[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 2]
[House]
[Pages 2033-2037]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




  THE STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

  The PRESIDENT. Mr. Speaker, Vice-President Cheney, Members of 
Congress, distinguished guests and 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, 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, to 
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 in 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,

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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 the 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 and 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 sign the bill, this extra money will start showing up in 
workers' paychecks. Instead of gradually reducing the marriage penalty, 
we should do it now. Instead of slowly raising the child credit to 
$1,000, we should send the checks to American families now.
  This tax relief is for everyone who pays 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. 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 3 or 5 or 7 years from now, it is even better for Americans 
today.
  We should 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 million seniors who receive a 
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, DC. 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 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 health 
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 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 forests.
  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 through endless 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 take these cars from the 
laboratory into the 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 and 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 the Federal 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 the 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

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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 1 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 antidrug 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 
their 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 3 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 4 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. Antiretroviral 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 7 
million new AIDS infections, treat at least 2 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 our fellow citizens 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 Qaeda. They include a man who directed logistics and funding for 
the September 11 attacks, the chief of al Qaeda operations in the 
Persian Gulf who planned the bombings of our embassies in East Africa 
and the USS Cole, an al Qaeda operations chief from Southeast Asia, a 
former director of al Qaeda's training camps in Afghanistan, a key al 
Qaeda operative in Europe, and a major al Qaeda leader in Yemen. All 
told, more than 3,000 suspected terrorists have been arrested in many 
countries, and many others have met a different fate. Let's put it this 
way: They are no longer a problem to 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, ships in the Straits of 
Hormuz and the Straits of Gibraltar. We have broken al Qaeda cells in 
Hamburg, Milan, Madrid, 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 very 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 bioterrorism 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, botulinum toxin, Ebola, and plague. 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 dislodge the 
terrorists. The FBI is improving its ability to analyze intelligence, 
and is transforming itself to meet new threats. And tonight I am 
instructing the leaders of the FBI, the CIA, Homeland Security, and the 
Department of Defense to develop a Terrorist Threat Integration Center 
to

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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 
all 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 all 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 attacks. 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 only bring isolation, economic stagnation, and 
continued hardship. The North Korean regime will find respect in the 
world and revival for its 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's 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 it is 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 doses 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 
material 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 has the materials to produce as much as 500 tons of 
sarin, mustard, and VX nerve agent. In such quantities, these chemical 
agents could also 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. Our 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

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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. 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 possibly explanation, the only possible 
use he could have for those weapons is to dominate, intimidate or 
attack. With nuclear arms or full arsenal of chemical and biological 
weapons, Saddam Hussein could resume his ambitions of conquest in the 
Middle East and create deadly havoc in that 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 Hussein aids and protects terrorists, 
including members of al Qaeda. 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, 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 vile, 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 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 5 to consider the facts of Iraq's ongoing defiance 
to the world. Secretary of State Powell will present information and 
intelligence about Iraq's illegal weapons programs, its attempts to 
hide those weapons from the 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 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 or 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 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 we 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.
  (Applause, the Members rising.)
  At 10 o'clock and 7 minutes p.m. the President of the United States, 
accompanied by the committee of escort, retired from the Hall of the 
House of Representatives.
  The Deputy Sergeant at Arms escorted the invited guests from the 
Chamber in the following order:
  The members of the President's Cabinet.
  The Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.
  The Acting Dean of the Diplomatic Corps.

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