H.Doc.105-9 STATUS ON IRAQ ...

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dealing with our congressmen and our senators, our job is to 
educate, educate, educate. [Applause.]
    Public policy by computer games. We do live in a mixed-up 
world, don't we? A world where its's okay for an art museum to 
force visitors to walk on the American flag, and it's okay to 
write off the nation's obligation to its veterans as if that 
were nothing but a bad debt.
    As I think about the world we live in, it makes me realize 
once again the obligation we in the DAV have to the men and 
women who are serving in our armed forces today. Not too long 
ago, I read a newspaper article about a man and a woman who 
were both in the Reserves and both called up for active duty at 
the same time. They went. Of course they went. These were young 
people who believe in America, in duty and in honor, some think 
unusual traits in today's society.
    But while they were gone, doing their country's bidding, 
their financial situation got very tight, making it tough to 
meet their mortgage payments. They had to ask Grandma to take 
care of the kids. The list of their sacrifices, what they paid 
out personally to do what they saw as their patriotic duty went 
on and on.
    We owe these two people our allegiance. We owe this good 
and brave couple our loyalty. We owe them the benefit of our 
services when they come home from duty. And we owe them 
representation of their interests before their government. What 
I'm trying to say is this: There will be a demand for DAV 
service long into the future. We must build the foundation of 
that service today.
    National Adjutant Art Wilson will talk to you tomorrow 
about one very important way in which the DAV is working to 
build a strong network of chapter and department services. I 
won't get into details right now. But I will take this 
opportunity to thank the Department of Colorado and the DAV 
National Service Foundation for their leadership and their 
foresight.
    Another way in which we need to look toward the future is 
in the generational transition our organization faces today. 
Throughout my term in office, I have stressed the need for my 
generation, those who served in the years of Vietnam, to get 
more deeply involved in their chapters. Over and over again, 
I've emphasized the need to activate those who served and 
became disabled during the Gulf War and other recent times of 
armed conflict.
    That message was in my acceptance speech last summer when I 
was elected national commander. And I want to end my term with 
the same plea to our younger members. Can we get these younger 
veterans to take a greater role? I think we can. One Midwestern 
chapter elected a disabled Persian Gulf veteran as its 
commander during the past year. He got on the phone and started 
calling other members who were disabled in the post-Vietnam 
years, and there were two Gulf War veterans at the next 
meeting. Those two split the phone list, and they got a third 
post-Vietnam veteran to come to the following meeting.
    Things like this are happening in some of your chapters 
where there are people willing to do the work. For example, my 
own chapter has had a Persian Gulf veteran as its chaplain. It 
goes to show, when a chapter is willing to show the interest in 
its members, its members are showing a greater interest in the 
DAV. Let's keep that going. [Applause.]
    You can bet the national organization is moving heavily in 
that direction. What a pleasure it is to see all the younger 
veterans coming out of our NSO Training Academy in Denver. I 
congratulate Art Wilson and his staff for their foresight and 
their keen commitment to building the future leadership of the 
DAV.
    In closing, I want to thank all of you for giving me this 
opportunity to serve you. This year has marked my life forever, 
and I hope you feel that my service to you has been worthy. 
You're the best people in the world. [Applause.] You're the 
best people in the world. You're the volunteers; you're the 
people who make the DAV work, and I'm so proud of you and the 
DAV. [Rising applause.]
    Senior Vice-Commander Reed. I need to entertain a motion to 
accept the commander's report.
    [Motion made from the floor.]
    Senior Vice-Commander Reed. Do I have a second on the 
motion?
    [Motion seconded from the floor.]
    Senior Vice-Commander Reed. You've heard it. All those in 
favor, say Aye. Motion carried.
    [Whereupon, Commander McMasters resumed the chair.]
    Commander McMasters. Ladies and gentlemen, it gives me 
great pleasure to introduce our next very special guest. Bill 
Clinton was sworn in as the 42nd President of the United States 
on January 20th, 1993.
    Before being elected to the presidency, he served as 
governor of Arkansas for five terms, holding that position for 
longer than all but one of his predecessors. He also served as 
chairman of the Democratic Commission in 1990-91, the National 
Governors Association in 1987, the Education Commission of the 
States in 1986-87, and the Lower Mississippi Delta Development 
Commission in 1989-90.
    A fifth-generation Arkansan, President Clinton was born in 
Hope, Arkansas on August 19th, 1946. He received a bachelor's 
degree from Georgetown University in 1968 and a law degree from 
Yale University in 1973.
    President Clinton began his political career in 1974 with 
an unsuccessful campaign for Congress. Two years later, he was 
elected Attorney General of Arkansas, a post he held for a 
single term before being elected Governor in 1978. He lost a 
reelection bid in 1980, but was returned to office in 1982 and 
served until his election to the presidency in 1992.
