[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 30, Number 43 (Monday, October 31, 1994)]
[Pages 2185-2187]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]
<R04>
Remarks to United States and Coalition Troops at Tactical Assembly Area
Liberty in Kuwait
October 28, 1994
The President. Who said, ``Go, hog'' there?
Audience members. Go, hog!
The President. There's a reward for you somewhere. That's good.
General Peay, General Taylor, Crown Prince Saad. Thank you all for
your service. Thank you, Crown Prince Saad, for your fine words. I'm
delighted to be here in Kuwait with all of you: with General Peay, with
General Taylor, with General Ali; with the Kuwaiti Armed Forces, with
our coalition partners from the United Arab Emirate and from Great
Britain.
I'm especially glad to be here with all of you Americans in uniform.
I understand--when I was getting briefed to come over here, I was being
briefed by an earnest young person who said that I just didn't
understand what you had been up against, that in addition to dealing
with Iraq, you've been plagued by a pretty severe case of Shamal, the
desert sandstorm that can make life pretty rough around here. That has
been offered
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to me as the explanation for why one of the young officers preparing for
my visit, Second Lieutenant Rowe, took your brigade commander's personal
communications system the other day to report that he had spotted Elvis.
[Laughter]
Well, there have been times in my life when I wanted to be Elvis,
but I'm not. And thanks to Shamal, Lieutenant Rowe will not become the
only third lieutenant in the entire United States Army. [Laughter]
I want to say to the men and women of Operation Vigilant Warrior,
the men and women of the 24th Mechanized, the Victory Division, a
division that liberated the Philippines, fought from Korea to the Gulf
war, I am honored to be with all of you here in Tactical Assembly Area
Liberty. I am proud of the work you're doing for your country.
More than anything else, I came here, after a couple of fascinating,
very important days for your country and Egypt and Jordan and Israel and
Syria, to say a simple thank you. Thank you for what you have done for
Kuwait. Thank you for what you have done for the United States of
America.
Nearly 4 years ago, your tanks rolled across these dunes with mighty
force. You were the Desert Storm. Then you expelled Iraq from Kuwait.
Now we were determined to stop Iraq before it could violate its
neighbor's borders and create new instability. So once again, we called
upon you, the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, the Marines. Well, one of
the things that will go down in the history of this encounter is that
you got here in a very big hurry, and because of that, Iraq got the
message in a very big hurry. It withdrew its forces that were massed
near the Kuwait border.
You know, when this crisis began, there were a few back home who
questioned our military preparedness. To them, I say, they ought to come
here and take a look at you, and they would know better.
Our policy in the Gulf is clear. We will not permit Iraq to enhance
its capabilities below the 32d parallel. We won't permit Baghdad to
intimidate the United Nations teams making sure that Iraq never again
possesses weapons of mass destruction. The United States and the
international community will not allow Baghdad to threaten its neighbors
now or in the future. That is not our threat, that is our promise. You,
you here are keeping that promise. The force you represent is the steel
in the sword of American diplomacy. You are the best equipped, best
trained, best prepared military in the world and in our Nation's
history. You have proved it again here in the Gulf. We are all proud of
you.
I know that no monetary value can fully reflect your service to our
country. I know that all of you serve for higher reasons. But I am
pleased to say today that I have just signed an Executive order to right
a wrong in your military pay concerning your subsistence allowance. I
think you ought to be rewarded, not penalized, for doing this important
job.
If I may say just a serious word for a moment, your country needs
you for America to be strong. We are a peace-loving nation, but
President Truman once said, ``The will for peace without the strength
for peace is to no avail.'' You are that strength. You and your
commanders are bringing hope and stability around the world from Port-
au-Prince to the Persian Gulf. Our ultimate goal is peace, and that
requires even more than military might, it requires the courage to go
beyond conflict to reconciliation.
Two days ago I witnessed a brilliant example of that along the
border between Israel and Jordan. I applaud the leaders of Israel,
Jordan, and others in the Middle East who are turning away from a
violent past toward a future of peace. This is difficult and dangerous
work, as the vicious terrorist attacks in recent days have shown. The
people behind those acts want to prevent peace. They want to perpetuate
hatred. They want to undermine your mission. They cannot succeed, they
must not succeed, and they will not succeed.
If you ever wonder, sometime out here in the desert, whether what
you do makes a real difference, just consider what has happened in the
last few weeks. I am honored, as I know all of you are, that America was
able to play a role in ending 47 years of conflict between Israel and
Jordan, in restoring President Aristide and democracy in Haiti, in
helping to make real progress toward an end to the violent conflict in
Northern Ireland,
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in helping South Africa's democracy to succeed, in building a new
partnership with Russia that enables us to say for the first time since
the dawn of the nuclear age, there are no nuclear missiles pointed at
the children of the United States. And I am also proud of what you have
done to stand up to aggression here in the Gulf.
We stand with the people of Kuwait, people who have rebuilt their
army and their economy since the difficult days of 1990. The people of
Kuwait should be proud of their accomplishments and proud of their tough
reactions to Iraq's provocation. The international community will assure
that Iraq never threatens your nation again. The proof of that
commitment is here in the brave men and women of Operation Vigilant
Warrior.
Let me say, too, that we have no quarrel with the people of Iraq. We
know the suffering they endured in the war with Iran, a war that
blighted an entire generation. Just 2 years after that horrible
conflict, Iraq sent its sons to war again, and we know the price they
paid for their leader's folly here. But the pain of the people of Iraq
is the result of one thing only, the path their leadership has chosen.
So we say again to Iraq: Comply fully with the resolutions of the
United Nations. Obey the will and the law of the international
community. That is the only way to have a normal life. It is the way the
rest of us have followed, and you should try it as well.
My fellow Americans, you're making sacrifices to defend your
country, its values, and its interests. I know the demands on you are
great. I know your love of country takes you away from home and the
family that you love for long stretches of time. I know when you cheered
about the announcement I made on pay, part of the cheering was for the
folks back home, the children and the hope that you have for your own
families and for their future.
What you are doing is assuming America's burdens in this new and
challenging time, to maintain our national security, to maintain our
national commitments, to help the world move toward peace and freedom. I
hope you will always take the pride in your contributions that I see in
your faces today, that I hear in your voices today.
Our country is the land of the free and the home of the brave, as
the song says. Because of your bravery, we're spreading that freedom to
others. Because of your bravery, we will remain forever free.
So I thank you, I thank you for your service. I thank your families
back home. God bless you all, and God bless America. Don't forget to go
Christmas shopping.
Note: The President spoke at 3:19 p.m. In his remarks, he referred to
Gen. Binford J.H. Peay III, USA, commander in chief, and Maj. Gen. James
B. Taylor, USA, deputy commander, U.S. Central Command; Crown Prince
Saad Al Sabah, Prime Minister of Kuwait; and Maj. Gen. Ali Al-Mumen,
commander in chief, Kuwaiti Armed Forces.