Honorable Randy Duke Cunningham, U.S. Congressman

(EXCERPT ONLY)

I attended a banquet where over four hundred allied air force fighters were giving their thanks to the Serbs who rescued them away from Nazi Germany.

While the Serbs reached out to the allies and paid in blood and pain, the Croatians and the Muslims, for the most part, fought with Nazi Germany. Now we need to take a look at who befriended us. Do you befriend the mother who has taken care of you your whole life and loves you or the neighbor who beats you ?

Yet the policy of the United States has flip-flopped and gone in the other direction.

While the Serbs, since before King Peter I, had been rooted in democracy, the United States has supported the Croatians and the Muslims first of all with arms. And knowing that the United States will pull out some day, Izetbegovic is surrounding himself with Iran, Iraq, Syria and all of the fundamentalist Muslim units that are enemies of this country.

Life is hard and then we die. Let me repeat that. Life is hard and then we die Yet, each of us has the responsibility and we hold the power, each and everyone of us, to make a change. Each of us is significant or insignificant in what we do and how many of your neighbors, how many of the Serbs, and of the Greeks and of the Jews remember history and the sacrifices you made and that your families have made. Some of those are not here.

What can we do? What is our responsibility? Why can't we get together and create a wing at the Holocaust Museum for the Serbs, Gypsies and Jews who were exterminated at Jasenovac.

Why can't we have a debate on the House floor for the first time on the Balkans and the Serbian position, and I am going to do that, ladies and gentlemen.

The first thing we can do, I think, is to pray because we were brought up as Christians. I think we need a government rooted into democracy, not socialism, not communism, and that means Izetbegovic, Milosevic, and Tudjman have to go, and we need our country renewed.

I'm not going to tell you who your leaders should be. The Serbians need to do that. But whoever they are, they should be rooted not only in democracy, but economic expansion and trade economy and market reform. But even more important than that, it should be a government where God and the church have got a seat at the head table. The idea of peace and democracy and strength comes from millions of people, all different types of people, and when I visit the different factions in the Balkans, I¹ve heard of Serbs, Croatians and Muslims living together in peace. You can¹t do it with fundamentalists. I would recommend that we get behind the issue and support the Greeks and Cyprus and move Turkey out of northern Cyprus.

The United States needs to stay out of the war crimes issue. What the Serbians should condemn is anyone that is a war criminal. But, at the same time, be very careful that you donít, in hysteria, charge a patriot and make that individual into a criminal who is not, because that is just as big of a crime. I think the Serbs need to unite strongly behind democracy, so strong that any move toward socialism or communist form of government be pushed out and only through uniting the Serbians could that happen.