    The President is married to Hillary Rodham Clinton, and 
they have a teenage daughter, Chelsea. [Applause] The President 
is an avid reader, enjoys golf and jogging, and plays the 
saxophone. [Applause.]
    And now, ladies and gentlemen, it is indeed a great honor 
and a privilege to present the Honorable Bill Clinton, 
President of the United States. [Rising applause.]
    President William J. Clinton. Thank you. Thank you very 
much. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you for the 
exuberant welcome. I want to thank the ladies of the Auxiliary 
for leading the applause for Hillary. That was a nice thing to 
do. [Applause.] Thank you very much. That was a very nice 
thing.
    I want to thank Commander McMasters for that introduction. 
It's been so long, I'd forgotten I'd done some of those things. 
[Laughter.] And he mentioned that I was a saxophone player. I 
think we have a Navy Band over there. I want to thank the Navy 
Band. Thank you for being here and for playing. [Applause.]
    I'll always laugh any time someone says I'm a saxophone 
player now because a couple of weeks ago, Colonel John 
Bourgeious, the commander of the United States Marine Band, the 
President's own, retired as one of the longest serving 
conductors of the Marine Band.
    And he did a television interview on national television in 
which he asked about my saxophone playing, and having sworn an 
oath to truth, he said that I was adequate. [Laughter.] And 
painfully I admit that that is about all he could say. And 
that's why I'm here today in this position rather than playing 
for you in your entertainment. [Laughter.]
    I'm delighted to be here with Commander McMasters; with 
your senior vice-commander, Gregory Reed; Barbara Hicks, your 
Auxiliary national commander; Art Wilson, your national 
adjutant; the other officers of your distinguished 
organization, and with all of you.
    I'm glad to be joined today by Secretary Jesse Brown. 
[Applause.] You know, the first time I realized that you would 
cheer like that--I love to kid Jesse, and I was kidding him on 
the way in, and I said, ``You think they give that kind of 
reaction because they love you so much or because they're glad 
I took you off of their hands?'' [Laughter.] I think it's the 
former, and I think you should.
    I'm also delighted to be joined today by a number of state 
officials from the State of Louisiana, and by Congressman Bill 
Jefferson and Congressman Cleo Fields. I thank them for coming. 
[Applause.]
    Ladies and gentlemen, as veterans who have given so much to 
defend our country, you know what it is personally to face an 
enemy. Today we have an enemy it is difficult to face, because 
the enemy is so often hidden, killing at random, surfacing only 
to perform cowardly acts. Their aim is to demoralize us as a 
people and to spread fear into everyday life. We must not let 
them do that. As Americans, we can and must join together to 
defeat terrorism wherever it strikes and whoever practices it. 
[Applause.]
    We all are outraged by what happened in the Centennial 
Olympic Park in Atlanta. And we all admire the athletes, the 
thousands of volunteers, the tens of thousands of fans who made 
a strong statement to the world yesterday when they showed up 
and carried on the Olympics, saying that they would not be 
intimidated by terrorism, and that no terrorist could kill the 
Olympic spirit. [Applause.]
    What we saw yesterday was a symbol of an emerging consensus 
among all responsible nations and freedom-loving people 
everywhere that we have to work closely together to stop the 
spread of terrorism. We know from the Tokyo Subway to the 
streets of Tel Aviv, to the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia where 
we lost 19 of our fine Air Force personnel, that terrorism is a 
problem that knows no boundaries.
    We have learned here so painfully in America, from the 
World Trade Center to Oklahoma City, that attacks from 
terrorists can be homegrown or can be generated in other lands. 
We know that nations are beginning to understand that there is 
no place that is safe when any place is vulnerable to 
terrorists.
    Not very long ago after the upsurge of terrorist attacks in 
Israel, we had a remarkable meeting of 29 nations at Sharm el-
Sheikh in Egypt where, for the first time, 13 Arab states 
condemned terrorism in Israel. It was the beginning of wisdom, 
because, as the Saudis have seen, there is no nation which can 
hide from terrorism unless we all recognize that the rules of 
civilized people do not permit it to be practices.
    The recent meeting of the G-7 nations in France produced a 
significant increase in international measures to cooperate 
against terrorism. And this week, following up on that, we will 
have a very important conference in Paris, France, involving 
those nations with high-level representatives to deal with the 
questions that terrorism presents us.
    Terrorists are often supported by states. And states that 
sponsor or permit terrorism, including Iraq, Iran, Libya and 
Sudan, and any others, must face strong sanctions. We all have 
to say we cannot live with this; it is wrong. People must seek 
to resolve their differences by ways other than killing 
innocent civilians. [Applause.]
