George H W Bush: Coalitions can be built and rebuilt

From a speech by the former US President on the Middle East, at Tufts University, near Boston

As long as I live, I will never forget walking into that peace conference at Madrid that followed the Desert Storm with Gorbachev at my side and see a room full of Arabs and Israelis sitting across from each other beginning to talk about peace.

The Madrid conference would never have happened if the international coalition that fought together in Desert Storm had exceded the United Nations mandate and gone on, on its own, if the United States had gone on, on its own; had gone into Baghdad after Saddam, and his forces had surrendered and agreed to disarm.

The coalition would have instantly shattered. And the political capital that we had gained as a result of our principled restraint to jump-start the peace process would have been lost. We would have lost all support from our coalition, with the possible exception of England. And we would have lost all support from the smaller nations in the UN as well.

And today the peace process that emerged as a direct result of Desert Storm, where an unprecedented coalition joined together to defend Kuwaiti sovereignty and preserve the rule of international law... [at this point several students demonstrate to oppose war with Iraq. Bush quips:] We've now found a real good reason to use duct tape. [audience applauds]

We need to make clear that we share the dream that the eastern Mediterranean can once again be a beacon of progress and prosperity.

I know we have differences with European countries, and they've got differences with us, some of them. But I worked on those relationships, and I feel confident that when all this calms down, when Iraq lives within international law, you will see the US back together as allies and friends with both Germany and France.