James Traficant: “I wonder if we vote not to deploy troops in Kosovo if the President would abide by it. I thought the gentleman from New…”

“I wonder if we vote not to deploy troops in Kosovo if the President would abide by it. I thought the gentleman from New York (Mr. Ackerman) made a good statement. I would like to concur. There is a reason for United States support in the region. Maybe the most important reason is genocide. The world took genocide lightly once before and we should not do it again. But what bothers me is we have been turning aside from this dilemma since 1986 when there was an intelligence report that said there is only going to be two dynamics that come out of Kosovo: We will either press the Serbs for independence for Kosovo or there will be a revolution and there will ultimately be a great entanglement. I believe we must support the ethnic Albanians in Kosovo who are being brutalized. But the gentlewoman from Florida (Mrs. Fowler) brings a good question to the House. How do we do it? She says we should not deploy troops, we should use air strikes, logistics, intelligence and other means of identifiable support. There is a lot of sense to that. I think it is time for Europe to stand up for Europe. We may be the superpower, but by God we are not the only power. Let me say one last thing. I want to commend the Speaker for this debate. We have been debating war, ladies and gentlemen, after wars have been engaged. If these are peacekeepers, we ought to send the Peace Corps. If these are police actions, we ought to send the D.C.…”