Quotes from when Clinton committed troops to Bosnia:
"You can support the troops but not the president."
--Rep Tom Delay (R-TX)
"Well, I just think it's a bad idea. What's going to happen is they're going to be over there for 10, 15, maybe 20 years."
--Joe Scarborough (R-FL)**
"Explain to the mothers and fathers of American servicemen that may come home in body bags why their son or daughter have to give up their life?"
--Sean Hannity, Fox News, 4/6/99
"[The] President . . . is once again releasing American military might on a foreign country with an ill-defined objective and no exit strategy. He has yet to tell the Congress how much this operation will cost. And he has not informed our nation's armed forces about how long they will be away from home. These strikes do not make for a sound foreign policy."
--Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA)
"American foreign policy is now one huge big mystery. Simply put, the administration is trying to lead the world with a feel-good foreign policy."
--Rep Tom Delay (R-TX)
"If we are going to commit American troops, we must be certain they have a clear mission, an achievable goal and an exit strategy."
--Karen Hughes, speaking on behalf of George W Bush
"I had doubts about the bombing campaign from the beginning . . I
didn't think we had done enough in the diplomatic area."
--Senator Trent Lott (R-MS)
A-HEM.
oh BTW, let's not forget what they said as the body count started to reach, uh, single-digits:
USA Today
Soldier's death prompts renewed criticism
WASHINGTON - With the first death of an American serviceman in Bosnia, several prominent Republicans are once again demanding that the administration bring a quick end to U.S. involvement there.
Republican presidential contender Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Texas) said Sunday his first act if he is elected president would be to pull out the American troops participating in the NATO effort to keep the fragile peace in Bosnia.
The government can provide the best arms to protect them while they are there, "but the best way to keep them safe is to bring them home," declared the Texas senator.
Rep. Gerald Solomon (R-N.Y.), chairman of the House Rules Committee, said Americans "are going to be outraged at the loss of one life" in Bosnia. "In spite of our hearts going out to the family of this boy, there never was a national interest to put any troops there and sacrifice even one life."
Sgt. 1st Class Donald A. Dugan, 38, of Belle Center, Ohio, was killed Saturday in northern Bosnia when ammunition exploded in his hands, and not by a land mine as originally reported, a NATO spokesman said Monday. He was the ninth alliance soldier to die since NATO troops began entering the Balkans in December.
President Clinton, asked during a visit to New Hampshire Saturday if Dugan's death gave him second thoughts about the mission, replied, "No, not at all."
"I told the American people before it started, the place was filled with mines," Clinton said, noting that other allied soldiers had been killed in land mine accidents. Clinton made the comment before the actual cause of Dugan's death was determined. Monday, House Speaker Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) agreed the number of mines left in Bosnia made the mission risky and predicted "some other situations where you lose young men and women."
But Gingrich said:
"One thing we have to remember is these kinds of activities are never risk-free. ... At the same time the United States can't say we will never take any risks anywhere. We would then become an automatic target for terrorists and people who want to drive us out of business."
Sunday, Clinton telephoned Dugan's widow, Miriam, who lives in Germany, and expressed his condolences. The call lasted for only a few minutes, said White House spokesman David Johnson. "He just called to personally express his condolences."
Congress has long opposed Clinton's determination to contribute U.S. troops to a NATO peacekeeping mission in the event the warring factions in Bosnia ever agreed on peace.
When that became a reality last December and U.S. troops began heading for the war-torn former Yugoslav republic, the House voted 287-141 for a non-binding resolution opposing the deployment but supporting American troops.
Ah, what WOULD we do without the security stalwarts of the GOP??