Bush: No Appeasement : U.S. Role in Saudi Arabia Is ‘Wholly Defensive’ : ‘America Will Stand by Her Friends,’ President Declares

President Bush, declaring that appeasement does not work, said today that he ordered U.S. combat aircraft and troops to Saudi Arabia as part of a multinational force to help defend that country against a possible attack by Iraq.

“Appeasement does not work. As was the case in the 1930s, we see in Saddam Hussein an aggressive dictator threatening his neighbors,” Bush said in an evident reference to efforts toward appeasing Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler before the onset of World War II.

He said Saddam, whose army overran Kuwait last Thursday, “has massed an enormous war machine on the Saudi border, capable of initiating hostilities with little or no additional preparation.”

Bush said for the first time that the 100,000-man Iraqi occupation force included surface-to-surface missiles.

“Given the Iraqi government’s history of aggression against its own citizens as well as its neighbors, to assume Iraq will not attack again would be unwise and unrealistic,” Bush said in a calm, 10-minute address from the Oval Office.

He described the American role as “wholly defensive” and said U.S. forces will not initiate hostilities.

“But they will defend themselves, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and other friends in the Gulf. . . . America will stand by her friends,” he added.

“We’re in a defensive mode right now and, therefore that is not the mission, to drive the Iraqis out of Kuwait,” Bush said at a news conference three hours after his address.

“A line has been drawn in the sand. The United States has taken a firm position,” he told reporters.

But at both the news conference and in his speech, Bush made clear his preference for economic pressure over combat.

He said an economic embargo ordered by the United Nations should ultimately drive Iraq from Kuwait because “nobody can stand up forever to total economic deprivation.”

Taking pains to portray Iraq as internationally isolated, Bush noted that the Soviet Union and China had joined the United States, Japan and the Western alliance in backing a U.N. economic boycott.

“These sanctions, now enshrined in international law, have the potential to deny Iraq the fruits of aggression, while sharply limiting its ability to import or export anything of value--especially oil,” he said.

In a hint that his preferred goal is the removal from power of Saddam, Bush raised the possibility in his news conference that “calmer heads in Iraq” might reverse course.

Asked about American citizens in Kuwait and Iraq, including 39 apparently being detained in a Baghdad hotel, Bush said he did not want to inflame the situation.

Bush in his speech said he would ask oil-producing nations to increase production to help make up the loss of the 5 million barrels of crude a day that Iraq and Kuwait produce.

He called on Americans to conserve, and implied annoyance that U.S. oil companies have responded to the conflict with immediate price increases of up to 18 cents a gallon at the pump.

“I’m asking the oil companies to do their fair share. They should show restraint and not abuse today’s uncertainties to raise prices,” he said.

Bush also said he was studying whether to begin using U.S. petroleum reserves, estimated at 600 million barrels.

He said the United States now imports nearly half the oil it consumes, “and could face a major threat to its economic independence” if supplies dried up.

“Standing up for our principles will not come easy. It may take time and possibly cost a great deal,” he warned.

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