[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 13]
[Senate]
[Pages 17222-17227]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      STATEMENT OF PRESIDENT BUSH

  Mr. KYL. Mr. President, the remarks President Bush delivered 
yesterday about the war against the radical Islamist terrorists was a 
historic speech, the clearest statement to date of the nature of the 
struggle we face.
  Probably there were two factors that entered the President's decision 
to give the remarks today: First, the fact that we will soon, next 
Monday, have the fifth anniversary of the heinous attack of September 
11 on the United States of America; second, because of the increasing 
calls by partisans to abandon part of the conflict--namely, the Iraq 
front--in this war.
  It was important for the President to define who the enemy is and to 
make it clear that the enemy is not terrorism. People in the media have 
called this the war on terrorism. We could have just as easily called 
the war in the Pacific and World War II the war on kamikaze terrorism, 
as kamikaze is a suicide tactic by evil people. The war, then, was 
against Nazism, Fascism, the imperial Japanese, and later communism. It 
was not against a tactic.
  The same thing is true today. It was important for the President to 
define the nature of the enemy we face in order to be able to 
adequately confront that enemy. The President made a comparison with a 
couple of the enemies in World War II. He talked about Adolph Hitler 
and the fact he was not taken seriously at first. At first, Adolph 
Hitler was a crazy paper hanger. Then he was greatly underestimated. 
Eventually, there were those who thought he could be appeased because 
the world did not want to fight again, with World War I so fresh in 
everyone's mind. But he did have to be confronted.
  And the same later with respect to communism. At first it was Uncle 
Joe Stalin who helped us win World War II.

[[Page 17223]]

But it became clear, after the Berlin blockade and his explosion of an 
H bomb, that communism was a clear and present danger for the United 
States. Eventually, America understood, and the cold war confronted 
communism, eventually succeeding in defeating that threat.
  There is a big difference between the Soviets of the Communist era 
and the radical Islamists. One difference is that the Soviets could be 
deterred. Radical Islamists are not going to be deterred. There is a 
particular reason why. The Soviets were rational about life itself. 
Radical Islamists seek to bend us to their will, to kill us or to die 
trying. Either way, in their view, they win.
  I ask my colleagues: What did Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig have to do 
before they were released in Gaza just a couple of weeks ago? They had 
to bend to the will of Allah. They had to convert to Islam before they 
were released. This is the goal of these radical Islamists, as the 
President explained--to either bend the rest of the world to their 
will, to kill us or to die trying.
  We will only win this war if we take the threat seriously. The sooner 
we commit to victory, the fewer our losses will be. The best strategy 
is to take the fight to the enemy. The worst strategy is to leave in 
the middle of a battle, for example, in Iraq. It would be difficult, if 
not impossible, to win the war if we abdicate the battle. What ally in 
the war will stand with us if we decide that the fight is too tough? 
How would that help us influence the mullahs who rule in Iran?
  I will read from parts of the President's speech to illustrate the 
clarity with which he described the nature of our enemy, the nature of 
this conflict, and the absolute necessity that we confront it strongly 
now in order to save future generations from the scourge of this 
continuing conflict.
  The President said:

       Five years after our nation was attacked, the terrorist 
     danger remains. We're a nation at war.

  And he said:

       . . . we've also learned a great deal about the enemy we 
     face . . .

  We know what the terrorists intend to do because they've told us--and 
we need to take their words seriously.
  And he proceeded to describe, in the terrorists' own words, what they 
believe, what they hope to accomplish, and how they intend to 
accomplish it.
  Listen to these words of the President:

       The terrorists who attacked us on September 11, 2001, are 
     men without conscience--but they're not madmen. They kill in 
     the name of a clear and focused ideology, a set of beliefs 
     that are evil, but not insane. These al Qaeda terrorists and 
     those who share their ideology are violent Sunni extremists. 
     They're driven by a radical and perverted vision of Islam 
     that rejects tolerance, crushes all dissent, and justifies 
     the murder of innocent men, women, and children in the 
     pursuit of political power. They hope to establish a violent 
     political Utopia across the Middle East, which they call a 
     ``caliphate,'' where all the world would be ruled according 
     to their hateful ideology. Osama bin Laden has called the 9/
     11 attacks--in his words--``a great step toward the unity of 
     Muslims and establishing the righteous caliphate.''

  The President went on to describe that this caliphate would be a 
totalitarian Islamic empire, and using the words of the terrorist 
Zawahiri, al-Qaida second in command, declaring that al-Qaida intends 
to impose its rule ``in every land that was a home for Islam, from 
Spain to Iraq.'' And he went on to say:

       The whole world is an open field for us.

  The President also described what such a world would look like, 
referring to the situation in Afghanistan before its liberation as 
exemplifying the rule of these kinds of terrorists: Under the Taliban 
and al-Qaida, Afghanistan was a nightmare, a land where women were 
imprisoned in their homes, girls could not go to school, religious 
police roamed the streets, and women were publicly whipped. In fact, 
summary executions were held in Kabul's soccer stadium in front of 
cheering mobs. And Afghanistan was turned into a launching pad for the 
horrific attacks against America and other parts of the civilized 
world.
  The President said:

       The goal of these Sunni extremists is to remake the entire 
     Muslim world in their radical image. In pursuit of their 
     imperial aims, these extremists say there can be no 
     compromise or dialogue with those they call ``infidels''. . . 
     .
       These radicals have declared their uncompromising hostility 
     to freedom.

