    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1999, Book I)]
    [April 12, 1999]
    [Pages 536-540]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks to the Community at Barksdale Air Force Base in Bossier City,
    Louisiana
    April 12, 1999

        Thank you very much. Let me begin by thanking Secretary Cohen and General Shelton
    for their truly outstanding leadership on behalf of our Nation's
    military. They are eloquent and profound representatives of what is best
    about this country, and I thank them.

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        I want to thank Senator Breaux, Senator
    Landrieu, Representative McCrery for their support for you and for our country. I would
    like to acknowledge in the audience today, or here with us, other
    Members of Congress: Congressmen Bill Jefferson and Chris John, from
    Louisiana, and Congressman Thornberry and Congressman Sandlin, who've
    come from the neighboring State of Texas to be with us. So I thank all
    of them for their support.
        I would like to thank the Air Force Chief of Staff, General Mike
    Ryan, for coming down here with me; the
    Acting Secretary of the Air Force, Whitt Peters; my National Security Adviser, Sandy Berger. We also have the FEMA Director here, James Lee
    Witt, because, you know, you've had some
    pretty tough natural disasters here recently, and we're here doing
    double duty.
        And General Marcotte and General
    Smoak, thank you for welcoming me here and
    for giving me the chance to meet with some of the fine people with whom
    you work who have also been involved in our work over Kosovo.
        I thank the adjutant general, Bennett Landreneau, who is representing Governor Foster; Treasurer Ken Duncan; and the
    mayor of Bossier City, George Dement; and the
    mayor of Shreveport, Keith Hightower, for
    coming to meet me as well.
        Now, the nice thing about speaking last is that everything that
    needs to be said has been said, but not everyone has said it. [Laughter]
    What I would like to do is to be just serious for a moment and first
    thank all the previous speakers for what they have said and try to put
    this in some larger context.
        The conflict in Kosovo in which we are involved is really about two
    things: first, what you know and see every night--all those hundreds of
    thousands of innocent people uprooted, many of them killed, some of them
    dying from disease in refugee camps, some families divided forever--not
    because of anything they did but because they happen to be Albanian
    instead of Serbian, Muslim instead of Orthodox Christian. It is a human
    tragedy that touches everyone.
        But there is a second issue here, as well, and that is whether we
    and our allies in Europe are going to allow that kind of problem--hatred
    based on race or ethnicity or religion--to be the defining force of the
    next 20 or 30 years. In other words, whether we're going to go into the
    21st century, this great modern time where all our kids can do amazing
    things on the Internet, where all of our planes can do amazing things
    with high technology, and have all of the tools of the modern world put
    at the service of the most primitive hatreds known to man; or whether
    our European allies--18 other countries in NATO and their friends and
    sympathizers across Europe--will stay united with us and with our
    neighbors to the north in Canada and say, ``We would like the 21st
    century to be different for our children. We would like to nip this
    conflict in the bud before it destabilizes all of Europe. We would like
    to see us make a statement that we don't want the 21st century to be
    defined, and we don't want American soldiers, sailors, airmen, and
    marines, to die on distant battlefields in large numbers because we
    walked away from these ethnic, religious, and racial atrocities.'' And
    that's what's going on.
        Now, I wanted to come here to Barksdale today for two reasons. One
    is, you're involved with the B-52's and what we're trying to achieve
    there. The other is, Barksdale has a rich heritage of being part of an
    allied effort, where America does not act alone but with others who love
    freedom and are prepared to defend it.
        This base was named for Lieutenant Eugene Barksdale of the U.S. Army
    Air Corps, who flew combat missions alongside British pilots in World
    War I with enormous skill and bravery. This base was where Jimmy
    Doolittle's famed bomber unit and so many others, including French
    pilots, trained to fight for freedom in World War II. It was from this
    base, during the very large coalition effort in the Gulf war, that crews
    launched the longest strike mission in the history of aerial combat, 35
    nonstop hours in the air, when B-52's left Barksdale to strike at Saddam
    Hussein's war machine and returned safely here.
        Now you have this new mission, one that echoes the allied
    achievements of the past and embodies our determination to create a
    better future. As I said, I met earlier with aircrews who have returned
    from Kosovo, where with the aircraft from other NATO countries, they
    struck at the Serbian forces who have so brutally attacked the civilian
    population of Kosovo.
        The forces are working to save innocent lives, to protect the peace
    and freedom and stability of Europe, to stand against the notion that
    it's

