Bush asks: "What is our goal, can it be met, and when do we leave?"

[DesEtoiles]

Speaker: President George W. Bush
Title: A Period of Consequences
Location: The Citadel - Charleston, SC
Date: 09/23/1999

...

But our military requires more than good treatment. It needs the rallying point of a defining mission. And that mission is to deter wars - and win wars when deterrence fails. Sending our military on vague, aimless and endless deployments is the swift solvent of morale.

As president, I will order an immediate review of our overseas deployments - in dozens of countries. The longstanding commitments we have made to our allies are the strong foundation of our current peace. I will keep these pledges to defend friends from aggression. The problem comes with open-ended deployments and unclear military missions. In these cases we will ask, "What is our goal, can it be met, and when do we leave?" As I've said before, I will work hard to find political solutions that allow an orderly and timely withdrawal from places like Kosovo and Bosnia. We will encourage our allies to take a broader role. We will not be hasty. But we will not be permanent peacekeepers, dividing warring parties. This is not our strength or our calling.