  And the President said:

       It is foolish to think that you can negotiate with them.

  The President also quoted from some of the al-Qaida documents that 
illustrate the precise nature of this threat. One is the al-Qaida 
charter that was secured by coalition forces searching a terrorist safe 
house. The charter states:

       There will be continuing enmity until everyone believes in 
     Allah. We will not meet the enemy halfway. There will be no 
     room for dialogue with them.

  The President also noted that the goal of al-Qaida is to cause 
Americans to tire of the conflict, ``hoping that the American people 
will grow tired of casualties and give up the fight.''
  The President said:

       And they are targeting America's financial centers and 
     economic infrastructure at home, hoping to terrorize us and 
     cause our economy to collapse.

  He quoted the words of Osama bin Laden, who calls this his ``bleed-
until-bankruptcy plan,'' and noted that Osama bin Laden was very 
impressed with the relatively small investment he had to make to cause 
such a large amount of damage to the United States and to our economy.
  The President also noted the enemy has a propaganda strategy. Osama 
bin Laden says al-Qaida intends to ``launch,'' in his words, ``a media 
campaign to create a wedge between the American people and their 
government.''
  I would submit that the evidence of that campaign is there for all to 
see.
  The President said:

       Bin Laden and his allies are absolutely convinced they can 
     succeed in forcing America to retreat and causing our 
     economic collapse. They believe our nation is weak and 
     decadent, and lacking in patience and resolve.

  The President also said that ``they've made clear that the most 
important front in their struggle against America is Iraq--the nation 
bin Laden has declared the `capital of the caliphate.'
  The President said:

       Hear the words of bin Laden: ``I now address the whole 
     Islamic nation. Listen and understand. The most serious issue 
     today for the whole world is this Third World War that is 
     raging in Iraq.'' He calls it ``a war of destiny between 
     infidelity and Islam.'' He says, ``The whole world is 
     watching this war,'' and that it will end in ``victory and 
     glory, or misery and humiliation.''

  The President noted:

       For al Qaeda, Iraq is not a distraction from their war on 
     America--it is the central battlefield where the outcome of 
     this struggle will be decided.

  The President said:

       Bin Laden and his terrorist allies have made their 
     intentions as clear as Lenin and Hitler before them. The 
     question is: Will we listen? Will we pay attention to what 
     these evil men say?

  And then the President noted that there is a second group of these 
radical Islamists who, combined with the first, represent the axis of 
evil that we face in this war, the threat posed by Shia extremists.
  The President said:

       The Shia strain of Islamic radicalism is just as dangerous, 
     and just as hostile to America, and just as determined to 
     establish its brand of hegemony across the broader Middle 
     East. And the Shia extremists have achieved something that al 
     Qaeda has so far failed to do: In 1979, they took control of 
     a major power, the nation of Iran, subjecting its proud 
     people to a regime of tyranny, and using that nation's 
     resources to fund the spread of terror and pursue their 
     radical agenda.

  Then the President went on to describe the clear aims of the Iranian 
regime: wanting to drive America out of the region, to destroy Israel, 
and to dominate the broader Middle East. Among the ways in which they 
intend to achieve their goals is by the creation and supporting of 
terrorist groups such as Hezbollah.
  The President said:

       Just as we must take the words of the Sunni extremists 
     seriously, we must take the words of the Shia extremists 
     seriously.

  He went on to quote the Hezbollah leader, the terrorist Nasrallah, 
and also the President of Iran, President

[[Page 17224]]

Mahmud Ahmadi-Nejad, who declared in a speech that some people ask, and 
I am quoting, ``whether a world without the United States and Zionism 
can be achieved. I say that this goal is achievable.''
  Everyone is aware of Ahmadi-Nejad's threats to wipe Israel off the 
face of the Earth.
  He said:

       If you do not abandon the path of falsehood, your doomed 
     destiny will be annihilation.

  He delivered this message to the American people. And I am quoting:

       If you would like to have good relations with the Iranian 
     nation in the future, bow down before the greatness of the 
     Iranian nation and surrender. If you don't accept to do this, 
     the Iranian nation will force you to surrender and bow down.

  The language is always: Bow down. Surrender to their radical, 
perverted view of Islam.
  And now the Iranian regime is pursuing nuclear weapons. Imagine if 
this nation acquires nuclear weapons, a nation that sponsors terrorism 
around the world, is the chief sponsor of terrorism, according to the 
U.S. State Department. And were they to provide nuclear weaponry to 
terrorists, the result is unthinkable.
  What the President concluded was:

       The Shia and Sunni extremists represent different faces of 
     the same threat. They draw inspiration from different 
     sources, but both seek to impose a dark vision of violent 
     Islamic radicalism across the Middle East.

  The President said:

       And armed with nuclear weapons, they would blackmail the 
     free world, and spread their ideologies of hate, and raise a 
     mortal threat to the American people. If we allow them to do 
     this, if we retreat from Iraq, if we don't uphold our duty to 
     support those who are desirous to live in liberty, 50 years 
     from now history will look back on our time with unforgiving 
     clarity, and demand to know why we did not act.

