Don Nickles: “I want to go through a little bit of the chronology to show, at least in my opinion, how we got into the bombing…”

“I want to go through a little bit of the chronology to show, at least in my opinion, how we got into the bombing campaign, because what this resolution is kind of implying is, well, the bombing campaign is not working. And we call it a campaign because the polls don't like the word ``war.'' It is interesting, I was with some of our colleagues, and we went to the Kosovo region into the Balkans. We talked to our military planners. They use the word ``war.'' But the politicians do not use the word ``war.'' It doesn't poll very well. People don't like war. So this is called an air campaign. This is a mission. I disagree with that terminology. How did we get into the air campaign? How did we get into this air war? I want to go through several statements, because, as I mentioned in my opening comment, I think this has been a diplomatic disaster that has led to a humanitarian disaster. It is not working, and some people are saying, let's double the ante again. Let's throw in troops now and then maybe we can win. I do not think that would be the result. I want to win, but I question, what is winning? Are we going to have a NATO presence, a U.S. presence in Kosovo forever? Are we going to go all the way into Serbia and occupy Belgrade and take Milosevic out and have him tried as a war criminal? He is a criminal. He is a thug. I have met with him. He doesn't tell the truth. He is responsible for a lot of serious atrocities, and he should be punished.”