My budget includes a list of programs for potential turnover totaling more than $20 billion.  Working with Congress and the governors, I propose we select at least $15 billion in such programs and turn them over to the states in a single consolidated grant, fully funded, for flexible management by the states.

The value of this turnover approach is straightforward.  It allows the Federal Government to reduce overhead.  It allows states to manage more flexibly and more efficiently.  It moves power and decision-making closer to the people.  And it re-enforces a theme of this Administration:  appreciation and encouragement of the innovative power of “states as laboratories.”

This nation was founded by leaders who understood that power belongs in the hands of the people.  They planned for the future.  And so must we—­here and around the world.

As Americans, we know there are times when we must step forward and accept our responsibility to lead the world away from the dark chaos of dictators, toward the bright promise of a better day.

Almost 50 years ago, we began a long struggle against aggressive totalitarianism.  Now we face another defining hour for America and the world.

There is no one more devoted, more committed to the hard work of freedom, than every soldier and sailor, every marine, airman and coastguardsman—­ every man and every woman now serving in the Persian Gulf.

Each of them has volunteered to provide for this nation’s defense.  And now they bravely struggle to earn for America and for the world and for future generations, a just and lasting peace.

Our commitment to them must be equal of their commitment to our country.  They are truly America’s finest.

The war in the gulf is not a war we wanted.  We worked hard to avoid war.  For more than five months we, along with the Arab League, the European Community and the United Nations, tried every diplomatic avenue.  U.N.  Secretary General Perez de Cuellar; Presidents Gorbachev, Mitterand, Ozal, Mubarak, and Bendjedid; Kings Fahd and Hassan; Prime Ministers Major and Andreotti—­just to name a few—­all worked for a solution.  But time and again Saddam Hussein flatly rejected the path of diplomacy and peace.

The world well knows how this conflict began, and when:  it began on August 2nd, when Saddam invaded and sacked a small, defenseless neighbor.  And I am certain of how it will end.  So that peace can prevail, we will prevail.

Tonight I’m pleased to report that we are on course.  Iraq’s capacity to sustain war is being destroyed.  Our investment, our training, our planning —­all are paying off.  Time will not be Saddam’s salvation.

Our purpose in the Persian Gulf remains constant:  to drive Iraq out from Kuwait, to restore Kuwait’s legitimate government, and to insure the stability and security of this critical region.

Let me make clear what I mean by the region’s stability and security.  We do not seek the destruction of Iraq, its culture or its people.  Rather, we seek an Iraq that uses its great resources not to destroy, not to serve the ambitions of a tyrant, but to build a better life for itself and its neighbors.  We seek a Persian Gulf where conflict is no longer the rule, where the strong are neither tempted nor able to intimidate the weak.