  The President then went on to reiterate the five basic elements of 
the strategy he has discussed before. He pointed out that the enemy is 
a flexible and agile enemy that adapts and changes its ways of dealing 
with us, and that we have to do the same, and pointed out how we are 
doing that.
  In fact, the President said:

       During the last five years we've learned a lot about this 
     enemy. We've learned that they're cunning and sophisticated. 
     We've witnessed their ability to change their methods and 
     their tactics with deadly speed--even as their murderous 
     obsessions remain unchanging.

  He also noted--and I think this is important--that one of the things 
they have accomplished over the last several years is the slaughtering 
of huge numbers of innocent Muslim men and women around the world. And 
you have but to look at the daily casualty count in Iraq, where it is 
primarily violence on other Muslims in Iraq that represents this 
terrible news we wake up to every morning.
  The President said, as he has said before:

       The road ahead is going to be difficult, and it will 
     require more sacrifice. Yet we can have confidence in the 
     outcome, because we've seen freedom conquer tyranny and 
     terror before.

  I would say that we have a choice to make. We can understand the 
nature of this conflict and its seriousness and the required sacrifice 
now or we can come to that realization after we have suffered far too 
many more casualties and far too much loss in blood and treasure. 
Eventually the world will join us in this struggle and we will succeed. 
But the question is, How many have to die? How much loss has to occur 
before the world wakes to the nature of this threat?
  I harken back to the days just before World War II as a good lesson 
in history to remind us that we need to take the words of these 
evildoers to heart. They just may mean what they say. History has 
proven that to be the case in the past, and recent history leaves no 
doubt that this is what they mean today.
  Next Monday, we will stand on the Capitol steps at 6 o'clock, as we 
did exactly 5 years before, to demonstrate to the American people that 
the attacks on America will not deter us from our business or our 
commitment to protect the American people. When we do that, we need to 
mean what we say. Our ability to make good on that commitment will 
depend, first and foremost, on our understanding of the nature of this 
threat and our ability and willingness to confront it.
  The President concluded his remarks with these statements. He said:

       This time, we're confronting them--

  Meaning the enemy--

     before they gain the capacity to inflict unspeakable damage 
     on the world, and we're confronting their hateful ideology 
     before it . . . takes root.

  That is the point I was making, that we have a choice today to take 
this fight to the enemy and win rather than waiting until more damage 
has been inflicted upon us to understand and appreciate the nature of 
the threat.
  The President concluded by saying:

       This is the great ideological struggle of the 21st 
     century--and it is the calling of our generation. All 
     civilized nations are bound together in this struggle between 
     moderation and extremism.

  Mr. President, this is the challenge which confronts us. It confronts 
us as leaders of this country, and it requires of us the discussion, 
honestly and forthrightly, of the serious nature of this struggle. It 
will not be won by papering over differences. It will not be won by 
deciding that the fight is too difficult and that there are places 
where this struggle is occurring where we just cannot prevail. We 
cannot send a message to our enemies, let alone to our allies, that we 
are not up to the struggle, wherever it may break out.
  The way to win this struggle is to win it. And that is the point the 
President was making in his remarks yesterday.
  Mr. President, I urge my colleagues to review the President's 
remarks. I ask unanimous consent that the full text of the speech he 
made yesterday be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                President Discusses Global War on Terror

       The President: Thank you all very much. (Applause.) Thank 
     you all. Please be seated. General Hendrix, thank you for the 
     invitation to be here. Thanks for the kind introduction. I'm 
     honored to stand with the men and women of the Military 
     Officers Association of America. I appreciate the Board of 
     Directors who are here, and the leaders who have given me 
     this platform from which to speak. I'm proud to be here with 
     active members of the United States military. Thank you for 
     your service. I'm proud to be your Commander-in-Chief. 
     (Applause.)
       I am pleased also to stand with members of the diplomatic 
     corps, including many representing nations that have been 
     attacked by al Qaeda and its terrorist allies since September 
     the 11th, 2001. (Applause.) Your presence here reminds us 
     that we're engaged in a global war against an enemy that 
     threatens all civilized nations. And today the civilized 
     world stands together to defend our freedom; we stand 
     together to defeat the terrorists; and were working to secure 
     the peace for generations to come.
       I appreciate my Attorney General joining us today, Al 
     Gonzales. Thank you for being here. (Applause.) The Secretary 
     of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff, is with us. 
     (Applause.) Three members of the United States Senate--I 
     might say, three important members of the United States 
     Senate--Senate President Pro Tem Ted Stevens of Alaska. Thank 
     you for joining us, Senator. (Applause.) Chairman of the 
     Appropriations Committee, Senator Thad Cochran of 
     Mississippi. (Applause.) The Chairman of the Armed Services 
     Committee, John Warner of Virginia. (Applause.)
       I thank Norb Ryan, as well, for his leadership. I do 
     appreciate all the folks that are at Walter Reed who have 
     joined us today. I'm going to tell the parents of our troops, 
     we provide great health care to those who wear the uniform. 
     I'm proud of those folks at Bethesda and Walter Reed--are 
     providing you the best possible care to help you recover from 
     your injuries. Thank you for your courage. Thank you for 
     joining us here today. May God bless you in your recovery. 
     (Applause.)
       Next week, America will mark the fifth anniversary of 
     September the 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks. As this day 
     approaches, it brings with it a flood of painful memories. We 
     remember the horror of watching planes fly into the World 
     Trade Center, and seeing the towers collapse before our eyes. 
     We remember the sight of the Pentagon, broken and in flames. 
     We remember the rescue workers who rushed into burning 
     buildings to save lives, knowing they might never emerge 
     again. We remember the brave passengers who charged the 
     cockpit of their hijacked plane, and stopped the terrorists 
     from reaching their target and killing more innocent 
     civilians. We remember the cold brutality of the enemy who 
     inflicted this harm

