Mark Neumann: “I have this recurring fear that I am going to wake up one morning, turn on the news, and find out the President of the…”

“I have this recurring fear that I am going to wake up one morning, turn on the news, and find out the President of the United States has deployed 25,000 United States troops to the Bosnian region. That is why I have an amendment to this bill. Mr. Chairman, the purpose of this amendment is to require the President to come to Congress for approval prior to the deployment of United States troops in the Bosnian area. My colleagues, make no mistake about the fact that there are plans on the table currently to deploy 25,000 United States ground troops in the Bosnian area. On June 14, and I quote Secretary Perry; he said there are three different possible ways, and I quote, ``There are three possible contingencies in which we would have ground forces in Bosnia. There are, No. 1, a peacekeeping operation to enforce a peacekeeping settlement; No. 2, assisting NATO allies in the full withdrawal of the U.N. Protection Force; and, No. 3, an emergency extraction of the U.N. Protection Force.'' General Shali, who also testified at that same hearing, continued to lay out how many troops might be deployed and for how long, and I quote General Shali, same day: ``In the event of a request from the U.N. for assistance in withdrawal of UNPROFOR troops the U.S. would commit about 25,000 American troops for approximately 22 weeks.…”