This study examines Congress's unique discursive role in the American foreign policy process. This project's hypothesis is the following: Congressional full-representative-deliberation concerning the use of U.S. troops in hostile or potentially hostile situations fulfilled its democratic functions of inclusiveness, error-avoidance, and legitimation. This study employs a new methodology for examining and analyzing the congressional floor speeches in both the House of Representatives and the Senate concerning the use of U.S. troops in Lebanon (1983-84), in the Persian Gulf (1990-91), and in Somalia (1992-93), and draws inferences as to Congress's contribution to the American foreign policy process. The findings are generally inconsistent with the hypothesis. Neither house of Congress deliberated regarding the political/moral question: Why should American soldiers be placed at risk on these foreign shores? And with the exception of Senate deliberation regarding the Lebanon crisis, the findings in both chambers are inconsistent with discourses addressing an error avoidance function, and consistent with discourses addressing a political function. If you are going to have representative government, where else do you want it but when you decide whether or not the citizens of this country live or die? Senator Lloyd Bentsen (D-Texas) ftnCongressional Record, September 28, 1983, p. 26054.