[House Document 108-1]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
108th Congress, 1st Session - - - - - - - - - - House Document 108-1
STATE OF THE UNION MESSAGE
__________
MESSAGE
from
THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
transmitting
A REPORT ON THE STATE OF THE UNION
January 29, 2003.--Message and accompanying papers referred to the
Committee on the Whole House on the State of the Union and ordered to
be printed
______
U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
19-011 WASHINGTON : 2003
To the Congress of the United States:
Mr. Speaker, Vice President Cheney, Members of Congress,
distinguished guests, fellow citizens:
Every year, by law and by custom, we meet here to consider
the state of the union. This year, we gather in this chamber
deeply aware of decisive days that lie ahead.
You and I serve our country in a time of great consequence.
During this session of Congress, we have the duty to reform
domestic programs vital to our country . . . and we have the
opportunity to save millions of lives abroad from a terrible
disease. We will work for a prosperity that is broadly shared .
. . and we will answer every danger and every enemy that
threatens the American people.
In all these days of promise and days of reckoning, we can
be confident. In a whirlwind of change, and hope, and peril,
our faith is sure, our resolve is firm, and our union is
strong.
This country has many challenges. We will not deny, we will
not ignore, we will not pass along our problems to other
Congresses, other Presidents, and other generations. We will
confront them with focus, and clarity, and courage.
During the last 2 years, we have seen what can be
accomplished when we work together. To lift the standards of
our public schools, we achieved historic education reform--
which must now be carried out in every school, and every
classroom, so that every child in America can read, and learn,
and succeed in life. To protect our country, we reorganized our
government and created the Department of Homeland Security--
which is mobilizing against the threats of a new era. To bring
our economy out of recession, we delivered the largest tax
relief in a generation. To insist on integrity in American
business, we passed tough reforms, and we are holding corporate
criminals to account.
Some might call this a good record. I call it a good start.
Tonight I ask the House and Senate to join me in the next bold
steps to serve our fellow citizens.
Our first goal is clear: We must have an economy that grows
fast enough to employ every man and woman who seeks a job.
After recession, terrorist attacks, corporate scandals, and
stock market declines, our economy is recovering--yet it is not
growing fast enough, or strongly enough. With unemployment
rising, our Nation needs more small businesses to open, more
companies to invest and expand, more employers to put up the
sign that says, ``Help Wanted.''
Jobs are created when the economy grows; the economy grows
when Americans have more money to spend and invest; and the
best, fairest way to make sure Americans have that money is not
to tax it away in the first place.
I am proposing that all the income tax reductions set for
2004 and 2006 be made permanent and effective this year. And
under my plan, as soon as I have signed the bill, this extra
money will start showing up in worker's paychecks. Instead of
gradually reducing the marriage penalty, we should do it now.
Instead of slowly raising the child credit to a thousand
dollars, we should send the checks to American families now.
This tax relief is for everyone who pay income taxes--and
it will help our economy immediately. Ninety-two million
Americans will keep--this year--an average of almost $1,100
more of their own money. A family of four with an income of
$40,000 would see their federal income taxes fall from $1,178
to $45 per year. And our plan will improve the bottom line for
more than 23 million small businesses.
You, the Congress, have already passed all these
reductions, and promised them for future years. If this tax
relief is good for Americans three, or five, or seven years
from now, it is even better for Americans today.
We also strengthen the economy by treating investors
equally in our tax laws. It is fair to tax a company's profits.
It is not fair to again tax the shareholder on the same
profits. To boost investor confidence, and to help the nearly
10 millionseniors who receive dividend income, I ask you to end
the unfair double taxation of dividends.
Lower taxes and greater investment will help this economy
expand. More jobs mean more taxpayers--and higher revenues to
our government. The best way to address the deficit and move
toward a balanced budget is to encourage economic growth--and
to show some spending discipline in Washington, D.C. We must
work together to fund only our most important priorities. I
will send you a budget that increases discretionary spending by
4 percent next year--about as much as the average family's
income is expected to grow. And that is a good benchmark for
us: Federal spending should not rise any faster than the
paychecks of American families.
A growing economy, and a focus on essential priorities,
will also be crucial to the future of Social Security. As we
continue to work together to keep Social Security sound and
reliable, we must offer younger workers a chance to invest in
retirement accounts that they will control and they will own.
Our second goal is high-quality, affordable health care for
all Americans.
