James T. Callahan: “a delegation of this House went to Bosnia last weekend, and we met with the American military leaders in that war torn…”

“a delegation of this House went to Bosnia last weekend, and we met with the American military leaders in that war torn country, and it was unanimous from Admiral Smith to General Nash to the head of the 1st Army. Every single military man we talked to, who incidentally are doing a magnificent job and who, in my opinion, have accomplished the initial part of our mission, and that is to create a peace and a division of the warring factions in Bosnia. But each and every one of them told us that the only way we are going to be successful in withdrawing our troops in a timely fashion is that reconstruction moneys be immediately sent. We met with Carl Bildt, the Ambassador who is going to handle the civilian side of reconstruction. I told Carl Bildt that it is not the responsibility of the United States of America to rebuild Bosnia. It is a European problem, and we are not going to bear a majority of that load. So we are going to put up $200 million or thereabouts in this bill. We have insisted that Carl Bildt raise another 80 percent, or $1.2 billion, from European and other nations. If, indeed, we are going to come out of Bosnia successful, and I was one of the ones who encouraged the President not to go there, but we did go there and our mission is successful so far, and it can be successful to the nth degree if we can begin immediately the reconstruction project.”