First lady Barbara Bush says she believes Iraqi President Saddam Hussein will "see the wisdom" of withdrawing from occupied Kuwait before the Persian Gulf crisis escalates into war.
Speaking Sunday with reporters on Air Force One, Barbara Bush said she was looking forward to spending Thanksgiving with U.S. troops deployed to the Persian Gulf region - except for one thing."We're visiting American troops, and I hate to have them see me in pants," she said. She said she would wear comfortable "Kennebunkport clothes" in the desert like those she wears at the first family's vacation home on the Maine coast.
Barbara Bush chatted as she and the president flew here from Germany, where they had visited German Chancellor Helmut Kohl.
Asked if she believed the Persian Gulf standoff would result in a war, she replied, "No. So much of the world is united against Iraq that I think he (Saddam) will see the wisdom of it."
Asked if she were concerned for the safety of the president and herself when they visit U.S. forces so close to the Kuwait and Iraq borders, she said, "I honestly wouldn't go on the trip if I thought it wasn't safe."