[[Page 17225]]

     on our country--an enemy whose leader, Osama bin Laden, 
     declared the massacre of nearly 3,000 people that day--I 
     quote--``an unparalleled and magnificent feat of valor, 
     unmatched by any in humankind before them.''
       In five years since our nation was attacked, al Qaeda and 
     terrorists it has inspired have continued to attack across 
     the world. They've killed the innocent in Europe and Africa 
     and the Middle East, in Central Asia and the Far East, and 
     beyond. Most recently, they attempted to strike again in the 
     most ambitious plot since the attacks of September the 11th--
     a plan to blow up passenger planes headed for America over 
     the Atlantic Ocean.
       Five years after our nation was attacked, the terrorist 
     danger remains. We're a nation at war--and America and her 
     allies are fighting this war with relentless determination 
     across the world. Together with our coalition partners, we've 
     removed terrorist sanctuaries, disrupted their finances, 
     killed and captured key operatives, broken up terrorist cells 
     in America and other nations, and stopped new attacks before 
     they're carried out. We're on the offense against the 
     terrorists on every battlefront--and we'll accept nothing 
     less than complete victory. (Applause.)
       In the five years since our nation was attacked, we've also 
     learned a great deal about the enemy we face in this war. 
     We've learned about them through videos and audio recordings, 
     and letters and statements they've posted on websites. We've 
     learned about them from captured enemy documents that the 
     terrorists have never meant for us to see. Together, these 
     documents and statements have given us clear insight into the 
     mind of our enemies--their ideology, their ambitions, and 
     their strategy to defeat us.
       We know what the terrorists intend to do because they've 
     told us--and we need to take their words seriously. So today 
     I'm going to describe--in the terrorists' own words, what 
     they believe... what they hope to accomplish, and how they 
     intend to accomplish it. I'll discuss how the enemy has 
     adapted in the wake of our sustained offensive against them, 
     and the threat posed by different strains of violent Islamic 
     radicalism. I'll explain the strategy we're pursuing to 
     protect America, by defeating the terrorists on the 
     battlefield, and defeating their hateful ideology in the 
     battle of ideas.
       The terrorists who attacked us on September the 11th, 2001, 
     are men without conscience--but they're not madmen. They kill 
     in the name of a clear and focused ideology, a set of beliefs 
     that are evil, but not insane. These al Qaeda terrorists and 
     those who share their ideology are violent Sunni extremists. 
     They're driven by a radical and perverted vision of Islam 
     that rejects tolerance, crushes all dissent, and justifies 
     the murder of innocent men, women and children in the pursuit 
     of political power. They hope to establish a violent 
     political utopia across the Middle East, which they call a 
     ``Caliphate''--where all would be ruled according to their 
     hateful ideology. Osama bin Laden has called the 9/11 
     attacks--in his words--``a great step towards the unity of 
     Muslims and establishing the Righteous... [Caliphate].''
       This caliphate would be a totalitarian Islamic empire 
     encompassing all current and former Muslim lands, stretching 
     from Europe to North Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast 
     Asia. We know this because al Qaeda has told us. About two 
     months ago, the terrorist Zawahiri--he's al Qaeda's second in 
     command--declared that al Qaeda intends to impose its rule in 
     ``every land that was a home for Islam, from [Spain] to Iraq. 
     He went on to say, ``The whole world is an open field for 
     us.''
       We know what this radical empire would look like in 
     practice, because we saw how the radicals imposed their 
     ideology on the people of Afghanistan. Under the rule of the 
     Taliban and al Qaeda, Afghanistan was a totalitarian 
     nightmare--a land where women were imprisoned in their homes, 
     men were beaten for missing prayer meetings, girls could not 
     go to school, and children were forbidden the smallest 
     pleasures like flying kites. Religious police roamed the 
     streets, beating and detaining civilians for perceived 
     offenses. Women were publicly whipped. Summary executions 
     were held in Kabul's soccer stadium in front of cheering 
     mobs. And Afghanistan was turned into a launching pad for 
     horrific attacks against America and other parts of the 
     civilized world--including many Muslim nations.
       The goal of these Sunni extremists is to remake the entire 
     Muslim world in their radical image. In pursuit of their 
     imperial aims, these extremists say there can be no 
     compromise or dialogue with those they call ``infidels''--a 
     category that includes America, the world's free nations, 
     Jews, and all Muslims who reject their extreme vision of 
     Islam. They reject the possibility of peaceful coexistence 
     with the free world. Again, hear the words of Osama bin Laden 
     earlier this year: ``Death is better than living on this 
     Earth with the unbelievers among us.''
       These radicals have declared their uncompromising hostility 
     to freedom. It is foolish to think that you can negotiate 
     with them. (Applause.) We see the uncompromising nature of 
     the enemy in many captured terrorist documents. Here are just 
     two examples: After the liberation of Afghanistan, coalition 