The American system of medicine is a model of skill and
innovation--with a pace of discovery that is adding good years
to our lives. Yet for many people, medical care costs too
much--and many have no coverage at all. These problems will not
be solved with a nationalized health care system that dictates
coverage and rations care. Instead, we must work toward a
system in which all Americans have a good insurance policy . .
. choose their own doctors . . . and seniors and low-income
Americans receive the help they need. Instead of bureaucrats,
and trial lawyers, and HMOs, we must put doctors, and nurses,
and patients back in charge of American medicine.
Health care reform must begin with Medicare, because
Medicare is the binding commitment of a caring society. We must
renew that commitment by giving seniors access to the
preventive medicine and new drugs that are transforming health
care in America.
Seniors happy with the current Medicare system should be
able to keep their coverage just the way it is. And just like
you, the members of Congress, members of your staffs, and other
federal employees, all seniors should have the choice of a
health care plan that provides prescription drugs. My budget
will commit an additional $400 billion over the next decade to
reform and strengthen Medicare. Leaders of both political
parties have talked for years about strengthening Medicare--I
urge the members of this new Congress to act this year.
To improve our health care system, we must address one of
the prime causes of higher costs--the constant threat that
physicians and hospitals will be unfairly sued. Because of
excessive litigation, everybody pays more for health care--and
many parts of America are losing fine doctors. No one has ever
been healed by a frivolous lawsuit--and I urge the Congress to
pass medical liability reform.
Our third goal is to promote energy independence for our
country, while dramatically improving the environment.
I have sent you a comprehensive energy plan to promote
energy efficiency and conservation, to develop cleaner
technology, and to produce more energy at home. I have sent you
Clear Skies legislation that mandates a 70 percent cut in air
pollution from power plants over the next 15 years. I have sent
you a Healthy Forests Initiative, to help prevent the
catastrophic fires that devastate communities, kill wildlife,
and burn away millions of acres of treasured forest.
I urge you to pass these measures, for the good of both our
environment and our economy. Even more, I ask you to take a
crucial step, and protect our environment in ways that
generations before us could not have imagined. In this century,
the greatest environmental progress will come about, not
throughendless lawsuits or command and control regulations, but
through technology and innovation. Tonight I am proposing $1.2 billion
in research funding so that America can lead the world in developing
clean, hydrogen-powered automobiles.
A simple chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen
generates energy, which can be used to power a car--producing
only water, not exhaust fumes. With a new national commitment,
our scientists and engineers will overcome obstacles to taking
these cars from laboratory to showroom--so that the first car
driven by a child born today could be powered by hydrogen, and
pollution-free. Join me in this important innovation--to make
our air significantly cleaner, and our country much less
dependent on foreign sources of energy.
Our fourth goal is to apply the compassion of America to
the deepest problems of America. For so many in our country--
the homeless, the fatherless, the addicted--the need is great.
Yet there is power--wonder-working power--in the goodness, and
idealism, and faith of the American people.
Americans are doing the work of compassion every day--
visiting prisoners, providing shelter to battered women,
bringing companionship to lonely seniors. These good works
deserve our praise . . . they deserve our personal support . .
. and, when appropriate, they deserve the assistance of our
government. I urge you to pass both my faith-based initiative
and the Citizen Service Act--to encourage acts of compassion
that can transform America, one heart and one soul at a time.
Last year, I called on my fellow citizens to participate in
USA Freedom Corps, which is enlisting tens of thousands of new
volunteers across America. Tonight I ask Congress and the
American people to focus the spirit of service and the
resources of government on the needs of some of our most
vulnerable citizens--boys and girls trying to grow up without
guidance and attention . . . and children who have to go
through a prison gate to be hugged by their mom or dad. I
propose a $450 million initiative to bring mentors to more than
a million disadvantaged junior high students and children of
prisoners. Government will support the training and recruiting
of mentors, yet it is the men and women of America who will
fill the need. One mentor, one person, can change a life
forever--and I urge you to be that one person.
Another cause of hopelessness is addiction to drugs.
Addiction crowds out friendship, ambition, moral conviction,
and reduces all the richness of life to a single destructive
desire. As a government, we are fighting illegal drugs by
cutting off supplies, and reducing demand through anti-drug
education programs. Yet for those already addicted, the fight
against drugs is a fight for their own lives.
Too many Americans in search of treatment cannot get it. So
tonight I propose a new $600 million program to help an
additional 300,000 Americans receive treatment over the next 3
years.
