Remarks to United States and Coalition Troops at Tactical Assembly Area Liberty in Kuwait

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 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, 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.