     forces searching through a terrorist safe house in that 
     country found a copy of the al Qaeda charter. This charter 
     states that ``there will be continuing enmity until everyone 
     believes in Allah. We will not meet [the enemy] halfway. 
     There will be no room for dialogue with them.'' Another 
     document was found in 2000 by British police during an anti-
     terrorist raid in London--a grisly al Qaeda manual that 
     includes chapters with titles such as ``Guidelines for 
     Beating and Killing Hostages.'' This manual declares that 
     their vision of Islam ``does not . . . make a truce with 
     unbelief, but rather confronts it.'' The confrontation . . . 
     calls for . . . the dialogue of bullets, the ideals of 
     assassination, bombing, and destruction, and the diplomacy of 
     the cannon and machine gun.''
       Still other captured documents show al Qaeda's strategy for 
     infiltrating Muslim nations, establishing terrorist enclaves, 
     overthrowing governments, and building their totalitarian 
     empire. We see this strategy laid out in a captured al Qaeda 
     document found during a recent raid in Iraq, which describes 
     their plans to infiltrate and take over Iraq's western Anbar 
     Province. The document lays out an elaborate al Qaeda 
     governing structure for the region that includes an Education 
     Department, a Social Services Department, a Justice 
     Department, and an ``Execution Unit'' responsible for 
     ``Sorting out, Arrest, Murder, and Destruction.''
       According to their public statements, countries that have--
     they have targeted stretch from the Middle East to Africa, to 
     Southeast Asia. Through this strategy, al Qaeda and its 
     allies intend to create numerous, decentralized operating 
     bases across the world, from which they can plan new attacks, 
     and advance their vision of a unified, totalitarian Islamic 
     state that can confront and eventually destroy the free 
     world.
       These violent extremists know that to realize this vision, 
     they must first drive out the main obstacle that stands in 
     their way--the United States of America. According to al 
     Qaeda, their strategy to defeat America has two parts: First, 
     they're waging a campaign of terror across the world. They're 
     targeting our forces abroad, hoping that the American people 
     will grow tired of casualties and give up the fight. And 
     they're targeting America's financial centers and economic 
     infrastructure at home, hoping to terrorize us and cause our 
     economy to collapse.
       Bin Laden calls this his ``bleed-until-bankruptcy plan.'' 
     And he cited the attacks of 9/11 as evidence that such a plan 
     can succeed. With the 9/11 attacks, Osama bin Laden says, 
     ``al Qaeda spent $500,000 on the event, while America. . . 
     lost--according to the lowest estimate--$500 billion . . . 
     Meaning that every dollar of al Qaeda defeated a million 
     dollars'' of America. Bin Laden concludes from this 
     experience that ``America is definitely a great power, with . 
     . . unbelievable military strength and a vibrant economy, but 
     all of these have been built on a very weak and hollow 
     foundation.'' He went on to say, ``Therefore, it is very easy 
     to target the flimsy base and concentrate on their weak 
     points, and even if we're able to target one-tenth of these 
     weak points, we will be able [to] crush and destroy them.''
       Secondly, along with this campaign of terror, the enemy has 
     a propaganda strategy. Osama bin Laden laid out this strategy 
     in a letter to the Taliban leader, Mullah Omar, that 
     coalition forces uncovered in Afghanistan in 2002. In it, bin 
     Laden says that al Qaeda intends to ``[launch],'' in his 
     words, ``a media campaign . . . to create a wedge between the 
     American people and their government.'' This media campaign, 
     bin Laden says, will send the American people a number of 
     messages, including ``that their government [will] bring them 
     more losses, in finances and casualties.'' And he goes on to 
     say that ``they are being sacrificed . . . to serve . . . the 
     big investors, especially the Jews.'' Bin Laden says that by 
     delivering these messages, al Qaeda ``aims at creating 
     pressure from the American people on the American government 
     to stop their campaign against Afghanistan.''
       Bin Laden and his allies are absolutely convinced they can 
     succeed in forcing America to retreat and causing our 
     economic collapse. They believe our nation is weak and 
     decadent, and lacking in patience and resolve. And they're 
     wrong. (Applause.) Osama bin Laden has written that the 
     ``defeat of . . . American forces in Beirut'' in 1983 is 
     proof America does not have the stomach to stay in the fight. 
     He's declared that ``in Somalia . . . the United States 
     [pulled] out, trailing disappointment, defeat, and failure 
     behind it.'' And last year, the terrorist Zawahiri declared 
     that Americans ``know better than others that there is no 
     hope in victory. The Vietnam specter is closing every 
     outlet.''
       These terrorists hope to drive America and our coalition 
     out of Afghanistan, so they can restore the safe haven they 
     lost when coalition forces drove them out five years ago. But 
     they've made clear that the most important front in their 
     struggle against America is Iraq--the nation bin Laden has 
     declared the ``capital of the Caliphate.'' Hear the words of 
     bin Laden: ``I now address. . . the whole . . . Islamic 
     nation: Listen and understand . . . The most . . . serious 
     issue today for the whole world is this Third World War