Our Nation is blessed with recovery programs that do
amazing work. One of them is found at the Healing Place Church
in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. A man in the program said, ``God
does miracles in people's lives, and you never think it could
be you.'' Tonight, let us bring to all Americans who struggle
with drug addiction this message of hope: The miracle of
recovery is possible, and it could be you.
By caring for children who need mentors, and for addicted
men and women who need treatment, we are building a more
welcoming society--a culture that values every life. And in
this work we must not overlook the weakest among us. I ask you
to protect infants at the very hour of birth, and end the
practice of partial-birth abortion. And because no human life
should be started or ended as the object of an experiment, I
ask you to set a high standard for humanity and pass a law
against all human cloning.
The qualities of courage and compassion that we strive for
in America also determine our conduct abroad. The American flag
stands for more than our power and our interests. Our Founders
dedicated this country to the cause of human dignity--the
rights of every person and the possibilities of every life.
This conviction leads us into the world to help the afflicted,
and defend the peace, and confound the designs of evil men. In
Afghanistan, we helped to liberate an oppressed people . . .
and we will continue helping them secure their country, rebuild
their society, and educate all their children--boys and girls.
In the Middle East, we will continue to seek peace between a
secure Israel and a democratic Palestine. Across the earth,
America is feeding the hungry; more than 60 percent of
international food aid comes as a gift from the people of the
United States.
As our Nation moves troops and builds alliances to make our
world safer, we must also remember our calling, as a blessed
country, to make this world better. Today, on the continent of
Africa, nearly 30 million people have the AIDS virus--including
three million children under the age of 15. There are whole
countries in Africa where more than one-third of the adult
population carries the infection. More than four million
require immediate drug treatment. Yet across that continent,
only 50,000 AIDS victims--only 50,000--are receiving the
medicine they need.
Because the AIDS diagnosis is considered a death sentence,
many do not seek treatment. Almost all who do are turned away.
A doctor in rural South Africa describes his frustration. He
says, ``We have no medicines . . . many hospitals tell
[people], `You've got AIDS. We can't help you. Go home and
die.' ''
In an age of miraculous medicines, no person should have to
hear those words. AIDS can be prevented. Anti-retroviral drugs
can extend life for many years. And the cost of those drugs has
dropped from $12,000 a year to under $300 a year--which places
a tremendous possibility within our grasp.
Ladies and gentlemen, seldom has history offered a greater
opportunity to do so much for so many. We have confronted, and
will continue to confront, HIV/AIDS in our own country. And to
meet a severe and urgent crisis abroad, tonight I propose the
Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief--a work of mercy beyond all
current international efforts to help the people of Africa.
This comprehensive plan will prevent seven million new AIDS
infections . . . treat at least two million people with life-
extending drugs . . . and provide humane care for millions of
people suffering from AIDS, and for children orphaned by AIDS.
I ask the Congress to commit $15 billion over the next 5 years,
including nearly $10 billion in new money, to turn the tide
against AIDS in the most afflicted nations of Africa and the
Caribbean.
This Nation can lead the world in sparing innocent people
from a plague of nature. And this Nation is leading the world
in confronting and defeating the man-made evil of international
terrorism.
There are days when the American people do not hear news
about the war on terror. There is never a day when I do not
learn of another threat, or receive reports of operations in
progress, or give an order in this global war against a
scattered network of killers. The war goes on, and we are
winning.
To date we have arrested, or otherwise dealt with, many key
commanders of al-Qaida. They include a man who directed
logistics and funding for the September 11th attacks . . . the
chief of al-Qaida operations in the Person Gulf who planned the
bombings of our embassies in East Africa and the USS Cole . . .
an al-Qaida operation chief from Southeast Asia . . . a former
director of al-Qaida's training camps in Afghanistan . . . a
key al-Qaida operative in Europe . . . and a major al-Qaida
leader in Yemen. All told, more than 3,000 suspected terrorists
have been arrested in many countries. And many others have met
a differentfate. They are no longer a problem for the United
States and our friends and allies.
We are working closely with other nations to prevent
further attacks. America and coalition countries have uncovered
and stopped terrorist conspiracies targeting the American
embassy in Yemen . . . the American embassy in Singapore . . .
a Saudi military base . . . and ships in the straits of Hormuz,
and the straits of Gibraltar. We have broken al-Qaida cells in
Hamburg, and Milan, and Madrid, and London, and Paris--as well
as Buffalo, New York.
