Bill Clinton: “You did pretty well. Let me say to all of you, I know that a lot of your assignments are still dangerous. I appreciate…”

“You did pretty well. Let me say to all of you, I know that a lot of your assignments are still dangerous. I appreciate the hard work you have done to protect all the people of Kosovo, including the Serbs. I appreciate your pursuit of local thugs, like the mad mortar-man. I appreciate your constant mediation between people who have a long way to go toward reconciliation. I'm told that children routinely say, ``We love you, United States.'' Well, they love the United States because they love you, because we gave them their freedom back; we gave them a chance to go home; we're giving the children a chance to have a different life than their parents have lived. But let me just say this--I say this every time I speak to a group of American service men and women overseas--the biggest problem in the world today, with all the modern technology, all your fancy computers, everybody getting on the Internet, all the new discoveries in science, the biggest problem in the world today is the oldest problem of human society. People tend to be afraid of people who don't look like them and don't worship God the way they do and come from a different place. And when you're afraid of somebody, it's just a short step to disliking them. If you dislike them, it's a short step to hating them. If you hate them, it's a short step to dehumanizing them. And once you do that, you don't feel bad about killing them. Now that's what this whole deal is about. And you see this problem in our inability to solve the peace in the Middle East, although we're getting there. But it's been a long time coming. We may be about to have a final breakthrough in the Irish civil war--been 30 years coming. Almost 800,000 people were killed in 100 days in Rwanda by people of 2 different tribes, one hacking the others to death with machetes; they hardly had any guns at all. And if you strip it all away, the number one problem in this old world today is the problem of Bosnia, the problem of Kosovo: It's racial and ethnic and religious hatred and dehumanization. All you've got to do is look around the room today, and you see that our military is a stunning rebuke to that. This is the American idea in flesh and blood, all of you. You come from all different backgrounds, all different races, all different religious faiths, all different walks of life. And you're here working together as a team. You can appreciate your differences. You can even make fun of them. You can even make jokes about them because you know that your common humanity and your shared values are even more important than your differences. Now, the most important thing you can do, besides keeping these people alive and having security, is to teach that to the children and to their parents by the power of your example and your own testimony. Because I am telling you, what they're going through here today is an example, but by no means the only example, of the worst problem the world faces on the eve of the new millennium. And it violates everything we in America stand for. And the power of our weapons could win the military battle in Kosovo, but the peace can only be won by the human heart. And every day they see you, every day these little old kids see you working together--even if they don't speak our language, even if they never met any African-Americans or Hispanics before, even if they don't know any Asians before--they can see; they have eyes; they'll get it. You just show up, and you be yourself, and you do what you're supposed to do, and you treat them right. The power of your example will show them that they do not have to be trapped in the pattern which led to the slaughter of a quarter of a million people in Bosnia, 2\1/2\ million refugees there, almost a million refugees here, though we acted quicker, and because we acted quicker, they all came home. But now that they came home, they've got to learn how to win the peace. And I say that to the other nations who are here represented. I want people to see Americans working with you. I want these children to know that the world is a better place when people are proud of their own race and ethnicity and religion, but respectful of others; when they are secure enough in who they are that they don't have to put anybody else down, hurt anybody else, torch anybody else's church or mosque just to feel that they matter. This is the most important issue in the whole world today. And just by getting up every day, going to work, keeping the kind of morale that you manifested today with your cheers and your pride, you are a rebuke to the biggest problem in the world, and the power of your example can do more than anything else to help us to win the peace. Thank you, God bless you, and Happy Thanksgiving. [At this point, a gift was presented to the President.]”