    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1998, Book I)]
    [February 20, 1998]
    [Pages 261-262]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Videotaped Remarks on Expansion of United Nations Security Council
    Resolution 986 Concerning Iraq
    February 20, 1998

        No people have suffered more at the hands of Saddam Hussein than the Iraqi people themselves. I have been very
    moved, as so many others around the world have been, by their plight.
    Because of Saddam Hussein's failure to comply with U.N. resolutions, the
    sanctions imposed by the U.N. at the end of the Gulf war to stop him
    from rebuilding his military might are still in place.
        As a result, the people of Iraq have suffered. They are the victims
    of Saddam's refusal to comply with the
    resolutions he promised to honor. The United States strongly supports
    the U.N. Secretary General's recommendation to
    more than double the amount of oil Iraq can sell in exchange for food,
    medicine, and other humanitarian supplies. We will work hard to make
    sure those funds are used to help the ordinary people of Iraq.
        Since the Gulf war, our policy has been aimed at preventing
    Saddam from threatening his region or the
    world. We have no quarrel with the Iraqi people who are heirs to a proud
    civilization and who have suffered for so many years under Saddam's
    rule.
        From the beginning, the international sanctions that are aimed at
    denying Saddam Hussein the funds to rebuild
    his military machine have permitted food and medicine into Iraq. The
    United States has led the way in trying to make sure Iraq had the
    resources to pay for them. In 1991, with our leadership, the U.N.
    Security Council encouraged Iraq to sell oil to pay for these critical
    humanitarian supplies. Saddam Hussein rejected that offer for 4 years,
    choosing instead to let his people suffer. What resources he had went
    not to caring for his people but to strengthening his army, hiding his
    weapons of mass destruction, and building lavish palaces for his regime.
        In 1995 America led a new effort to aid the Iraqi people. After
    refusing the proposal for a year, Saddam
    finally accepted U.N. Security Council Resolution 986, which permits the
    sale of oil for food. Then he engaged in delay and bureaucratic
    wrangling for yet another year before allowing the resolution to take
    effect.
        Perhaps worst of all, Saddam deliberately
    and repeatedly delayed the pumping of oil, which held up shipments of
    food and medicine to the Iraqi population. Even so, the international
    community has managed to deliver to the Iraqi people more than 3 million
    tons of food.
        Just as Saddam deprives his people of
    relief from abroad, he represses them at home, brutally putting down the
    uprisings of the Iraqi people after the Gulf war, attacking Irbil in
    1996, and draining the marshes of Southern Iraq.
        Saddam's priorities are painfully clear:
    not caring for his citizens but building weapons of mass destruction and
    using them--using them not

    [[Page 262]]

    once but repeatedly in the terrible war Iraq fought with Iran, and not
    only against combatants but against civilians, and not only against a
    foreign adversary but against his own people. And he's targeted Scud
    missiles against fellow Arabs and Muslims in Iran, Saudi Arabia, and
    Bahrain.
        Now, he is trying to rid Iraq of the international inspectors who
    have done such a remarkable job in finding and destroying his hidden
    weapons--weapons he himself promised in 1991 to report and help destroy.
    If Saddam is allowed to rebuild his arsenal
    unchecked, none of the region's children will be safe.
        America is working very hard to find a diplomatic solution to this
    crisis Saddam has created. I have sent my
    Secretary of State, my Defense
    Secretary, and my Ambassador to the United
    Nations literally around the world to work
    with our friends and allies. If there is a way to resolve this
    peacefully, we will pursue it to the very end.
        But from Europe to the Persian Gulf, all agree on the bottom line:
    Saddam must allow the U.N. weapons inspectors
    to complete their mission with full and free access to any site they
    suspect may be hiding material or information related to Iraqi weapons
    of mass destruction programs. That is what Saddam agreed to as a
    condition for ending the Gulf war way back in 1991.
        Nobody wants to use force. But if Saddam
    refuses to keep his commitments to the international community, we must
    be prepared to deal directly with the threat these weapons pose to the
    Iraqi people, to Iraq's neighbors, and to the rest of the world. Either
    Saddam acts, or we will have to.
        Saddam himself understands that the
    international community places a higher value on the lives of the Iraqi
    people than he does. That is why he uses innocent women and children as
    human shields, risking what we care about--human lives--to protect what
    he cares about--his weapons. If force proves necessary to resolve this
    crisis, we will do everything we can to prevent innocent people from
    getting hurt. But make no mistake: Saddam Hussein must bear full
    responsibility for every casualty that results.
        To all our Arab and Muslim friends, let me say America wants to see
    a future of security, prosperity, and peace for all the people of the
    Middle East. We want to see the Iraqi people free of the constant
    warfare and repression that have been the hallmark of Saddam's regime. We want to see them living in a nation that
    uses its wealth not to strengthen its arsenal but to care for its
    citizens and give its children a brighter future. That is what we'll
    keep working for and what the people of Iraq deserve.

    Note: These remarks were videotaped at approximately 4 p.m. on February
    18 in the Cabinet Room at the White House for later broadcast, and they
    were released by the Office of the Press Secretary on February 20.