[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 34, Number 51 (Monday, December 21, 1998)]
[Pages 2497-2499]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks Prior to a Meeting With Foreign Policy Team and an Exchange With 
Reporters

December 17, 1998

Military Strikes on Iraq

    The President. My national security team is about to update me and 
the Vice President on the status of our operation in Iraq. I'd like to 
begin by speaking for every American in expressing my gratitude to our 
men and women in uniform and also to our British allies, who are 
participating in this operation with us.
    I am convinced the decision I made to order this military action, 
though difficult, was absolutely the right thing to do. It is in our 
interest and in the interest of people all around the world. Saddam 
Hussein has used weapons of mass destruction and ballistic

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missiles before; I have no doubt he would use them again if permitted to 
develop them.
    When I halted military action against Saddam last November, after he 
had terminated the UNSCOM operations, I made it very clear that we were 
giving him a last chance to cooperate. Once again he promised in very 
explicit terms that he would fully cooperate. On Tuesday the inspectors 
concluded that they were no longer able to do their jobs and that, in 
fact, he had raised even new barriers to their doing their jobs.
    Then yesterday morning I gave the order because I believe that we 
cannot allow Saddam Hussein to dismantle UNSCOM and resume the 
production of weapons of mass destruction with impunity. I also believe 
that to have done so would have, in effect, given him a green light for 
whatever he might want to do in his neighborhood. I think it would be a 
terrible, terrible mistake.
    We acted yesterday because Secretary Cohen and General Shelton 
strongly urged that we act at the point where we could have maximum 
impact with minimum risk to our own people because of the surprise 
factor. We also wanted to avoid initiating any military action during 
the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which is slated to begin in just a 
couple of days.
    Our mission is clear: to degrade his capacity to develop and to use 
weapons of mass destruction or to threaten his neighbors. I believe we 
will achieve that mission, and I'm looking forward to getting this 
briefing.

Impeachment and Military Strikes on Iraq

    Q. Mr. President, how are you going to stem the Republican drive to 
drive you out of office?
    The President. Well, the Constitution has a procedure for that, and 
we will follow it.
    Q. Mr. President, as you know, Senator Trent Lott and Dick Armey, 
the House majority leader, and other Republicans are questioning the 
timing, suggesting that this was simply a diversionary tactic to avoid 
an impeachment vote on the House floor. What do you say to those 
critics?
    The President. That it's not true, that what I did was the right 
thing for the country. I don't think any serious person would believe 
that any President would do such a thing. And I don't believe any 
reasonably astute person in Washington would believe that Secretary 
Cohen and General Shelton and the whole rest of the National Security 
team would participate in such an action. This was the right thing for 
the country.
    We have given Saddam Hussein chance after chance to cooperate with 
UNSCOM. We said in November that this was the last chance. We got the 
report from Mr. Butler saying that he was not cooperating and, in fact, 
raised new barriers to cooperation. And we acted just as we promised we 
would. We acted swiftly because we were ready, thanks to the very fine 
work of the Defense Department in leaving our assets properly deployed. 
We had the strong support of the British.
    And I might add, I'm very gratified by the strong support we've 
gotten from people among both Democratic and Republican ranks in the 
Congress who are interested in national security, people like Senator 
Helms, Senator McCain, Senator Warner, Senator Hagel, Senator Lugar, all 
have expressed support for this mission. So I feel good about where we 
are on that.
    Q. Mr. President, will you confirm reports on ground troops in 
Kuwait?

    Q. [Inaudible]--on the first day of the operation and would it 
undercut your authority if the House opened the impeachment debate 
during this operation?

    The President. What was the first question, Terry [Terence Hunt, 
Associated Press]?

    Q. Bomb damage assessment.

    The President. I'm about to get it.

    Q. You didn't get any from Mr. Berger?

    The President. Obviously, I've kept up with it as best I could, but 
I have not gotten a full report.

    Q. But you think it is a success?

    The President. I'm about to get a--it's an ongoing mission. I want 
to wait----

    Q. Because Joe Lockhart told us it was a success.

    Q. And he undercut your authority, sir?

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    The President. No. First of all, I'm going to complete this 
mission--we're going to complete this mission. And the Republican 
leaders will have to decide how to do their job. That's not for me to 
comment on.

Kuwait

    Q. Can you confirm reports of Saddam Hussein possibly advancing and 
invading Kuwait and the possible use of ground troops, sir?
    The President. No, I have no comment on that. I think that surely he 
knows what a disastrous mistake that would be.

Civilian Casualties in Iraq

    Q. Mr. President, the Iraqis are saying there's been heavy civilian 
casualties in this. Do you have any information so far that that's true?
    The President. I do not. I can tell you what I said last night: We 
did everything we could to carefully target military and national 
security targets and to minimize civilian casualties. There is always a 
prospect that the missiles will miss, that they will be interrupted 
because of the missiles being fired at them, trying to deflect them from 
their intended targets. I am quite sure there will be, as I said last 
evening, unintended casualties, and I regret that very much.
    That's one of the reasons that I have bent over backwards, not just 
in November but also on previous occasions to avoid using force in this 
case. I did not want to do it; I think all of you know it. But in 
November, we literally had planes in the air, and I said that it would 
be the last chance. I think it is very important that we not allow 
Saddam Hussein to destroy the UNSCOM system without any penalty 
whatever, to eventually get all these sanctions lifted and to go right 
on just as if he never made any commitments that were unfulfilled on 
this score. I think it would have been a disaster for us to do this.
    And so, regrettably, I made this decision. There is, I believe, no 
way to avoid some unintended civilian casualties, and I regret it very 
much. But I believe far, far more people would have died eventually from 
this man's regime had we not taken this action.

Note: The President spoke at 10:45 a.m. in the Oval Office at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to President Saddam Hussein of Iraq; 
and Richard Butler, executive chairman, United Nations Special 
Commission (UNSCOM). A tape was not available for verification of the 
content of these remarks.