[Pages H8445-H8446]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  CLINTON FOREIGN POLICY STATUS REPORT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 21, 1997, the gentleman from Florida [Mr. Goss] is recognized 
during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GOSS. Mr. Speaker, the President appears set on establishing a 
legacy for himself as the 20th century peacemaker. Obviously we applaud 
that, and as chairman of the House Permanent Subcommittee on 
Intelligence, of course, I share the goal of improving the peace and 
security of our global community, and, of course, particularly the 
United States of America.
  But I am concerned there is not enough thought given to such crucial 
matters in critical places as defining what we mean when we say our 
national interests. There appears to be precious little long-term 
planning going on, not enough commitment to understanding exit 
strategies and contingency plans, things like that that matter. There 
is no real vision apparently behind this administration's foreign 
policy; it is day-to-day ad hoc.
  Mostly what we see are photo ops, and some of them are the 
distressing images of our men and women in uniform in harm's way 
without a clear mission. In Bosnia, for instance, we recently reached 
an agreement to end funding for the U.S. mission there by June. That 
would be June of next year. The President could extend the mission if 
he certified that it was in the national interest, however that might 
be defined, to do so.
  Then, a few days later, NATO and the United States troops we read in 
the papers unexpectedly seized four television transmitters which had 
been controlled by the hardliners supporting one of the Bosnian Serb 
leaders, in this case Radovan Karadzic.
  I am troubled that while the administration talks to Congress about 
wrapping up the mission in Bosnia, it is getting ever more deeply 
involved in Bosnian politics and affairs, to the point of running the 
evening news.
  What is our mission in Bosnia? Where are we going? Where is this all 
heading? How much is it going to cost? The Bosnia scenario, though, is 
unfortunately not an isolated case for this administration. In some 
respects it reminds me of what has happened in Haiti.
  The U.N. mission in Haiti is set to expire on November 30. As that 
deadline approaches, the administration ought to be talking about ways 
to get our troops out, to ease the transition, to help the Haitians 
continue along the path to a stabilized democracy.
  Although we have now spent at least $3 billion of United States 
taxpayers' dollars in Haiti, it is unclear whether anyone has figured 
out an exit strategy so the Haitian people can get on with running 
their own country. In fact, I am not sure what we have gotten for that 
$3 billion.
  A number of obstacles to democracy remain in Haiti. Investigations 
into the various politically motivated murders have not gone forward, 
and those that were responsible have not been brought to justice. These 
are political assassinations I am talking about.
  Not one state-run industry has begun the privatization process, thus 
there is no foreign investment in Haiti and the economy is in the 
basket. The leading force for economic reform, Rosny Smarth, resigned 
his post as Prime Minister because he was unwilling to certify the 
April 6 elections for one-third of the Senate and local council. In 
other words, democracy, the ballot box system, has broken down there. 
The turnout for the elections, incidentally, was a dismal 5 percent.

[[Page H8446]]

  Many independent observers have charged the elections were riddled 
with fraud and significant violations of local law. This is not 
success. The dispute over these elections is yet to be resolved and 
Haiti is still without a new prime minister.
  Sadly, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the man U.S. troops restored to power, 
you will remember, with 20,000 U.S. troops, is often cited as an 
obstacle to essential reform these days, and I am not alone in this 
dire assessment. A leading scholar of Latin American and the Caribbean 
area has recently stated that ``Haitian democracy is heading for a 
major derailment.'' Remember, we spent $3 billion trying to ensure 
Haitian democracy.
  I am troubled that this administration still points to Haiti as a 
foreign policy success. If this is a success, we are going to be in 
serious trouble in other places.
  As the New Republic recently pointed out, ``The Clinton 
Administration has achieved less than it might have and almost nothing 
irreversible,'' a euphemism for saying we have struck out.
  It is time for the administration to lay out a realistic and workable 
Haiti policy that takes us beyond the involvement of United States 
troops and further along the road to true democracy in Haiti, as we 
have all repeatedly asked.
  Mr. Speaker, the Clinton administration has a number of difficult 
foreign policy questions that need to be addressed. What is happening 
in the Middle East? We pick up the papers, we see political 
assassination attempts, we see uproar going on. The peace process is 
not working, despite the heroic efforts of some of our folks in their 
shuttle diplomacy. It is just not happening the way it was supposed to.
  What about North Korea? That is not an accident waiting to happen; 
that is an accident that is happening today. People are starving, it is 
a country that is in another era, and it is not a friend of Western 
democracy.
  Where do we stand in Africa? Here is a whole continent besieged with 
incredible grievous obstacles to a future, whether it is starvation, 
chaos, political problems, genocide, whatever we read about every day 
in the paper.
  So, a legacy is more than just photo ops that declare ``Peace in our 
time has arrived.'' We need some consistent, long-term foreign policy 
planning at the White House, and a focused look at what our national 
interests really are in today's world. When we understand that, perhaps 
we will be able to effectively protect the United States of America and 
the peace we want for the world.

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