Political Quotes

“A strange dilemma happened this weekend. It seems everywhere I went, I thought they would be, people would be, talking about the appropriation bills that we had last week, but they were not. They were talking about Bosnia. They have watched television. They do not know an awful lot about it. But they do ask the question: What is the American interest there? Why should we be there? I tell them basically that we are there because of the carnage and we do not want to expand on the European continent. I will be very honest with my colleagues. I was not in favor of the embargo. I think it is wrong. But we have the embargo now, and I am opposed to the unilateral lifting of the embargo. A lot of people say, ``Well, what is the United Nations doing? UNPROFOR is not doing anything.'' I would remind them that in 1992 there were 130,000 deaths in Bosnia; in 1994, there were 3,000 deaths, as best that we could calculate. Still too many, much too many. There are rapes going on there. There are children being killed. All of us know that. Yes, I have been to Yad Vashem, and it is easy to bring that up, never again, but America is not turning its back on Bosnia. We have forces in the Adriatic, we have forces in Italy, and we are ready to do what we need to do under the auspices of the United Nations and NATO. My colleagues, the rapid reaction forces are there now. The Europeans have finally got into the act.”