[[Page 17226]]

     . . . [that] is raging in [Iraq].'' He calls it ``a war of 
     destiny between infidelity and Islam.'' He says, ``The whole 
     world is watching this war,'' and that it will end in 
     ``victory and glory or misery and humiliation.'' For al 
     Qaeda, Iraq is not a distraction from their war on America--
     it is the central battlefield where the outcome of this 
     struggle will be decided.
       Here is what al Qaeda says they will do if they succeed in 
     driving us out of Iraq: The terrorist Zawahiri has said that 
     al Qaeda will proceed with ``several incremental goals. The 
     first stage: Expel the Americans from Iraq. The second stage: 
     Establish an Islamic authority or amirate, then develop it 
     and support it until it achieves the level of Caliphate . . . 
     The third stage: Extend the jihad wave to the secular 
     countries neighboring Iraq. And the fourth stage: . . . the 
     clash with Israel.''
       These evil men know that a fundamental threat to their 
     aspirations is a democratic Iraq that can govern itself, 
     sustain itself, and defend itself. They know that given a 
     choice, the Iraqi people will never choose to live in the 
     totalitarian state the extremists hope to establish. And that 
     is why we must not, and we will not, give the enemy victory 
     in Iraq by deserting the Iraqi people. (Applause.)
       Last year, the terrorist Zarqawi declared in a message 
     posted on the Internet that democracy ``is the essence of 
     infidelity and deviation from the right path.'' The Iraqi 
     people disagree. Last December, nearly 12 million Iraqis from 
     every ethnic and religious community turned out to vote in 
     their country's third free election in less than a year. Iraq 
     now has a unity government that represents Iraq's diverse 
     population--and al Qaeda's top commander in Iraq breathed his 
     last breath. (Applause.)
       Despite these strategic setbacks, the enemy will continue 
     to fight freedom's advance in Iraq, because they understand 
     the stakes in this war. Again, hear the words of bin Laden, 
     in a message to the American people earlier this year. He 
     says: ``The war is for you or for us to win. If we win it, it 
     means your defeat and disgrace forever.''
       Now, I know some of our country hear the terrorists' words, 
     and hope that they will not, or cannot, do what they say. 
     History teaches that underestimating the words of evil and 
     ambitious men is a terrible mistake. In the early 1900s, an 
     exiled lawyer in Europe published a pamphlet called ``What Is 
     To Be Done?''--in which he laid out his plan to launch a 
     communist revolution in Russia. The world did not heed 
     Lenin's words, and paid a terrible price. The Soviet Empire 
     he established killed tens of millions, and brought the world 
     to the brink of thermonuclear war. In the 1920s, a failed 
     Austrian painter published a book in which he explained his 
     intention to build an Aryan super-state in Germany and take 
     revenge on Europe and eradicate the Jews. The world ignored 
     Hitler's words, and paid a terrible price. His Nazi regime 
     killed millions in the gas chambers, and set the world aflame 
     in war, before it was finally defeated at a terrible cost in 
     lives.
       Bin Laden and his terrorist allies have made their 
     intentions as clear as Lenin and Hitler before them. The 
     question is: Will we listen? Will we pay attention to what 
     these evil men say? America and our coalition partners have 
     made our choice. We're taking the words of the enemy 
     seriously. We're on the offensive, and we will not rest, we 
     will not retreat, and we will not withdraw from the fight, 
     until this threat to civilization has been removed. 
     (Applause.)
       Five years into this struggle, it's important to take stock 
     of what's been accomplished--and the difficult work that 
     remains. Al Qaeda has been weakened by our sustained 
     offensive against them, and today it is harder for al Qaeda's 
     leaders to operate freely, to move money, or to communicate 
     with their operatives and facilitators. Yet al Qaeda remains 
     dangerous and determined. Bin Laden and Zawahiri remain in 
     hiding in remote regions of this world. Al Qaeda continues to 
     adapt in the face of our global campaign against them. 
     Increasingly, al Qaeda is taking advantage of the Internet to 
     disseminate propaganda, and to conduct ``virtual 
     recruitment'' and ``virtual training'' of new terrorists. Al 
     Qaeda's leaders no longer need to meet face-to-face with 
     their operatives. They can find new suicide bombers, and 
     facilitate new terrorist attacks, without ever laying eyes on 
     those they're training, financing, or sending to strike us.
       As al Qaeda changes, the broader terrorist movement is also 
     changing, becoming more dispersed and self-directed. More and 
     more, we're facing threats from locally established terrorist 
     cells that are inspired by al Qaeda's ideology and goals, but 
     do not necessarily have direct links to al Qaeda, such as 
     training and funding. Some of these groups are made up of 
     ``homegrown'' terrorists, militant extremists who were born 
     and educated in Western nations, were indoctrinated by 
     radical Islamists or attracted to their ideology, and joined 
     the violent extremist cause. These locally established cells 
     appear to be responsible for a number of attacks and plots, 
     including those in Madrid, and Canada, and other countries 
     across the world.
       As we continue to fight al Qaeda and these Sunni extremists 
     inspired by their radical ideology, we also face the threat 
