that it will help them. Who are we to judge that it will not? The real argument that throws me back a little by the supporters of this resolution is the one made with eloquence by the chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the chairman of the Committee on Armed Services, and that is, shall we break our international agreements? How will this affect not Bosnia, but future agreements, where others want to break them and we say 'Don't.' And they will say, 'But you did it here.' That is a very difficult argument to overcome. But I think we are thrown back to thinking about the Nuremberg laws, and to thinking about when is it a citizen's responsibility, whether we be citizens in this chamber or citizens on the streets and somewhere in the world community, about when it is proper and appropriate to say that world law has allowed such horror and such havoc to occur, allowed it to occur, but that we must not stick with it?”