Political Quotes

“Well, on the second one of the peace conference or the whole concept of trying to bring peace to the rest of the Middle East--and I would say it relates to the Palestinian question; it relates to the Lebanese question. Clearly, it relates to how Iraq is brought back into the family of nations. All of those things are going to be discussed now with our coalition partners by Jim Baker. We are also discussing it, as I said, with those emissaries that have been here. For example, the Germans don't have forces, but they have some very good ideas on how all of these matters can be brought forward. I want to repeat my determination to have the United States play a very useful role now in the whole question of peace in the Middle East, and that includes all three of these categories. And whether it proves to be a peace conference or some bolder new idea, time will tell. But we are beginning very serious consultations on this. In terms of rebuilding Iraq, my view is this: Iraq, had they been led differently, is basically a wealthy country. They are a significant oil producer. They get enormous income. But under Saddam Hussein and this Revolutionary Council, they have elected to put a tremendous amount of their treasure into arms. And they've threatened their neighbors. And now they invaded--up to now had invaded a neighbor. And so, Iraq has a big reconstruction job to do. But I'll be honest with you: At this point I don't want to see one single dime of the United States taxpayers' money go into the reconstruction of Iraq. Now, you want to talk about helping a child, you want to to talk about helping disease, something of that nature, of course, the United States will step up and do that which we have always done--lay aside the politics and help the health-care requirements or help children especially. But not reconstruction--they must work these things out without any help from the American taxpayer.”