SPEAKER: George W. Bush, President of the United States
BUSH: Good evening. I have asked for this time to keep you
informed of America's actions in the war on terror.
Nearly two years ago, following deadly attacks on our country, we began
a systematic campaign against terrorism. These months have been a time of
new responsibilities, and sacrifice, and national resolve, and great
progress.
America and a broad coalition acted first in Afghanistan by destroying
the training camps of terror and removing the regime that harbored Al
Qaida. In a series of raids and actions around the world, nearly
two-thirds of Al Qaida's known leaders have been captured or killed, and
we continue on Al Qaida's trail.
We have exposed terrorist front groups, seized terrorist accounts,
taken new measures to protect our homeland and uncovered sleeper cells
inside the United States.
And we acted in Iraq, where the former regime sponsored terror,
possessed and used weapons of mass destruction, and for 12 years defied
the clear demands of the United Nations Security Council.
Our coalition enforced these international demands in one of the
swiftest and most humane military campaigns in history.
For a generation leading up to September the 11th, 2001, terrorists and
their radical allies attacked innocent people in the Middle East and
beyond, without facing a sustained and serious response. The terrorists
became convinced that free nations were decadent and weak. And they grew
bolder, believing that history was on their side.
Since America put out the fires of September 11th, and mourned our
dead, and went to war, history has taken a different turn. We have carried
the fight to the enemy. We are rolling back the terrorist threat to
civilization, not on the fringes of its influence, but at the heart of its
power.
This work continues. In Iraq, we are helping the long-suffering people
of that country to build a decent and democratic society at the center of
the Middle East. Together we are transforming a place of torture chambers
and mass graves into a nation of laws and free institutions. This
undertaking is difficult and costly, yet worthy of our country and
critical to our security.
The Middle East will either become a place of progress and peace, or it
will be an exporter of violence and terror that takes more lives in
America and in other free nations. The triumph of democracy and tolerance
in Iraq, in Afghanistan and beyond would be a grave setback for
international terrorism. The terrorists thrive on the support of tyrants
and the resentments of oppressed peoples. When tyrants fall and resentment
gives way to hope, men and women in every culture reject the ideologies of
terror and turn to the pursuits of peace. Everywhere that freedom takes
hold, terror will retreat.
Our enemies understand this. They know that a free Iraq will be free of
them, free of assassins and torturers and secret police.
They know that as democracy rises in Iraq, all of their hateful
ambitions will fall like the statues of the former dictator.
And that is why, five months after we liberated Iraq, a collection of
killers is desperately trying to undermine Iraq's progress and throw the
country into chaos.
Some of the attackers are members of the old Saddam regime who fled the
battlefield and now fight in the shadows. Some of the attackers are
foreign terrorists, who have come to Iraq to pursue their war on America
and other free nations.
We cannot be certain to what extent these groups work together. We do
know they have a common goal, reclaiming Iraq for tyranny.
Most, but not all, of these killers operate in one area of the country.
The attacks you have heard and read about in the last few weeks have
occurred predominantly in the central region of Iraq, between Baghdad and
Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's former stronghold.
The north of Iraq is generally stable and is moving forward with
reconstruction and self-government. The same trends are evident in the
south, despite recent attacks by terrorist groups.
Though their attacks are localized, the terrorists and Saddam loyalists
have done great harm.
They have ambushed American and British service members who stand for
freedom and order. They have killed civilian aid workers of the United
Nations who represent the compassion and generosity of the world. They
have bombed the Jordanian embassy, the symbol of a peaceful Arab country.
And last week they murdered a respected cleric and over a hundred Muslims
at prayer, bombing a holy shrine and a symbol of Islam's peaceful
teachings.
This violence is directed not only against our coalition, but against
anyone in Iraq who stands for decency and freedom and progress.
There is more at work in these attacks than blind rage. The terrorists
have a strategic goal. They want us to leave Iraq before our work is done.
They want to shake the will of the civilized world.
In the past, the terrorists have cited the examples of Beirut and
Somalia, claiming that if you inflict harm on Americans, we will run from
a challenge. In this, they are mistaken.
Two years ago, I told the Congress and the country that the war on
terror would be a lengthy war, a different kind of war fought on many
fronts in many places. Iraq is now the central front.
Enemies of freedom are making a desperate stand there, and there they
must be defeated.
This will take time and require sacrifice. Yet we will do what is
necessary, we will spend what is necessary to achieve this essential
victory in the war on terror, to promote freedom and to make our own
nation more secure.
America has done this kind of work before. Following World War II, we
lifted up the defeated nations of Japan and Germany and stood with them as
they built representative governments.
We committed years and resources to this cause. And that effort has
been repaid many times over in three generations of friendship and
peace.
America today accepts the challenge of helping Iraq in the same spirit,
for their sake and our own.
Our strategy in Iraq has three objectives: destroying the terrorists,
enlisting the support of other nations for a free Iraq and helping Iraqis
assume responsibility for their own defense and their own future.
First, we are taking direct action against the terrorists in the Iraqi
theater, which is the surest way to prevent future attacks on coalition
forces and the Iraqi people.
We are staying on the offensive, with a series of precise strikes
against enemy targets increasingly guided by intelligence given to us by
Iraqi citizens.