We have the terrorists on the run, and we are keeping them
on the run. One by one, the terrorists are learning the meaning
of American justice.
As we fight this war, we will remember where it began--
here, in our own country. This government is taking
unprecedented measures to protect our people and defend our
homeland. We have intensified security at the borders and ports
of entry . . . posted more than 50,000 newly trained federal
screeners in airports . . . begun inoculating troops and first
responders against smallpox . . . and are deploying the
Nation's first early warning network of sensors to detect
biological attack. And this year, for the first time, we are
beginning to field a defense to protect this Nation against
ballistic missiles.
I thank the Congress for supporting these measures. I ask
you tonight to add to our future security with a major research
and production effort to guard our people against bio-
terrorism, called Project Bioshield. The budget I send you will
propose almost $6 billion to quickly make available effective
vaccines and treatments against agents like anthrax, butolinum
toxin, Ebola, and plaque. We must assume that our enemies would
use these diseases as weapons, and we must act before the
dangers are upon us.
Since September 11th, our intelligence and law enforcement
agencies have worked more closely than ever to track and
disrupt the terrorists. The FBI is improving its ability to
analyze intelligence, and transforming itself to meet new
threats. And tonight, I am instructing the leaders of the FBI,
Central Intelligence, Homeland Security, and the Department of
Defense to develop a Terrorist Threat Integration Center, to
merge and analyze all threat information in a single location.
Our government must have the very best information possible,
and we will use it to make sure the right people are in the
right places to protect our citizens.
Our war against terror is a contest of will, in which
perseverance is power. In the ruins of two towers, at the
western wall of the Pentagon, on a field in Pennsylvania, this
Nation made a pledge, and we renew that pledge tonight:
Whatever the duration of this struggle, and whatever the
difficulties, we will not permit the triumph of violence in the
affairs of men--free people will set the course of history.
Today, the gravest danger in the war on terror . . . the
gravest danger facing America and the world . . . is outlaw
regimes that seek and possess nuclear, chemical, and biological
weapons. These regimes could use such weapons for blackmail,
terror, and mass murder. They could also give or sell those
weapons to their terrorist allies, who would use them without
the least hesitation.
This threat is new; America's duty is familiar. Throughout
the 20th century, small groups of men seized control of great
nations . . . built armies and arsenals . . . and set out to
dominate the weak and intimidate the world. In each case, their
ambitions of cruelty and murder had no limit. In each case, the
ambitions of Hitlerism, militarism, and communism were defeated
by the will of free peoples, by the strength of great
alliances, and by the might of the United States of America.
Now, in this century, the ideology of power and domination has
appeared again,and seeks to gain the ultimate weapons of
terror. Once again this Nation and our friends are all that stand
between a world at peace, and a world of chaos and constant alarm. Once
again, we are called to defend the safety of our people, and the hopes
of all mankind. And we accept this responsibility.
America is making a broad and determined effort to confront
these dangers. We have called on the United Nations to fulfill
its charter, and stand by its demand that Iraq disarm. We are
strongly supporting the International Atomic Energy Agency in
its mission to track and control nuclear materials around the
world. We are working with other governments to secure nuclear
materials in the former Soviet Union, and to strengthen global
treaties banning the production and shipment of missile
technologies and weapons of mass destruction.
In all of these efforts, however, America's purpose is more
than to follow a process--it is to achieve a result: the end of
terrible threats to the civilized world. All free nations have
a stake in preventing sudden and catastrophic attack. We are
asking them to join us, and many are doing so. Yet the course
of this Nation does not depend on the decisions of others.
Whatever action is required, whenever action is necessary, I
will defend the freedom and security of the American people.
Different threats require different strategies. In Iran, we
continue to see a government that represses its people, pursues
weapons of mass destruction, and supports terror. We also see
Iranian citizens risking intimidation and death as they speak
out for liberty, human rights, and democracy. Iranians, like
all people, have a right to choose their own government, and
determine their own destiny--and the United States supports
their aspirations to live in freedom.
