The White House Briefing Room
November 11, 1998
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT AT ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY VETERANS DAY CEREMONY
11:45 A.M. EST
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release November 11, 1998
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
AT ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY
VETERANS DAY CEREMONY
Amphitheater
Arlington National Cemetery
Arlington, Virginia
11:45 A.M. EST
..............
Still, this remains a dangerous world and peace can
never be a time for rest, for maintaining it requires constant
vigilance. We can be proud that the United States has been a force
for peace in Northern Ireland, in the Middle East, in Haiti, in
Bosnia, in Kosovo. We have been able to secure peace because we have
been willing to back up our diplomacy, where necessary, with military
strength.
Nowhere is our vigilance more urgent than in the Persian
Gulf, where Saddam Hussein's regime threatens the stability of one of
the most vital regions of the world. Following the Gulf War, and as
a condition for the cease-fire, the United Nations demanded, and Iraq
agreed, to disclose and destroy its chemical, biological, and nuclear
weapons capabilities.
This was no abstract concern. Saddam has fired Scuds at
his neighbors, attacked Kuwait, and used chemical weapons in the war
with Iran and even on his own people. To ensure that Iraq made good
on its commitments, the United Nations kept in place tough economic
sanctions while exempting food, medicine, and other humanitarian
supplies to alleviate the suffering of the Iraqi people. The U.N.
also established a group of highly professional weapons inspectors
from dozens of countries, a group called UNSCOM, to oversee the
destruction of Iraq's weapons capability and to monitor its ongoing
compliance.
For seven years now, Iraq has had within its power the
ability to put itself on the path to ending the sanctions and its
isolation simply by complying with obligations it agreed to
undertake. Instead, it has worked to shirk those obligations:
withholding evidence about its weapons capability; threatening,
harassing, blocking the inspectors; massing troops on the Kuwaiti
border in the South; attacking the Kurds in the North.
Our steadfast determination in maintaining sanctions,
supporting the inspections system, enforcing a no-fly zone, and
responding firmly to Iraqi provocations has stopped Iraq from
rebuilding its weapons of mass destruction arsenal or from
threatening its neighbors seriously.
Now, over the past year Iraq has intensified its efforts
to end the weapons inspection system, last fall threatening to
overthrow -- to throw American inspectors off the UNSCOM teams; then
in January denying UNSCOM unfettered access to all the suspect weapon
sites. Both times we built diplomatic pressure on Iraq, backed by
overwhelming force, and Baghdad reversed course. Indeed, in March,
again, it gave a solemn commitment -- this time to U.N. Secretary
General Kofi Annan -- that it would reopen all of Iraq to
international weapons inspectors, without conditions or restrictions.
In August, for the third time in only a year, again,
Iraq severely restricted the activities of the weapons inspectors.
Again, we have gone the extra mile to obtain compliance by peaceful
means, working through the U.N. Security Council and with our friends
and allies to secure a unanimous Security Council resolution
condemning Iraq's action. We also supported, along with all the
members of the Security Council, what Iraq says it wants, a
comprehensive review of Iraq's compliance record -- provided Saddam
resumes full cooperation with the UNSCOM inspectors.
Now, if Saddam Hussein is really serious about wanting
sanctions lifted, there is an easy way to demonstrate that. Let
UNSCOM do its job without interference -- fully comply. The
international community is united that Saddam must not have it both
ways, by keeping his weapons of mass destruction capability and still
getting rid of the sanctions.
All of us agree that we prefer to resolve this crisis
peacefully, for two reasons. First, because accomplishing goals
through diplomacy is always preferable to using force. Second,
because reversing Iraq's decision and getting UNSCOM back on the job
remains the most effective way to uncover, destroy, and prevent Iraq
from reconstituting weapons of mass destruction and the missiles to
deliver them.
But if the inspectors are not permitted to visit suspect
sites or monitor compliance at known production facilities, they may
as well be in Baltimore, not Baghdad. That would open a window of
opportunity for Iraq to rebuild its arsenal of weapons and delivery
systems in months -- I say again, in months -- not years. A failure
to respond could embolden Saddam to act recklessly, signalling to him
that he can with impunity develop these weapons of mass destruction
or threaten his neighbors, and this is very important in an age when
we look forward to weapons of mass destruction being a significant
threat to civilized people everywhere. And it would permanently
damage the credibility of the United Nations Security Council to act
as a force for promoting international peace and security. We
continue to hope, indeed pray, that Saddam will comply, but we must
be prepared to act if he does not. (Applause.)
Many American service men and women are serving in the
Persian Gulf today, many others serving elsewhere around the world,
keeping the peace in Bosnia, watching over the DMZ in Korea, working
with our friends and allies to stop terror and drugs and deadly
weapons.
Too often we forget that even in peacetime their work is
hard and often very dangerous. Just three days ago, four brave,
dedicated American flyers, Lieutenant Commander Kirk Barich,
Lieutenant Brendan Duffy, Lieutenant Meredith Carol Loughran, and
Lieutenant Charles Woodard -- all four were lost in a crash aboard
the USS Enterprise. Today our prayers are with their families.
............
END 12:02 P.M. EST
|
NEWSLETTER
|
|
Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list
|
|
|