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    okay to uproot, destroy, and murder people because of their race, ethnic
    background, or religion.
        I am grateful for your service and grateful for the sacrifice of
    your families. We are all--those of us in positions of responsibility--
    committed to support you. I listened very, very carefully today when the
    crewmembers talked to me about the challenges of maintaining a long-term
    career in the military today, about the challenges they face, the
    challenges their families face, the challenges that relate to income,
    the challenges that relate to health care, the challenges that relate to
    housing, the challenges that relate to operations tempo.
        We are working on that. We know that, now that we have downsized the
    military and the economy in the civilian sector has picked up, we're
    going to have to work harder to get and keep good people. Our new budget
    provides for an increase in pay and more money for housing and other
    quality-of-life supports, for more support for training and equipment.
    It is the first sustained increase in overall defense spending since
    1985.
        There's something else that, since it is now April 12th, I think I
    ought to do. Our tax laws give the President the authority to issue an
    Executive order granting tax benefits to Americans serving in a combat
    zone or supporting combat efforts. I want you to know that I will issue
    that Executive order for our forces who are working to save Kosovo. This
    will mean that for military personnel serving in the combat zone, most
    or all pay for each month served will be tax-free, not withheld from
    paychecks, not subject to IRS claims later. They will also be eligible
    for some additional pay for service.
        There's another advantage to the Executive order that will apply not
    only to personnel in the combat zone and others deployed overseas but
    also for some civilian personnel as well, including accredited
    journalists and relief workers. It will suspend the time for filing tax
    returns and related obligations to the IRS. With our citizens working so
    hard to protect the people of Kosovo, they shouldn't have to worry about
    their taxes.
        Now, Secretary Cohen will work out all
    the details with the Treasury Department as soon as possible. [Laughter]
    He's got 72 hours. [Laughter] You all have to have quicker turnaround
    than that. So he's going to fight with the tax person for you.
        Let me say again, I know I speak for all of the Members of Congress
    here in saying they support this. We have had remarkable bipartisan
    support from the leadership in Congress for this--Congressmen
    Archer and Rangel,
    Senators Roth and Moynihan, who have made it quite clear that they support
    what we are doing.
        Let me just say one other word or two about this mission, because
    more of you will be going in the days ahead. Hundreds of thousands of
    these Kosovars are now refugees. There have been thousands of innocent
    victims. Many are just dying because they're stuck in these refugee
    camps and can't get adequate health care or support; some of them from
    severe dehydration. There is also the possibility that Albania,
    Macedonia, and other countries around there receiving these refugees
    will be destabilized because they have ethnic problems of their own.
    There are also countries, believe it or not, in the Balkans that have
    worked hard to resolve their ethnic differences, and they have things
    going pretty well. Pretty soon, their malcontents may wonder whether
    they could have gotten a better deal by behaving in a more destructive
    way.
        We've learned the hard way through two World Wars and through what
    we saw in Bosnia that with these kinds of conflicts, if you don't halt
    them, they spread, to be stopped later at greater cost and greater risk.
        I have worked hard for the last 6 years to build in the aftermath of
    the cold war a Europe that is united, democratic, and at peace for the
    first time in history. The two great World Wars of the 20th century
    started in Europe. We have learned that so much of our liberty, our
    safety, our prosperity depends upon an alliance with a democratic
    Europe. That's what NATO has been all about.
        We know in the years ahead, when we're going to have to fight
    terrorism, when we're going to have to fight organized crime and drug
    trafficking, when we're going to have to fight the spread of weapons of
    mass destruction, when we're going to have to join together with
    countries to fight the spread of disease and environmental problems
    across national boundaries, that we will have to work with Europe.
        That is why we have taken new members into NATO. That is why we've
    established new partnerships with many other countries across the whole
    expanse of Europe. That's why we are adopting new missions, to be ready
    when somewhere, someone again challenges the peace