    This year I signed into law an anti-terrorism act which 
made terrorism a federal offense, expanded the role of the FBI 
in solving these crimes, and imposed the death penalty for 
terrorism. As strong as the bill was, it did not give our law 
enforcement officials some of the powerful tools I had 
recommended, because they wanted and needed them, including 
increased wiretap authority for terrorists who are moving from 
place to place. Where they are flexible, so must we be. And 
chemical markets, often called taggets, for the most common 
explosives, black and smokeless powder, so that we can track 
down those who make bombs that kill innocent people.
    This morning I was very encouraged to hear the Speaker of 
the House, Mr. Gingrich, express a willingness to consider 
these tougher measures. I have asked the Speaker; Majority 
Leader, Senator Trent Lott; the leaders of the Democratic 
minority, Senator Daschle and Mr. Gephardt; and the FBI 
director, Louis Freeh, to come to the White House tomorrow to 
help to agree on a package that will provide these additional 
protections against terrorism and any other measures we need to 
take to increase the protection of the American people. 
[Applause.]
    We will continue to do whatever is necessary to give law 
enforcement the tools they need to find terrorists before they 
strike and to bring them swiftly to justice when they do. This 
week I announced new measures aimed at increasing airport 
security, increasing baggage searches and screening, to tighten 
passenger checks, to plan the deployment of the latest x-ray 
technologies.
    I said then and I will say again, I am well aware that 
these new security measures will increase inconvenience and may 
even carry a modest increased cost to the air-traveling public. 
But this inconvenience is a small price to pay for better peace 
of mind when our loved ones board a plane. These measures went 
into effect immediately.
    And so, my fellow Americans, we have opened up three fronts 
against terrorism. We're increasing international efforts to 
ensure that terrorists will have no place to plan or hide their 
operations. We're making use of expanded anti-terrorism powers 
at home, including the death penalty. And we are tightening 
airport security. We will continue to expand our efforts on all 
three fronts against terrorism.
    I want to remind you that we have had some results. We have 
seen a record number of terrorists captured and convicted. We 
have thwarted a number of planned terrorist attacks, including 
a serious one against the United Nations and one against the 
United States airlines flying out of the West Coast over the 
Pacific. We are keeping the heat on terrorist organizations and 
those who would support them.
    But I would remind you that every death is one death too 
many. As we have seen now over many, many years, from the 
struggles of our allies, as well as from those we have faced 
recently, that this is a long, hard fight. But if we work 
together, this is challenge we can and will meet. It may well 
be the most significant security challenge of the 21st century 
to the people of the United States and to civilized people 
everywhere. And the veterans of the United States, I know, will 
support our country being as strong and tough and smart and 
steadfast as it takes to get the job done. [Applause.]
    Now, let me continue by saying to you that when I ran for 
President, I promised the veterans of America I would appoint a 
true advocate as Secretary of Veterans Affairs. I found that 
person among your ranks. Jesse Brown honed his skills while 
serving as executive director of the DAV. He and his deputy, 
Hershel Gober, who is also here with me today, I believe, make 
up one of the finest leadership teams in the entire Federal 
Government. [Applause.]
    I can tell you this: Not only in public but in private, in 
every meeting on any subject, they are consistently committed 
to a better life for all veterans. And I thank them for their 
service. [Applause.]
    I'm also honored to join you in celebrating three-quarters 
of a century of service to your country. You are the best 
representatives of what I'd like to talk about today: the duty 
we owe to our veterans, the duty we owe to each other and to 
our children, the duty we owe to the rest of the world and to 
our future. We owe a duty to all of you, of course, not only 
for your bravery and sacrifice, but for all you continue to do 
for each other, your families and our country.
    Last year we celebrated the 50th anniversary of World War 
II. Many of you fought in that great struggle and put your 
lives on the line for freedom. Your country owes you a debt of 
gratitude we can never repay. Any I can honestly say one of the 
most humbling honors of my life was representing the United 
States at those ceremonies in 1994 and 1995.
    But I want to say again to you, to every American who 
served in World War II, including the Republican candidate for 
President, Senator Bob Dole: Thank you for your service, thank 
you for your sacrifice, thank you for your courage. We're still 
around because of you. [Applause.]
    And to all who have served since, in Korea and Vietnam, in 
the Persian Gulf, in Bosnia, in peacetime as well as wartime. 
America thanks you, too, and so do freedom-loving people all 
around the world.
    Our tradition of service, of course, extends beyond the 
battlefield. This is also the 50th anniversary of the VA 
Voluntary Service Programs' involvement of the DAV. Last year 
you donated more volunteer hours at VA hospitals around the 
country than any other organization. [Applause.]
    I want to congratulate your Volunteers of the Year, whom I 
had the privilege to meet just a moment ago, Tillman Rutledge 
and Dorothy Marie Waters. They are great examples of what you 
stand for. Thank you. Thank you. [Applause.]
    You have done your duty to America, and America must do its 
duty to you. Secretary Brown and I recognize a simple truth: 
When men and women leave the service, we must not leave them. 

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