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Bush: War over; time for ‘broader peace’
WASHINGTON - President Bush proclaimed
a triumphant end to the Persian Gulf war on
Wednesday night and set his sights on a broader
peace in the Middle East. “The time has come
to put an end to Arab-Israeli conflict,” he said,
urging compromise in the troubled region.
A hero’s welcome greeted Bush on Capitol
Hill, exactly one week after he announced a
conditional cease fire in the 42-day conflict.
“As commander in chief,” Bush said, “I can
report to you: Our armed forces fought with
honor and valor. As president, I can report to
the nation: Aggression is defeated. The war is
over.”
The House chamber was awash with red,
white and blue from 600 American flags as
lawmakers greeted the president.
With Saddam Hussein’s army driven out of
Kuwait, Bush announced the withdrawal of
American troops from the gulf. He said the first
large contingent of soldiers would leave Saudi
Arabia by midnight. More than 537,000 U.S.
troops were sent off to war.
“This is just the beginning of a steady flow
of American troops coming home,” Bush told
a joint session of Congress in a nationally
broadcast speech.
‘Tonight in Iraq, Saddam walks amidst ruin,”
Bush said. “His war machine is crushed. His
ability to threaten mass destruction is itself
destroyed_For all that Saddam has done to
his own people, to the Kuwaitis and to the
entire world, Saddarn and those around him are
accountable.”
The speech marked a sweet moment of
personal triumph for Bush. Many congres
sional Democrats had second-guessed Bush
throughout his seven-month showdown with
Saddam, urging him not to go to war and then
not to launch a ground offensive.
“Our commitment to peace in the Middle
East does not end with the liberation of Ku
wait,” Bush said.
Turning to the longstanding dispute be
tween Israel and its neighbors, Bush said dif
ferences were “so painful and intractable. Yet,
in the conflict just concluded, Israel and many
of the Arab states have for the first time found
themselves confronting the same aggressor.
“By now, it should be plain to all parties that
peacemaking in the Middle East requires
compromise,” the president declared. “We must
do all that ve can to close the gap between
Israel and the Arab states, and between Israelis
and Palestinians.”
A comprehensive peace must be grounded
in U.N. Security Council resolutions calling on
Israel to withdraw from occupied territories
and declaring the right of all nations in the
region to live in peace within secure borders.
“This principle must be elaborated to pro
vide for Israel’s security and recognition, and
at the same time for legitimate Palestinian
political rights,” Bush said. “Anything else
would fail the twin tests of fairness and secu
rity.
He said other challenges still remain after
the war, and he called for:
• Creation of security arrangements to pro
duce a stable gulf.
• Control of the proliferation of weapons of
mass destruction and missiles that deliver them.
• The fostering of economic development
to bring prosperity to all people in the Middle
East.
POWs fly to freedom; turmoil in south Iraq
Snapping salutes and slapping high
fives, die last known American pris
oners of the Gulf war flew to freedom
Wednesday and a heroes’ welcome
from Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf.
American paratroopers loaded their
gear for their own “freedom bird.”
Some of the 4,400 soldiers from
the 82nd Airborne Division and sister
units are expected to land Thursday at
a Washington-area air base.
The U.S. military said President
Saddam Hussein’s government ap
parently regained control of rebel
lious Basra. But refugees from that
southern Iraqi city denied it, telling
Iran’s news agency “the people” held
Basra’s government buildings.
Liberated Kuwait’s prime minis
ter, Crown Prince Saad Abdullah al
Sabah, said there would lie no retali
ation against Palestinians in Kuwait
who allegedly collaborated with the
Iraqis during their occupation of the
emirate.
But hospital staff members and
Kuwaiti resistance fighters confirmed
to Associated Press correspondent John
Pom fret that scores of Palestinians
were being beaten, shot, tortured with
lighted cigarettes and otherwise
“punished” for their alleged crimes.
In Damascus, Syria, Arab foreign
ministers agreed on a long-term re
gional security plan: Egyptian and
Syrian troops will guard the gulf oil
states.
Their agreement also called for a
U.N. peace conference on the Middle
East.
Later this week, Secretary of State
James Baker travels to the Mideast to
meet with both the Arabs and Israelis
to discuss the region’s future.