On the Korean peninsula, an oppressive regime rules a
people living in fear and starvation. Throughout the 1990s, the
United States relied on a negotiated framework to keep North
Korea from gaining nuclear weapons. We now know that the regime
was deceiving the world, and developing those weapons all
along. And today the North Korean regime is using its nuclear
program to incite fear and seek concessions. America and the
world will not be blackmailed. America is working with the
countries of the region--South Korea, Japan, China, and
Russia--to find a peaceful solution, and to show the North
Korean government that nuclear weapons will bring only
isolation, economic stagnation, and continued hardship. The
North Korean regime will find respect in the world, and revival
for it people, only when it turns away from its nuclear
ambitions.
Our Nation and the world must learn the lessons of the
Korean peninsula, and not allow an even greater threat to rise
up in Iraq. A brutal dictator, with a history of reckless
aggression . . . with ties to terrorism . . . with great
potential wealth . . . will not be permitted to dominate a
vital region and threaten the United States.
Twelve years ago, Saddam Hussein faced the prospect of
being the last casualty in a war he had started and lost. To
spare himself, he agreed to disarm of all weapons of mass
destruction. For the next 12 years, he systematically violated
that agreement. He pursued chemical, biological, and nuclear
weapons even while inspectors were in his country. Nothing to
date has restrained him from his pursuit of these weapons--not
economic sanctions, not isolation from the civilized world, not
even cruise missile strikes on his military facilities. Almost
3 months ago, the United Nations Security Council gave Saddam
Hussein his final chance to disarm. He has shown instead his
utter contempt for the United Nations, and for the opinion of
the world.
The 108 U.N. weapons inspectors were not sent to conduct a
scavenger hunt for hidden materials across a country the size
of California. The job of the inspectors is to verify that
Iraq's regime is disarming. It is up to Iraq to show exactly
where itis hiding its banned weapons . . . lay those weapons
out for the world to see . . . and destroy them as directed. Nothing
like this has happened.
The United Nations concluded in 1999 that Saddam Hussein
had biological weapons materials sufficient to produce over
25,000 liters of anthrax--enough does to kill several million
people. He has not accounted for that material. He has given no
evidence that he has destroyed it.
The United Nations concluded that Saddam Hussein had
materials sufficient to produce more than 38,000 liters of
botulinum toxin--enough to subject millions of people to death
by respiratory failure. He has not accounted for that material.
He has given no evidence that he has destroyed it.
Our intelligence officials estimate that Saddam Hussein had
the materials to produce as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard,
and VX nerve agent. In such quantities, these chemical agents
also could kill untold thousands. He has not accounted for
these materials. He has given no evidence that he has destroyed
them.
U.S. intelligence indicates that Saddam Hussein had upwards
of 30,000 munitions capable of delivering chemical agents.
Inspectors recently turned up 16 of them, despite Iraq's recent
declaration denying their existence. Saddam Hussein has not
accounted for the remaining 29,984 of these prohibited
munitions. He has given no evidence that he has destroyed them.
From three Iraqi defectors we know that Iraq, in the late
1990s, had several mobile biological weapons labs. These are
designed to produce germ warfare agents, and can be moved from
place to place to evade inspectors. Saddam Hussein has not
disclosed these facilities. He has given no evidence that he
has destroyed them.
The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed in the
1990s that Saddam Hussein had an advanced nuclear weapons
development program, had a design for a nuclear weapon, and was
working on five different methods of enriching uranium for a
bomb. The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein
recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.
Out intelligence sources tell us that he has attempted to
purchase high strength aluminum tubes suitable for nuclear
weapons production. Saddam Hussein has not credibly explained
these activities. He clearly has much to hide.
The dictator of Iraq is not disarming. To the contrary, he
is deceiving. From intelligence sources, we know, for instance,
that thousands of Iraqi security personnel are at work hiding
documents and materials from the U.N. inspectors--sanitizing
inspection sites, and monitoring the inspectors themselves.
Iraqi officials accompany the inspectors in order to intimidate
witnesses. Iraq is blocking U-2 surveillance flights requested
by the United Nations. Iraqi intelligence officers are posing
as the scientists inspectors are supposed to interview. Real
scientists have been coached by Iraqi officials on what to say.
And intelligence sources indicate that Saddam Hussein has
ordered that scientists who cooperate with U.N. inspectors in
disarming Iraq will be killed, along with their families.
Year after year, Saddam Hussein has gone to elaborate
lengths, spent enormous sums, taken great risks, to build and
keep weapons of mass destruction--but why? The only possible
explanation, the only possible use he could have for those
weapons, is to dominate, intimidate, or attack. With nuclear
arms or a full arsenal of chemical and biological weapons,
Saddam Hussein could resume his ambitions of conquest in the
Middle East, and create deadly havoc in the region. And this
Congress and the American people must recognize another threat.
