[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George H. W. Bush (1991, Book I)]
[April 3, 1991]
[Pages 320-323]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Question-and-Answer Session With Reporters in Hobe Sound, Florida
April 3, 1991

Iraq

    Q. Mr. President, could you say a few words? Did you learn anything 
new just then, for instance, on Iraq or anything else?
    The President. No, I didn't learn anything new. Read some stuff 
that's not true, but I didn't learn anything new.
    Q. Which----
    The President. Well, there's no point in going into all of that.
    Q. Did you sign an order for----

Possible Soviet-U.S. Summit

    The President. I was talking about a firm date for a meeting with 
Gorbachev on there. That's not set. I want to meet with President 
Gorbachev; I've said so. But, I don't know where a story like that comes 
from. It's just simply not true.
    Q. Sir, are you optimistic that you can do it by the first half of 
the year?
    The President. Do the summit meeting? I'd like to go to Moscow, and 
we've maintained that we should get a START agreement. And we also have 
some difficulties on CFE to work out, the conventional forces agreement. 
But this story is just simply not correct. Such a meeting may turn out 
to be, but I would know if that were set, and it's not.
    Q. Would you consider meeting someplace other than Moscow?

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    The President. Sure, if we're going to have a meeting. Listen, you 
know my view. I've said I think nearly a year and a half ago that it 
would be appropriate to have meetings with President Gorbachev, once a 
year I think we said. But we've got to work out these details on these 
arms control agreements now, and that's what I think he's trying to do. 
And I know we're pushing our experts very hard on doing that. So, I 
don't know where this story could come from.

Iraq

    Q. Mr. President, there's a story about Iraqi--that you had signed a 
finding--covert actions----
    The President. Let me stop you right there. If you're going to ask 
about intelligence matters, you're wasting time because I never comment 
on them. And I wouldn't confirm or deny or comment on intelligence 
matters, particularly findings, in any way. It simply would be 
inappropriate.

Return of U.S. Troops

    Q. Are you going to speak tonight? When you get back to Andrews 
you're going to be on in the middle of a nationwide CBS special on 
bringing back the troops. Do you feel a little bit awkward, 
participating in a gala like this, when most of the troops are still in 
the Middle East?
    The President. No, they're coming home 3,000, 5,000 a day. And the 
rejoicing that the families have when these young men and women come 
home has been wonderful therapy for this whole nation. And I have 
nothing but respect for the military, the way in which they're bringing 
our troops out. And when we get a cease-fire agreement, you'll see them 
come out even more rapidly because it is my intention to do what I said 
early on: bring our troops home as soon as possible.
    I think we've already brought home over 100,000. I'm looking around 
for somebody to give me the exact figures.
    Q. Yes. The Pentagon has said that.
    The President. But it's a lot of people back, and more will be 
coming back. And so, I have no feeling of awkwardness at all. The war 
hasn't been over all that long. It takes a long time to move people out.
    But what we've done is keep our forces in Iraq, and we'll keep them 
there until we have a cease-fire agreement. And they'll come out. 
Hopefully, there will be a blue-helmeted U.N. force or some kind of 
security force along the border between Kuwait and Iraq, thus relieving 
the United States of any obligation in this regard. And they'll be 
coming out just as fast as we can bring them out.
    But I have nothing but joy in my heart about the way these troops 
are being received, about what's happened to the American heartbeat as a 
result of all of this. And I'm looking forward to seeing some more of 
them that'll be coming home, seeing them tonight at Andrews Air Force 
Base.

Iraq

    Q. Do you feel frustrated at not being able to help the Iraqis?
    The President. Well, I feel frustrated any time innocent civilians 
are being slaughtered. And I feel very frustrated about that. But the 
United States and these other countries with us in this coalition did 
not go there to settle all the internal affairs of Iraq.
    I have said that there will not be normalized relations with Iraq as 
long as Saddam Hussein is in power. And of course I feel a frustration 
and a sense of grief for the innocents that are being killed brutally. 
But we are not there to intervene. That is not our purpose; it never was 
our purpose. I can understand the frustration of some who think it 
should have been our purpose, some who never supported this in the first 
place on military action. I share their frustration, but I am not going 
to commit our forces to something of this nature. I'm not going to do 
that.
    We will proceed along the diplomatic channels, working at the United 
Nations, getting security forces.
    Q. Why let their helicopters continue?
    The President. Because I do not want to see us get sucked into the 
internal civil war inside Iraq, that's why.
    Q. Isn't that a violation of the informal cease-fire?
    The President. I don't know whether technically, Lori [Lori Santos, 
United Press International], it's in violation or not. It is in

