[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 25 (Monday, June 28, 1999)]
[Pages 1169-1170]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks to Kosovo International Security Force Troops in Skopje

June 22, 1999

    Thank you very much, General Clark, General Jackson, General 
Craddock, Colonel Ingram, ladies and gentlemen of the United States 
military. And as nearly as I can tell, we've got a few of our British 
counterparts back there and at least two Spanish officers over here 
somewhere.
    And I just want to say, first of all, I am proud to have the 
soldiers, the marines, the air men and women, the naval forces of the 
United States of America serving in NATO. I am proud that we're part of 
KFOR. I'm proud that we're serving under an able commander like General 
Jackson. I am proud of Wes Clark.
    You know, General Clark and I went through the agony of Bosnia 
together. He lost three good friends, who fell off a mountain because 
Mr. Milosevic wouldn't let them take the safe road to try to negotiate a 
peace. And we watched for 4 years while reasoned diplomacy tried to save 
lives and a quarter of a million people died and 2\1/2\ million refugees 
were created before NATO and our friends on the ground in Croatia and 
Bosnia forced a settlement there and ended the horror there.
    This time we didn't wait. And it took 79 days, but that's a lot 
better than 4 years. And I hope the people of the world, when they see 
these horrible, horrible stories coming out, the mass graves and all of 
that, just imagine what it would have been like if we had stepped to the 
side and not done what we did for the last 3 months.
    I hope, to the day you die, you will be proud of being a part of a 
nation and a democratic alliance that believes that people should not be 
killed, uprooted, or destroyed because of their race, their ethnic 
background, or the way they worship God. I am proud of that, and I hope 
you are.
    Let me also say to you that I just came from one of our refugee 
camps, and there are a lot of grateful people there. But you and I know 
that there's a lot to be done yet, and General Jackson's got a big job. 
And the United States is proud to be doing our part to help our allied 
efforts succeed there. We must not have one conflict and roll back 
ethnic cleansing and then lose the peace because we don't do every last 
thing just as we're supposed to do it.
    So the whole credibility of the principle on which we have stood our 
ground and fought in this region for years and years now--that here, 
just like in America, just like in Great Britain, people who come from 
different racial and ethnic and religious backgrounds can live together 
and work together and do better together if they simply respect each 
other's God-given dignity--and we don't want our children to grow up in 
a 21st century world where innocent civilians can be hauled off to the 
slaughter, where children can die, en masse, where young boys of 
military age can be burned alive, where young girls can be raped, en 
masse, just to intimidate their families. We don't want our kids to grow 
up in a world like that.
    Now, what it rides on is not the precision of our bombs, not in our 
power to destroy, but your power to build and to be safe while you're 
doing it and to protect the ethnic Kosovar Albanians and the ethnic 
Serbs alike. As long as they are innocent civilians, doing nothing 
wrong, they're entitled to protection--and to try to show by the power 
of your example, day-in and day-out, those of you that are going into 
Kosovo, that people can lay down their hatreds.
    You need to think about telling your family stories. You need to 
think about how we can

[[Page 1170]]

help these people get over this awful, grievous thing. I saw a lot of 
little kids just a few minutes ago with a lot of hurt and terror and 
loss in their eyes. So you've got a big, big job left.
    It is not free of danger; it will not be free of difficulty. There 
will be some days you wish you were somewhere else. But never forget, if 
we can do this here and if we can then say to the people of the world, 
whether you live in Africa, or central Europe, or any other place, if 
somebody comes after innocent civilians and tries to kill them, en 
masse, because of their race, their ethnic background, or their 
religion, and it's within our power to stop it, we will stop it.
    And by the way, look at central Europe. These people can live 
together and prosper together. That's what we're trying to do. It can 
make a huge difference to our children in the new century. It may mean 
that Americans will never have to fight again in a big land war, because 
we just let things get out of hand and out of hand and out of hand until 
everything blew up and there was nothing else that could be done about 
it. This is very important.
    And again I say, I hope you will always be proud of it. I hope you 
know how proud that I and the American people are of you.
    Thank you, and God bless you.

Note: The President spoke at 5:43 p.m. on the tarmac at Skopje Airport. 
In his remarks, he referred to Gen. Wesley K. Clark, USA, Supreme Allied 
Commander Europe; Lt. Gen. Mike 
Jackson, British Royal Army, Commander, Kosovo International Security 
Force; Brig. Gen. John Craddock, USA, Commander, Task Force Falcon; Col. 
William E. Ingram, Jr., USA, Commander, Camp Able Sentry; and President 
Slobodan Milosevic of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and 
Montenegro). A tape was not available for verification of the content of 
these remarks.