Fifteen freed American POWs were
flown aboard a chartered Red Cross
plane from Baghdad to Riyadh, Saudi
Arabia. They were transferred to the
Li.S. Navy hospital ship, Mercy, docked
in the gulf emirate of Bahrain.
The Americans and 20 British,
Saudi and other POWs were exchanged
for 294 Iraqi prisoners flown in to
Baghdad by the Red Cross.
The ex-prisoners, in yellow jumps
uits emblazoned “PW,” waved or
saluted as they stepped off the plane
in Riyadh. One gave a high-five hand
slap to a waiting American service
man, before embracing him and walk
ing away.
Two were brought out on stretch
ers and many appeared undernour
ished. Examining doctors said some
airmen had been injured on their
missions and most had been “slapped
around,” including three whose ear
drums were perforated. But the doc
tors described them as “upbeat” de
spite their injuries.
“Every one of them’s a hero,” said
U.S. commander Norman Sch
warzkopf, in the Riyadh welcoming
party.
The freed prisoners included an
American woman, Army Maj. Rhonda
Comum of Freevillc, N Y.
Her arms were in bandages and
slings, apparently having been bro
ken when a search-and-rescue heli
copter on which she was a crew member
crashed last weekend.
The family of Sgt. Troy Dunlap,
who was aboard the same rescue nen
copter, was told last weekend he had
been killed. But then his name turned
up on the list of POWs released to the
Red Cross.
“It was probably the greatest news
we’ve ever heard in our lives,” said
his stepfather, Mike Stubblefield, in
Kamak, 111.
The release left 24 Americans
missing in action in the Gulf war.
Some bodies have now been lo
cated at the bottom of the Persian
Gulf, where divers found the wreck
age of an AC-130 gunship that disap-,
pearcd Jan. 31, the Air Force reported.
The plane carried a crew of 14.
The victorious allies have also
demand that Iraq free thousands of
Kuwaitis abducted during the Iraqi
occupation. Iraq’s U.N. ambassador
says his government is planning to
allow all Kuwaitis to leave Iraq.
The U.S. command said senior
allied and Iraqi officers would meet
Thursday in Saudi Arabia to continue
talks on establishing a permanent cease
fire.
More than 4,000 Palestinians
jailed, beaten by Kuwaiti army
KUWAITCITY - Kuwaiti army
and resistance personnel are beat
ing scores of Palestinians suspected
of collaborating with occupying
Iraqi soldiers, hospital and resis
tance officials said Wednesday.
Palestinians have been burned
with cigarettes, hit with typewrit
ers and chairs and had their finger
nails pulled out, according to those
familiar with the beatings.
At least 4,000 Palestinian and
other suspected collaborators have
been jailed since last Wednesday,
when allied forces chased Iraqi
invaders out of Kuwait, according
to resistance officials manning three
police stations.
“What we are giving them is
<
nothing compared to what we got
from the Iraqis,” said Aziz Ghuloum,
a resistance fighter in charge of a
police station in the Abiya section
of Kuwait City.
A 22-year-old Palestinian medi
cal student at Mubarak Al-Kabccr
Hospital said five Palestinians with
bullet wounds to the head or chest
have been brought to the hospital
since the Iraqi pullout.
Since then, he said he has treated
between 35 and 40 Palestinians
beaten up by the resistance and the
army, and heard of about 20 more
cases.
Officials at three police stations
and two hospitals told similar sto
ries of swift Kuwaiti retribution
against the Palestinian community
for its perceived support of Sad
dam Hussein.
Resistance fighters accused their
victims of denouncing members of
the resistance, profiting from the
Iraqi invasion by doing business
with the invaders and stealing
Kuwaiti property.
A doctor at the Al-Farwaniya
Hospital said he and his colleagues
had treated about 50 Palestinians
over the past week.
Many have fractures, lacerations
and contusions. One of the worst
cases was a 22-ycar-old whose face
was made unrecognizable by co
agulated blood. The victim said he
had been beaten for eight hours,
the medical student said.
Gifts await returning troops
Americans are lying a yellow rib
bon around a vast array of gifts, free
bies and perks for troops who served
in the Persian Gulf.
On top of hero’s welcomes coast
to coast, merchants, lawmakers and
promoters are busy drafting shopping
lists of goodies to shower upon tire
more than half a million men and
women who served in the gulf.
