Political Quotes

“the Congress is about to be asked to appropriate $10 billion, and perhaps more, in emergency funds to finance a war in the Balkans and to help the refugees that war has created. We will be asked to do so after a brief debate and with no opportunity to impose conditions or to add reservations. That is the wrong way to deal with so grave an issue. On March 23, the Senate authorized air attacks on Yugoslavia in the hope that they would motivate the Government of Yugoslavia to grant autonomy to the Kosovars, a status far less than the independence they seek, enforced by the presence of American and other NATO troops for an undefined period of time, and thus to prevent a refugee crisis. We have been spectacularly unsuccessful at attaining either goal. I voted against the March resolution. I did so because I believe that the United States should engage in armed conflict only when its vital interests are at stake, and that the then Serb repression of the Kosovar Albanians did not involve any of our vital national interests. My vote was also motivated by the belief that the limited bombing proposed would be unlikely to help us reach the dubious goal of occupying Kosovo. When we do engage our Armed Forces in conflict, we should do so decisively and with overwhelming force aimed at the cause of the conflict--in this case, the Milosevic government in Belgrade.”