The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from Texas [Mr. Paul ] is recognized for 5 minutes.

Mr. PAUL. Mr. Speaker, I have asked for this time today to express my deep concern for the recent military buildup in Bosnia.

I think this is a dangerous situation and I would like to call it to the attention of my colleagues here in the Congress. This is something that has been going on for a long time.

Many of us have tried to get our troops out of Bosnia and out of harm’s way, but so far that has not been the case. Yesterday, the U.S. Defense Department announced that they would be adding more aircraft in this region. There will be 6 more F-16’s sent to this region, taking the total number up to 24. They will be flying out of Ariano, Italy, and the purpose is to patrol the Bosnian skies.

The purpose that is stated is to provide deterrence and to provide a peaceful situation to a very difficult problem that has existed not for a few months or for a few years but for decades, if not hundreds of years in this region.

Instead of providing deterrence and a peaceful effort being made here, I believe our contribution is going to do nothing more than escalate the problems of that region.

The recent buildup has also been said to be necessary because it is supposed to guarantee an election process. During the last year there were two attempts to hold elections in this region but, due to the political turmoil there, the elections have had to be canceled. Again, they are trying to have another election. Our presence there is supposed to provide the stability to a region that is inherently unstable, and I challenge this notion whether or not this can even be achieved.

In addition to the troops and the aircraft that have gone in, we are sending, the international bodies have sent in 2,600 election monitors. The odds of this providing stability to an election are very, very slim.

Last month there were some additional troops sent into Bosnia. Not much was said about this. There were not very many reports in the media regarding this, certainly no discussion here in the Congress. But we have had 8,000 troops stationed in Bosnia. We have added 1,600 more. So we are now in the process of adding aircraft and adding personnel in a situation which puts our troops in jeopardy. It was not too long ago that our troops were stoned and homemade weapons were used against them.

The NATO forces just recently took control of a television transmitter and said that the information over this transmitter was not acceptable. Just recently that transmitter was returned in hopes that the return of the transmitter to the Serbs would calm the personnel there, the people there, so that the elections could be carried out. But just the thought of taking over the transmitter is one thing. But the conditions that were placed on the Serbs in the return of the transmitter is something else again.

Our Pentagon official threatened the Serbs that if they violated the instructions that were given the television station, it would be a clear cut justification for NATO forces to retaliate. In the best of diplomatic jingoism, our Pentagon official, as quoted in the Washington Post, said, if they do not comply, we will whack them.

Hardly do I think this policy will lead to peace and a wonderful election. I really challenge the Congress here for us, in the continuation of the funding of a military operation that is doomed to fail. It is a real tragedy that we get promises made by the administration.

The troops were supposed to be in there until December 1996 and here they are, another year, supposedly, they are supposed to come out next July, but the way things are going there and by the way we comply, we are complicit in this operation and provide the funds, the odds of our troops being out of there next July are very, very slim.

This raises the question about overall policy. Traditionally, the American foreign policy, up until the latter part of this century, has been that we should have a policy of noninterference, nonintervention in the affairs of other nations and also that of neutrality with all nations.

This is proper under the Constitution. This has been traditional. Instead, we should be concentrating on national security issues. We should be concerned about what the American position is, and we should not pretend that we know what is best for everybody because we do not.

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