Political Quotes

“The thrust of our amendment was to force the Europeans, who had made pledges to us in Kosovo, to live up to the pledges that they made. They were going to help us in four specific areas of Kosovo activity, and they were going to be in such areas as civilian administration, reconstruction, and police activities. The fact is that we had felt at the time that the allies, who had agreed to be involved with us, had in fact not contributed the kind of money that they said that they would give in these areas of reconstruction and police and a civil budget and humanitarian aid. What we had been urging is the fact that since the Europeans, when put all together, have an economy, a GDP that is, when looked at, essentially the same as ours. As we can see when we take a look at all of NATO and Europe, their GDP is $8.3 trillion, ours being $8.9 trillion. Relatively similar. The defense spending of $283 billion by us, $180 billion by them. We felt as though they were not really carrying the load.”