Episcopal Press and News

Bush Promises U.S. Role in Wider Mideast Peace

Episcopal News Service. February 14, 1991 [91042B]

Addressing the National Association of Religious Broadcasters on January 28, President Bush pledged that the United States would lead the effort "to bring peace to the rest of the Middle East" after the Gulf War was satisfactorily concluded. Bush was apparently referring to the necessity of resolving the Arab-Israeli-Palestinian conflict, commentators and administration officials said. However, the vagueness of Bush's language reflected the president's continuing insistence that Iraq not appear rewarded for its August invasion of Kuwait. Citing the Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Bush argued that the current war is a "just war" in that it supports the "just cause" of liberating Kuwait from Iraqi occupation after "extraordinary diplomatic efforts [were] exhausted to resolve the matter peacefully." The president also stressed that the United States does "not seek the destruction of Iraq. We have respect...for the importance of Iraq in the region," Bush said. "We do not want a country so destabilized that Iraq itself could be a target for aggression."