Bill Clinton: “Well, we've had--first of all, I'm not convinced that that's going to happen, but secondly, we have had seven debates…”

“Well, we've had--first of all, I'm not convinced that that's going to happen, but secondly, we have had seven debates about it. The 1994 appropriations bill actually provided--if you will remember--provided a procedure by which the United States could move, along with the U.N., and file a detailed report about what was going on. I do want to emphasize this, because I think this is a legitimate concern of Congress and the American people: What is our mission? If we lead this multinational force, what is our mission? Our mission is to get the dictators out; bring the police monitors in from these other countries to help maintain the peace; begin to retrain a Haitian police force to be responsible, supportive of democracy, and to prevent violence, not participate in it; restore the elected President; and turn the mission over to the U.N. as quickly as we can. Then there would be a U.N. mission in which the United States would participate but at a much reduced level, which would stay there until the election occurs next year and the new President is inaugurated early '96. In other words, we have very limited objectives. We are not trying to win military conquest. We have no interest in that at all. And we are not responsible in any way, shape, or form for rebuilding Haiti. This is not a nation building operation. It is not a traditional peacekeeping operation. Our responsibility would be limited to removing the dictators, bringing in the police monitors from other countries, retraining the police force, restoring the President, turning it over to the U.N. The nation building, so-called nation building, would have to be done by the international aid institutions. You should know, by the way--because one of the questions that will be asked is, how do we know that we'll be on a more positive path--there was a meeting in Paris a few days ago. There was a commitment to give over $1 billion in aid to Haiti when democracy is restored, when the dictators leave, if conditions of reconciliation exist.”