[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 17]
[House]
[Page 23215]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  2100
            THE PRESIDENT'S SPEECH BEFORE THE UNITED NATIONS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Franks of Arizona). Under a previous 
order of the House, the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Pence) is 
recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today with a deep sense of gratitude 
as an American in the wake of the courageous and determined address 
that the President of the United States made before the United Nations 
yesterday. The temptation for the President, Mr. Speaker, was clear. It 
was to respond to weeks and months of withering criticisms about our 
historic allies and to go into the chamber of the United Nations with a 
tone of apology, a tone of conciliation. But that is precisely not what 
President George W. Bush did.
  Yesterday, the President of the United States strode into that 
chamber and with our allies and even some of our antagonists 
represented in the audience, even including in the war on Iraq, the 
leaders of nations that opposed our coalition, President Gerhard 
Schroeder of Germany and President Chirac of France were in the 
audience and listening, but the President did not mumble; he did not 
apologize. He came and explained the challenges that we face in Iraq. 
He embraced the nations, some 32 in number, who joined together in a 
coalition for nothing less than the advancement of freedom for the 
people of Iraq.
  It was, in sum total, Mr. Speaker, one of the finest addresses I 
believe that the President has made since taking office in January of 
2001.
  And I was here on the floor of the Congress when the President came 
in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 and spoke those courageous words. 
But yesterday speaking to the world, the President of the United States 
struck the right tone. It was that we are not here in any way to gloat, 
but neither are we here to apologize for doing the necessary work of 
freedom in the world, for taking the 16 separate pronouncements of the 
United Nations seriously, and leading a coalition to enforce them 
against a tyrannical dictatorship in Baghdad.
  The United States had nothing to apologize for, and the President was 
right, in words and in tone, not to apologize. But let me also say that 
the President was right to go to the United Nations and challenge that 
body and its membership to come alongside those of us that advance 
freedom and human rights in Iraq, saying that for the members of the 
United Nations there was, ``a role to play in humanitarian assistance, 
in the establishment of a transition to a free and democratic 
government.''
  I also commend the President for identifying that proper role for the 
United Nations to play. And so it seems to me all together, Mr. 
Speaker, that President George W. Bush, struck exactly the right 
balance. He spoke glowingly of our role in advancing freedom for the 
people of Iraq, in standing up for the rule of law and human rights in 
the world as Americans have done for other peoples throughout our 
history.
  The President also said there is a role for allies now, to let 
bygones be bygones, to come alongside and to be a positive force as an 
international community for change for the people of Iraq that will be 
stable, that will be permanent, and that could literally change the 
landscape of that torn region of the world for generations to come.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank the President of the United States for being a 
man of principle, a man of freedom, and a true leader on the world 
stage.

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