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.  


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             END                          12:02 P.M. EST