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    and stability of Europe. That is what Mr. Milosevic has done.
        Keep in mind, before Kosovo, he
    started wars of ethnic hatred in Croatia and in Bosnia, with a quarter
    of a million killed and more than 2 million refugees. And the fighting
    there did not end until we and our allies acted.
        Now, we did everything we could possibly do to avoid the conflict
    which is now occurring. We worked and worked and worked for a peaceful
    solution. Last year we stopped the threatened assault in October. We had
    a peace agreement. The Kosovar Albanians agreed to sign it, even though
    it didn't give them everything they wanted. Mr. Milosevic rejected it because he had 40,000 troops and nearly
    300 tanks on the border and already in Kosovo, and he knew that he could
    move his troops and his tanks at will and do to the Kosovars what he had
    supported being done to the other ethnic minorities in the former
    Yugoslavia.
        The stories we are hearing now are truly chilling: Serb security
    forces herding Albanian villagers together, gunning them down with
    automatic weapons, and setting them on fire; telling villagers, ``Leave
    or we will kill you;'' separating family members; loading up buses and
    trains, carrying some to the borders and some to be slaughtered;
    confiscating identity papers and property records, seeking, literally,
    to erase the presence of these people in their own land forever.
        We must not let that happen. We must stand against that. As I speak,
    Secretary Albright and the other NATO
    foreign ministers are in Brussels, reaffirming our common commitment to
    do what is necessary to prevail.
        There are a lot of people who didn't think that an alliance of 19
    countries could do what we have done and could stay together as we have
    stayed together, would have the patience to endure the inevitable
    progress that the tanks and the pre-positioned troops would make and the
    patience to deal with the bad weather and the patience to deal with all
    the questions to stay the course. But when American B-52's like the ones
    here at Barksdale take to the skies, they're joined by British Harrier
    jets, German and Italian Tornadoes, French Mirages, Canadian and Spanish
    F-18's, Dutch, Danish, Belgian, Norwegian, Portuguese, and Turkish F-
    16's. We are united in this effort.
        And we are united in our humanitarian effort. And I say to all of
    you: I am very proud of you. I hope you are proud of your mission. This
    is America at its best. We seek no territorial gain; we seek no
    political advantage. We have promised, if we are a part of a
    multinational force in Kosovo, we will protect the Serb minority with
    exactly the same vigilance as we stand up for the Kosovar Albanian
    majority. This is America trying to get the world to live on human
    terms, so we can have peace and freedom in Europe, and our people will
    not be called to fight a wider war for someone else's madness. Thank
    you. Thank you. Thank you. [Applause]
        I also want to thank the American people for their work in the
    humanitarian relief effort, and I thank our forces for their support.
    Thousands and thousands of Americans have called the number I announced
    a week ago, the 1-800-USAID-RELIEF. It's hard to believe; it's an 11-
    digit 1-800 number, but it works.
        A pastor friend of mine called me the
    other day to say, just spontaneously, his church had taken up a donation
    for the relief in Kosovo and had collected $15,000 last Sunday. This
    kind of thing is happening all over America, and I am very grateful for
    that.
        As I said, our Government is doing its part there. And when I
    introduced Mr. Witt, I said that we are trying to do our part in helping
    Louisiana deal with its disaster, as well, expanding aid and individual
    assistance for families in affected parishes. It's ironic but I think
    it's appropriate that under the leadership of Mr. Witt, our Federal Emergency Management Agency is playing a
    vital role in both the Kosovo relief efforts and the work here in
    Louisiana today.
        Let me say one final word: Mr. Milosevic can end this tragedy tomorrow. What has to be done
    is clear: Withdraw the forces, as he himself promised to do last
    October; have the refugees come home freely and in security; establish
    an international force to protect all the people of Kosovo, of whatever
    ethnic or religious group; and let the people begin to work toward the
    self-government that they were promised and then robbed of years ago.
        This is not complicated. The United States seeks no territorial
    advantage. I will say again: Europe seeks only stability, security,
    freedom, and democracy for those people. He can end it tomorrow. But until he does, he should be
    under no illusions that we will end it from weariness. We are determined
    to continue on this

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    mission. And we will prevail because of you and people like you.
        The last thing I want to say is something you know very well here at
    Barksdale. You are the proud heirs of a great tradition, a tradition of
    serving the United States and a tradition, as I said at the beginning of
    my remarks, of doing it in cooperation with freedom-loving allies from
    other nations. You are doing it again. Make no mistake about it. You are
    doing two things: You are trying to save the lives of innocent people,
    and you are trying to do it in a way that creates a 21st century world
    that you can be proud to have your children live in.
        Thank you, and God bless America.

    Note: The President spoke at 9:55 a.m., in an outdoor area at Hogan
    Hall. In his remarks, he referred to Lt. Gen. Ronald C. Marcotte, USAF,
    Commander, 8th Air Force; Brig. Gen. Andrew W. Smoak, USAF, Commander,
    2d Bomb Wing; Maj. Gen. Bennett C. Landreneau, USA, adjutant general,
    Louisiana National Guard; Gov. Mike Foster of Louisiana; President
    Slobodan Milosevic of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and
    Montenegro); and Rev. J. Philip Wogaman, senior minister, Foundry United
    Methodist Church. The Executive order of April 13 on designation of the
    Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia/Montenegro) and Albania as a
    combat zone is listed in Appendix D at the end of this volume.