Remarks at the Commemoration of the Tenth Anniversary of the Liberation of Kuwait

I can think of no better time to have returned to Kuwait than on this tenth anniversary of the liberation of the Kuwaiti people. I am pleased to be here with President George Bush, the liberator, General Norman Schwarzkopf and so many other representatives of the political, diplomatic and military coalition that came together, that fought together and demonstrated to the world that aggression would not stand.

Ten years ago, we stood together. Ours was a noble cause. It still is. And we stand together again in that cause today as coalition members still pledged to guard against aggression. Today, Kuwait occupies its rightful place among the nations of the region and of the world. It is free. It is prosperous. And it has a wealth of friends and allies, while Iraq the aggressor sits stranded, trapped in a prison of its own making, its people and children put at risk by a regime which also puts at risk the people and children of the entire region by threatening to rebuild its army and manufacture weapons of mass destruction. We want the world to know that our quarrel is not with the people of Iraq, it is with the regime in Baghdad and we look forward to the day when Iraq may be welcomed again into the family of nations and its people are free. That day will ultimately come.

So today we publicly reassert our purpose and principle that this day, besides one for expressions of resolve, is also a day for both celebration and for somber reflection. We celebrate the victory of peace-loving nations in the Gulf War and the liberation of Kuwait. We also celebrate the friendship that exists between the Kuwaiti and the American people. In a few moments President Bush and Generals Scowcroft and Schwarzkopf and I will meet with one hundred Kuwaiti volunteers who trained at Fort Dix in the United States and then joined our forces in Desert Storm. We are so proud of them. And in thanking them for their efforts, we hope that the rest of the world will see in them a symbol of the Kuwaitis’ commitment to the defense of their own independence and of their people’s determination to always be free.

Today is also, as my colleague Norm said, a day for solemn reflection. First, we recall the six hundred Kuwaiti citizens missing still from the Iraqi invasion and occupation, and we reaffirm our commitment and determination to ensure that their fate be known and that they fully be accounted for. We also remember those from so many lands who made the supreme sacrifice in the Gulf War, who also served and fell. The sacrifice for freedom is always serious, always painful and we remember them all, one and all.

And here today, on the Embassy grounds, we will shortly lay a wreath of remembrance on the monument that has inscribed on it the names of the Americans who gave their lives so that aggression might be thwarted and this nation might live free of foreign domination. We remember them today, we remember their families who ten years after their death still grieve. We join them in their grief. We know the greatest honor we can pay their memory is to renew our commitment to the noble cause for which they fought, to renew our determination that evil will not prosper, that freedom will live and breathe in this part of the world, and that those honored heroes shall not have died in vain. We will always remember them. Thank you.

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