Evidence from intelligence sources, secret communications, and
statements by people now in custody, reveal that Saddam
Husseinaids and protects terrorists, including members of al-Qaida.
Secretly, and without fingerprints, he could provide one of his hidden
weapons to terrorists, or help them develop their own.
Before September 11, 2001, many in the world believed that
Saddam Hussein could be contained. But chemical agents and
lethal viruses and shadowy terrorist networks are not easily
contained. Imagine those 19 hijackers with other weapons, and
other plans--this time armed by Saddam Hussein. It would take
just one vial, one canister, one crate slipped into this
country to bring a day of horror like none we have ever known.
We will do everything in our power to make sure that day never
comes.
Some have said we must not act until the threat is
imminent. Since when have terrorists and tyrants announced
their intentions, politely putting us on notice before they
strike? If this threat is permitted to fully and suddenly
emerge, all actions, all words, and all recriminations would
come too late. Trusting in the sanity and restraint of Saddam
Hussein is not a strategy, and it is not an option.
This dictator, who is assembling the world's most dangerous
weapons, has already used them on whole villages--leaving
thousands of his own citizens dead, blind, or disfigured. Iraqi
refugees tell us how forced confessions are obtained--by
torturing children while their parents are made to watch.
International human rights groups have catalogued other methods
used in the torture chambers of Iraq: electric shock, burning
with hot irons, dripping acid on the skin, mutilation with
electric drills, cutting out tongues, and rape.
If this is not evil, then evil has no meaning. And tonight
I have a message for the brave and oppressed people of Iraq:
Your enemy is not surrounding your country--your enemy is
ruling your country. And the day he and his regime are removed
from power will be the day of your liberation.
The world has waited 12 years for Iraq to disarm. America
will not accept a serious and mounting threat to our country,
our friends, and our allies. The United States will ask the
U.N. Security Council to convene on February 5th to consider
the facts of Iraq's ongoing defiance of the world. Secretary of
State Powell will present information and intelligence about
Iraq's illegal weapons programs; its attempts to hide those
weapons from inspectors; and its links to terrorist groups. We
will consult, but let there be no misunderstanding: If Saddam
Hussein does not fully disarm, for the safety of our people,
and for the peace of the world, we will lead a coalition to
disarm him.
Tonight I also have a message for the men and women who
will keep the peace, members of the American Armed Forces: Many
of you are assembling in and near the Middle East, and some
crucial hours may lie ahead. In those hours, the success of our
cause will depend on you. Your training has prepared you. Your
honor will guide you. You believe in America, and America
believes in you.
Sending Americans into battle is the most profound decision
a president can make. The technologies of war have changed. The
risks and suffering of war have not. For the brave Americans
who bear the risk, no victory is free from sorrow. This Nation
fights reluctantly, because we know the cost, and we dread the
days of mourning that always come.
We seek peace. We strive for peace. And sometimes peace
must be defended. A future lived at the mercy of terrible
threats is no peace at all. If war is forced upon us, we will
fight in a just cause and by just means--sparing, in every way
we can, the innocent. And if war is forced upon us, we will
fight with the full force and might of the United States
military--and we will prevail. And as we and our coalition
partners are doing in Afghanistan, we will bring to the Iraqi
people food, and medicines, and supplies . . . and freedom.
Many challenges, abroad and at home, have arrived in a
single season. In 2 years, America has gone from a sense of
invulnerability to an awareness of peril . . . from bitter
division in small matters to calm unity in great causes. And we
go forward with confidence, because this call of history has
come to the right country.
Americans are a resolute people, who have risen to every
test of our time. Adversity has revealed the character of our
country, to the world, and to ourselves.
America is a strong Nation, and honorable in the use of our
strength. We exercise power without conquest, and sacrifice for
the liberty of strangers.
Americans are a free people, who know that freedom is the
right of every person and the future of every nation. The
liberty we prize is not America's gift to the world, it is
God's gift to humanity.
We Americans have faith in ourselves--but not in ourselves
alone. We do not claim to know all the ways of Providence, yet
we can trust in them, placing our confidence in the loving God
behind all of life, and all of history.
May He guide us now, and may God continue to bless the
United States of America.
Thank you.
George W. Bush.
The White House, January 28, 2003.