Since the end of major combat operations, we have conducted raids,
seizing many caches of enemy weapons and massive amounts of ammunition,
and we have captured or killed hundreds of Saddam loyalists and
terrorists.
So far, of the 55 most wanted former Iraqi leaders, 42 are dead or in
custody. We are sending a clear message: Anyone who seeks to harm our
soldiers can know that our soldiers are hunting for them.
Second, we are committed to expanding international cooperation in the
reconstruction and security of Iraq, just as we are in Afghanistan.
Our military commanders in Iraq advise me that the current number of
American troops, nearly 130,000, is appropriate to their mission. They are
joined by over 20,000 service members from 29 other countries.
Two multinational divisions, led by the British and the Poles, are
serving alongside our forces. And in order to share the burden more
broadly, our commanders have requested a third multinational division to
serve in Iraq.
Some countries have requested an explicit authorization of the United
Nations Security Council before committing troops to Iraq. I have directed
Secretary of State Colin Powell to introduce a new Security Council
resolution which would authorize the creation of a multinational force in
Iraq to be led by America.
I recognize that not all our friends agreed with our decision to
enforce the Security Council resolutions and remove Saddam Hussein from
power, yet we cannot let past differences interfere with present
duties.
Terrorists in Iraq have attacked representatives of the civilized world
and opposing them must be the cause of the civilized world.
Members of the United Nations now have an opportunity, and the
responsibility, to assume a broader role in assuring that Iraq becomes a
free and democratic nation.
Third, we are encouraging the orderly transfer of sovereignty and
authority to the Iraqi people. Our coalition came to Iraq as liberators
and we will depart as liberators.
Right now Iraq has its own Governing Council, comprised of 25 leaders
representing Iraq's diverse people. The Governing Council recently
appointed cabinet ministers to run government departments. Already more
than 90 percent of towns and cities have functioning local governments
which are restoring basic services.
We are helping to train civil defense forces to keep order and an Iraqi
police service to enforce the law, a facilities protection service, Iraqi
border guards to help secure the borders and a new Iraqi army.
In all these roles, there are now some 60,000 Iraqi citizens under
arms, defending the security of their own country. And we are accelerating
the training of more.
Iraq is ready to take the next steps toward self-government. The
Security Council resolution we introduce will encourage Iraq's Governing
Council to submit a plan and a timetable for the drafting of a
constitution and for free elections.
From the outset, I have expressed confidence in the ability of the
Iraqi people to govern themselves. Now they must rise to the
responsibilities of a free people and secure the blessings of their own
liberty.
Our strategy in Iraq will require new resources. We have conducted a
thorough assessment of our military and reconstruction needs in Iraq, and
also in Afghanistan. I will soon submit to Congress a request for $87
billion. The request will cover ongoing military and intelligence
operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, which we expect will cost
$66 billion dollars over the next year.
This budget request will also support our commitment to helping the
Iraqi and Afghan people rebuild their own nations after decades of
oppression and mismanagement.
We will provide funds to help them improve security. And we will help
them to restore basic services, such as electricity and water, and to
build new schools, roads and medical clinics.
This effort is essential to the stability of those nations, and
therefore to our own security. Now and in the future, we will support our
troops and we will keep our word to the more than 50 million people of
Afghanistan and Iraq.
Later this month, Secretary Powell will meet with representatives of
many nations to discuss their financial contributions to the
reconstruction of Afghanistan.
Next month, he will hold a similar funding conference for the
reconstruction of Iraq. Europe, Japan, and states in the Middle East all
will benefit from the success of freedom in these two countries, and they
should contribute to that success.
The people of Iraq are emerging from a long trial. For them, there will
be no going back to the days of the dictator, to the miseries of
humiliation he inflicted on that good country. for the Middle East and the
world, there will be no going back to the days of fear when a brutal and
aggressive tyrant possessed terrible weapons. And for America, there will
be no going back to the era before September 11, 2001, to false comfort in
a dangerous world.
We have learned that terrorist attacks are not caused by the use of
strength.
They are invited by the perception of weakness. And the surest way to
avoid attacks on our own people is to engage the enemy where he lives and
plans.
We are fighting that enemy in Iraq and Afghanistan today so that we do
not meet him again on our own streets, in our own cities.
The heaviest burdens in our war on terror fall, as always, on the men
and women of our armed forces and our intelligence services. They have
removed gathering threats to America and our friends, and this nation
takes great pride in their incredible achievements.
We are grateful for their skill and courage, and for their acts of
decency, which have shown America's character to the world.
We honor the sacrifice of their families, and we mourn every American
who has died so bravely, so far from home.
The Americans who assume great risks overseas understand the great
cause they are in. Not long ago I received a letter from a captain in the
Third Infantry Division in Baghdad. He wrote about his pride in serving a
just cause and about the deep desire of Iraqis for liberty.
``I see it,'' he said, ``in the eyes of a hungry people every day here.
They are starved for freedom and opportunity.''
And he concluded, ``I just thought you'd like a note from the 'front
lines of freedom.'''
And I want each of them to know: Your country thanks you, and your
country supports you.
Fellow citizens, we have been tested these past 24 months, and the
dangers have not passed. Yet Americans are responding with courage and
confidence. We accept the duties of our generation. We are active and
resolute in our own defense. We are serving in freedom's cause, and that
is the cause of all mankind.
Thank you. And may God continue to bless America.