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the fixed-wing planes to fly, but if it is a violation, that doesn't 
necessarily mean that we are going to commit our young men and our young 
women into further combat. I will do my level-best to use all diplomatic 
channels to bring this fighting to a halt. But I do not want to push 
American forces beyond our mandate. We've done the heavy lifting. Our 
kids performed with superior courage, and they don't need to be thrust 
into a war that's been going on for years in there. That's my view.
    Q. Given the recent success of his forces, are you still confident 
that Saddam Hussein will not be there in less than a year?
    The President. Yes. I'm still confident he won't be. I don't think 
he can survive, and I don't think he should survive. He's not going to 
have the kind of relations that Iraq should have with other countries as 
long as he's there. And I haven't changed my view on that at all.
    Most of the people I talk to and hear from around the world, in that 
part of the world, feel the same way I do about that, incidentally.
    Q. Has the fighting in Iraq complicated efforts to reach a permanent 
cease-fire at the U.N.?
    The President. I don't think so. I mean, these cease-fire 
requirements are fairly straightforward, fairly strong, and they have 
not been changed by the fighting in Iraq itself. I think what's happened 
is, if further outrage was possible about Saddam Hussein's brutal 
behavior, that further outrage has been achieved, you might say. But I 
don't think it's changed the objectives of these United Nations 
resolutions that will bring about a cease-fire and will enable me as 
Commander in Chief to bring our troops home. That's what I want to do. 
We'll get some security along there.
    We've got a major program for trying to bring peace, security, and 
stability to the Gulf area. I hope we can be a catalyst in moving the 
whole peace process forward between Israel and the Palestinians, between 
the Arab States and Israel, between Lebanon. But we want to get this 
Gulf matter under control. And I don't feel that the civil war has 
adversely affected our chances of getting a U.N. resolution or getting 
the U.N. to act. They should act very, very soon.
    Nobody's sympathetic for Iraq anymore. The very few friends they've 
had have deserted them because they see this man's abject brutality and 
lack of conscience. And so, there's no sympathy for Iraq out of this 
civil unrest. There's sympathy for those that are getting slaughtered, 
not for the Iraqi regime. I have said that we want to help the 
innocents, children, those that are starving. I don't care what their 
politics are, what their previous associations have been. If there's a 
child hurting, America cares about that.
    But what we don't care about is helping project a regime that has 
lost all credibility and lost all chance of running the country because 
of the brutality. And I'm talking about Saddam Hussein himself, 
personally.
    If his own army would do something about it, maybe we could start 
over. I think the world has seen even more clearly since the end of the 
fighting how brutal he is. We saw it in Kuwait, what he did to the 
Kuwaiti people--women and children. And now we've seen it, what he's 
done to the Shiites in the south and the Kurds in the north. He's turned 
off everybody. If he had one scintilla of good will, it's been 
dissipated.
    Q.  What could the U.S. do to help the children you are worried 
about?
    The President. Well, food, medicines. We will do our part. We always 
have, and we always will. That's the beauty of it. When you see those 
American soldiers extending their hearts and their hands to those 
fleeing, when you see them picking up the children, that's the American 
spirit, and we are going to do that. We are going to continue to help. 
But we're not going to do anything to help Saddam Hussein. And that 
distinction is very, very clear.
    Q.  Sir, when you say the army could do something about it, wouldn't 
you have a situation where a group that's accused of all these 
atrocities would be in charge?
    The President. I blame Saddam Hussein for the atrocities, and I have 
made it clear to the Iraqi leaders long before the war started. You go 
back and take a look at what I said then, because I think it's apropos 
now--we do not have an argument with the leadership. Our argument is 
with

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the brutality of Saddam Hussein and the orders he's given. Now, does 
that clear somebody that goes down and rapes a child in Kuwait? No, it 
does not. But for the most part, it does, because Saddam Hussein has 
been the major villain there. I would be willing to take a new look if 
the army took those matters into their own hands, as I've said before. 
But he's got to go, and he will someday. He can't survive.
    Q. Sir, were you at all surprised at the success of his army in 
putting down the rebellion?
    The President. No, no I wasn't surprised about his success of his 
army. His army has been battered and can no longer project offensive 
military might against his neighbors. I believe that. But to go in and 
crush a bunch of people that aren't armed, that doesn't take much macho 
to do that. It just takes a lot of brutality and cruelty, and that's 
what's happened.
    Q. Can you expand on this new look? You said you might take a new 
look if the army took the matters into their own hands.
    The President. If a new regime emerged in there, I'd like to know 
what their goals are. Do they want to live peacefully in the 
neighborhood? Do they want to start treating their people with respect? 
Do they want to try to work out some of the differences with the Kurds 
that have been there for ages? Are they willing to talk to the Shiite 
leaders in the south?
    That's what I want to see. And that's what the world wants to see. 
It's not just what the U.S. wants, incidentally. All our coalition 
partners are in exactly the same mode on this one as far as I am. I stay 
in touch with them. I know that. And you haven't seen the call, 
incidentally, from any of them for the United States to go in and use 
this superior military might to try to sort out this civil war. But you 
have seen statements from all of them saying that it would be a good 
thing if we had new leadership in Iraq, in Baghdad.

U.S. Diplomacy in the Middle East

    Q. Did you send Scowcroft to Lebanon and Iran as well as Saudi 
Arabia?
    The President. Hey, listen. If I'd have wanted to talk about 
Scowcroft's itinerary, I'd have made that public. There are certain 
things you've got to try to do your best in diplomacy that are better to 
keep quiet. And it's very hard in our open society, and I don't blame 
you a bit for asking, and I hope you'll forgive me for not answering.

Turkey

    Q. What about Turkey? Did you offer $1 billion to Turkey?
    The President. Excuse me just a minute. Did I what?
    Q. Turkish Government----
    The President. No.
    Q. How did your game go?
    The President. Fun was had by all.

                    Note: The session took place at 1:45 p.m. at the 
                        Jupiter Hills Country Club Golf Course. During 
                        the exchange, President Bush referred to 
                        President Mikhail Gorbachev of the Soviet Union, 
                        President Saddam Hussein of Iraq, and Brent 
                        Scowcroft, Assistant to the President for 
                        National Security Affairs. A tape was not 
                        available for verification of the content of 
                        this session.