     posed by Shia extremists, who are learning from al Qaeda, 
     increasing their assertiveness, and stepping up their 
     threats. Like the vast majority of Sunnis, the vast majority 
     of Shia across the world reject the vision of extremists--and 
     in Iraq, millions of Shia have defied terrorist threats to 
     vote in free elections, and have shown their desire to live 
     in freedom. The Shia extremists want to deny them this right. 
     This Shia strain of Islamic radicalism is just as dangerous, 
     and just as hostile to America, and just as determined to 
     establish its brand of hegemony across the broader Middle 
     East. And the Shia extremists have achieved something that al 
     Qaeda has so far failed to do: In 1979, they took control of 
     a major power, the nation of Iran, subjugating its proud 
     people to a regime of tyranny, and using that nation's 
     resources to fund the spread of terror and pursue their 
     radical agenda.
       Like al Qaeda and the Sunni extremists, the Iranian regime 
     has clear aims: They want to drive America out of the region, 
     to destroy Israel, and to dominate the broader Middle East. 
     To achieve these aims, they are funding and arming terrorist 
     groups like Hezbollah, which allow them to attack Israel and 
     America by proxy. Hezbollah, the source of the current 
     instability in Lebanon, has killed more Americans than any 
     terrorist organization except al Qaeda. Unlike al Qaeda, 
     they've not yet attacked the American homeland. Yet they're 
     directly responsible for the murder of hundreds of Americans 
     abroad. It was Hezbollah that was behind the 1983 bombing of 
     the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut that killed 241 Americans. 
     And Saudi Hezbollah was behind the 1996 bombing of Khobar 
     Towers in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 Americans, an attack 
     conducted by terrorists who we believe were working with 
     Iranian officials.
       Just as we must take the words of the Sunni extremists 
     seriously, we must take the words of the Shia extremists 
     seriously. Listen to the words of Hezbollah's leader, the 
     terrorist Nasrallah, who has declared his hatred of America. 
     He says, ``Let the entire world hear me. Our hostility to the 
     Great Satan [America] is absolute . . . Regardless of how the 
     world has changed after 11 September, Death to America will 
     remain our reverberating and powerful slogan: Death to 
     America.''
       Iran's leaders, who back Hezbollah, have also declared 
     their absolute hostility to America. Last October, Iran's 
     President declared in a speech that some people ask--in his 
     words--``whether a world without the United States and 
     Zionism can be achieved . . . I say that this . . . goal is 
     achievable.'' Less than three months ago, Iran's President 
     declared to America and other Western powers: ``open your 
     eyes and see the fate of pharaoh . . . if you do not abandon 
     the path of falsehood . . . your doomed destiny will be 
     annihilation.'' Less than two months ago, he warned: ``The 
     anger of Muslims may reach an explosion point soon. If such a 
     day comes . . . [America and the West] should know that the 
     waves of the blast will not remain within the boundaries of 
     our region.'' He also delivered this message to the American 
     people: ``If you would like to have good relations with the 
     Iranian nation in the future . . . bow down before the 
     greatness of the Iranian nation and surrender. If you don't 
     accept [to do this], the Iranian nation will . . . force you 
     to surrender and bow down.''
       America will not bow down to tyrants. (Applause.)
       The Iranian regime and its terrorist proxies have 
     demonstrated their willingness to kill Americans--and now the 
     Iranian regime is pursuing nuclear weapons. The world is 
     working together to prevent Iran's regime from acquiring the 
     tools of mass murder. The international community has made a 
     reasonable proposal to Iran's leaders, and given them the 
     opportunity to set their nation on a better course. So far, 
     Iran's leaders have rejected this offer.
       Their choice is increasingly isolating the great Iranian 
     nation from the international community, and denying the 
     Iranian people an opportunity for greater economic 
     prosperity. It's time for Iran's leader to make a different 
     choice. And we've made our choice. We'll continue to work 
     closely with our allies to find a diplomatic solution. The 
     world's free nations will not allow Iran to develop a nuclear 
     weapon. (Applause.)
       The Shia and Sunni extremists represent different faces of 
     the same threat. They draw inspiration from different 
     sources, but both seek to impose a dark vision of violent 
     Islamic radicalism across the Middle East. They oppose the 
     advance of freedom, and they want to gain control of weapons 
     of mass destruction. If they succeed in undermining fragile 
     democracies, like Iraq, and drive the forces of freedom out 
     of the region, they will have an open field to pursue their 
     dangerous goals. Each strain of violent Islamic radicalism 
     would be emboldened in their efforts to topple moderate 
     governments and establish terrorist safe havens.
       Imagine a world in which they were able to control 
     governments, a world awash with oil and they would use oil 
     resources to punish industrialized nations. And they would 
     use those resources to fuel their radical agenda, and pursue 
     and purchase weapons of mass murder. And armed with nuclear 
     weapons, they would blackmail the free world, and spread 
     their ideologies of hate, and raise a