With some restrictions, the free
bies include a night’s stay at a casino,
steamboat cruises, treks through a
• movie studio, baseball games and
hunting and fishing licenses.
Discounts of as much as 70 per
cent are being offered on several air
lines. Restaurants, a winery owner
and other smaller enterprises are put
ting together packages that cut prices
for military personnel.
The troops will also find more
bargains at state-run colleges and
universities offering free tuition.
The returning members of the 253rd
Transportation Company of the New
Jersey Army National Guard will be
able to make another trip to the sands.
The Sands Hotel & Casino in Atlantic
City is giving them a free overnight
stay and a free meal at the casino’s
Italian gourmet restuarant.
Steamboat Casino River Cruises,
which will begin riverboat gambling
on the Mississippi River off Iowa’s
eastern shore on April 1, is offering a
free cruise for soldiers who are at
least 21 years old.
“It’s our way of saying,‘Welcome
home and thank you for your gallant
efforts in the Persian Gulf,’’’ said
spokeswoman Carol Heaton.
Collette Tours of Pawtucket, R.I.
is offering all returning soldiers a
discount of $150 per couple on a
Collette land tour of seven days or
longer.
“We’ve got your calm after the
storm," is Collette’s new motto.
Band, families and friends greet
returning Persian Gulf veterans
OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE - A
cheering, fiag-wavmg crowd of fam
ily and friends, braving Wednesday’s
bitterly cold wind, welcomed home
21 of the first U.S. troops returning
from the Persian Gulf war.
“How sweet it is!” said Gen. George
Lee Butler, commander of the Strate
gic Air Command headquartered at
the base.
The homecoming ceremonies were
closed 10 the public but hundreds of
relatives and Air Force personnel lined
up outside the 55th Strategic Recon
naissance Wing hangars for the home
coming.
Staff Sgt. Skip Johnstone, an air
craft mechanic, stepped off the mili
tary plane and gave a big white Teddy
bear and a bear hug Wednesday to his
girlfriend. He met her as a pen pal
after he was sent to the Gulf and they
met each other Wednesday for the
first time.
When he spied the gathered crowd,
Johnstone said, “I knew that it was
over — that it was finally over.”
Johnstone, 29, presented the stuffed
animal and a kiss to Ann Musselman,
25, of Sioux City, Iowa.
Military officers told him to get on
a bus being used to take the reluming
soldiers to another part of the base,
but reassured him they had room for
Musselman aboard.
Maj. Wayne Miller of SAC bomber
operations, who helped plan the B-52
missions that pounded Iraqi positions
during the air war, had a one-word
reply when asked if he was surprised
at how swiftly the Allies won victory
in the war.
“No,” Miller said.
Clinging to Miller, who had been
in the Gulf since shortly after Iraq’s
Aug. 2 invasion of Kuwait, was his
wife, Ginger.
“I'm am so happy to have him
back! It’s been a long time,” she said
as the SAC band played “America,
the Beautiful.”
“How proud we are, how profoundly
grateful we are. Your nation is proud
of you,” Butler told the soldiers as the
crowd cheered in agreement.
“You should never underestimate
what you’ve done. President Bush
put the nation’s defense on the line
and some people said that was a big
risk. But because of you, it never wa >
a gamble. It was a sure thing,” Butler
said.
The returning troops, members of
the 55th and other units, traveled on a
KC-135 aircraft from Saudi Arabia to
Mindcnhall Air Force Base near
Cambridge, England, before heading
home to Nebraska, officials said.
The crowd of about 400, waving
American flags and red, white and
blue balloons, began cheering when
the plane landed shortly after 4 p.m.
“I’m just sort of numb right now. I
can’t believe he's really coming back,’
said Penny Tory as she waited for her
son Dirk Jacquet to arrive.
Jacquet, 20, is a member of the
55th who was called to duty about
two weeks before he was supposed to
give his mother away when she re
married on Sept. 1.
Rosa Delacruz, an Air Force
member who did not go to the Persian
Gulf, said she just wanted to welcome
everyone back.
“I didn’t get to go over there. J
wanted to. But now 1 can be a part ol
it, welcoming them back,” she said.