FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
March 22, 1999
BUCHANAN URGES CONGRESS TO OPPOSE
'BILL CLINTON'S ILLEGAL PRESIDENTIAL WAR'
"It is the mark of an incoherent foreign policy that when Chinese Communists target missiles on Taiwan, on U.S. forces in Asia, and even on America itself, this administration pounds the drums for war--against Serbia".
WASHINGTON, DC -- Republican Presidential candidate Patrick Buchanan today urged Congress to deny President Clinton the authority or the money to plunge the United States into the civil war in Kosovo.
"NATO," Mr. Buchanan said, "was created to defend Western Europe against Soviet aggression, not to serve as the air arm of some highly suspect 'Kosovo Liberation Army' in its war of secession from the former Yugoslavia."
"If Mr. Clinton orders U.S. air power or ground troops into action in Kosovo without congressional authorization," Mr. Buchanan said, "he will have launched an illegal, presidential war." He added: "America has no vital interest in whose flag flies over Kosovo's capital, and no right to attack and kill Serb soldiers fighting on their own soil to preserve the territorial integrity of their own country."
"Slobodan Milosevic may indeed be the political thug of the White House's depiction," he added, "but what has Milosevic done to the Albanians that Mr. Clinton's 'strategic partners' in Beijing have not done to the Tibetans? It is the mark of an incoherent foreign policy that when Chinese Communists target missiles on Taiwan, on U.S. forces in Asia, and even on America itself, this administration pounds the drums for war--against Serbia," Mr. Buchanan said.
"Unleashing U.S. air power will not bring peace or stability to that blood-soaked peninsula," Buchanan said. "U.S. strikes are less likely to make the Balkans 'safe for democracy' than to enrage Moscow, add to the killing, widen the Balkan war, and lead to eventual massive intervention by U.S. and NATO ground troops. The way to prevent a great power war in the Balkans is for great powers to stay out."
"I urge senators of both parties to sign on to Sen. Bob Smith's resolution to deny funding for acts of war against Serbia--until the American people have determined that they wish to become involved in this Balkan war, " Mr. Buchanan said.
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