[[Page 17227]]

     mortal threat to the American people. If we allow them to do 
     this, if we retreat from Iraq, if we don't uphold our duty to 
     support those who are desirous to live in liberty, 50 years 
     from now history will look back on our time with unforgiving 
     clarity, and demand to know why we did not act.
       I'm not going to allow this to happen--and no future 
     American President can allow it either. America did not seek 
     this global struggle, but we're answering history's call with 
     confidence and a clear strategy. Today we're releasing a 
     document called the ``National Strategy for Combating 
     Terrorism.'' This is an unclassified version of the strategy 
     we've been pursuing since September the 11th, 2001. This 
     strategy was first released in February 2003; it's been 
     updated to take into account the changing nature of this 
     enemy. This strategy document is posted on the White House 
     website--whitehouse.gov. And I urge all Americans to read it.
       Our strategy for combating terrorism has five basic 
     elements:
       First, we're determined to prevent terrorist attacks before 
     they occur. So we're taking the fight to the enemy. The best 
     way to protect America is to stay on the offense. Since 9/11, 
     our coalition has captured or killed al Qaeda managers and 
     operatives, and scores of other terrorists across the world. 
     The enemy is living under constant pressure, and we intend to 
     keep it that way--and this adds to our security. When 
     terrorists spend their days working to avoid death or 
     capture, it's harder for them to plan and execute new 
     attacks.
       We're also fighting the enemy here at home. We've given our 
     law enforcement and intelligence professionals the tools they 
     need to stop the terrorists in our midst. We passed the 
     PATRIOT Act to break down the wall that prevented law 
     enforcement and intelligence from sharing vital information. 
     We created the Terrorist Surveillance Program to monitor the 
     communications between al Qaeda commanders abroad and 
     terrorist operatives within our borders. If al Qaeda is 
     calling somebody in America, we need to know why, in order to 
     stop attacks. (Applause.)
       I want to thank these three Senators for working with us to 
     give our law enforcement and intelligence officers the tools 
     necessary to do their jobs. (Applause.) And over the last 
     five years, federal, state, and local law enforcement have 
     used those tools to break up terrorist cells, and to 
     prosecute terrorist operatives and supporters in New York, 
     and Oregon, and Virginia, and Texas, and New Jersey, and 
     Illinois, Ohio, and other states. By taking the battle to the 
     terrorists and their supporters on our own soil and across 
     the world, we've stopped a number of al Qaeda plots.
       Second, we're determined to deny weapons of mass 
     destruction to outlaw regimes and terrorists who would use 
     them without hesitation. Working with Great Britain and 
     Pakistan and other nations, the United States shut down the 
     world's most dangerous nuclear trading cartel, the AQ Khan 
     network. This network had supplied Iran and Libya and North 
     Korea with equipment and know-how that advanced their efforts 
     to obtain nuclear weapons. And we launched the Proliferation 
     Security Initiative, a coalition of more than 70 nations that 
     is working together to stop shipments related to weapons of 
     mass destruction on land, at sea, and in the air. The 
     greatest threat this world faces is the danger of extremists 
     and terrorists armed with weapons of mass destruction--and 
     this is a threat America cannot defeat on her own. We applaud 
     the determined efforts of many nations around the world to 
     stop the spread of these dangerous weapons. Together, we 
     pledge we'll continue to work together to stop the world's 
     most dangerous men from getting their hands on the world's 
     most dangerous weapons. (Applause.)
       Third, we're determined to deny terrorists the support of 
     outlaw regimes. After September the 11th, I laid out a clear 
     doctrine: America makes no distinction between those who 
     commit acts of terror, and those that harbor and support 
     them, because they're equally guilty of murder. Thanks to our 
     efforts, there are now three fewer state sponsors of terror 
     in the world than there were on September the 11th, 2001. 
     Afghanistan and Iraq have been transformed from terrorist 
     states into allies in the war on terror. And the nation of 
     Libya has renounced terrorism, and given up its weapons of 
     mass destruction programs, and its nuclear materials and 
     equipment. Over the past five years, we've acted to disrupt 
     the flow of weapons and support from terrorist states to 
     terrorist networks. And we have made clear that any 
     government that chooses to be an ally of terror has also 
     chosen to be an enemy of civilization. (Applause.)
       Fourth, we're determined to deny terrorist networks control 
     of any nation, or territory within a nation. So, along with 
     our coalition and the Iraqi government, we'll stop the 
     terrorists from taking control of Iraq, and establishing a 
     new safe haven from which to attack America and the free 
     world. And we're working with friends and allies to deny the 
     terrorists the enclaves they seek to establish in ungoverned 
     areas across the world. By helping governments reclaim full 
     sovereign control over their territory, we make ourselves 
     more secure.
       Fifth, we're working to deny terrorists new recruits, by 
     defeating their hateful ideology and spreading the hope of 
     freedom--by spreading the hope of freedom across the Middle 
     East. For decades, American policy sought to achieve peace in 
     the Middle East by pursuing stability at the expense of 
     liberty. The lack of freedom in that region helped create 
     conditions where anger and resentment grew, and radicalism 
     thrived, and terrorists found willing recruits. And we saw 
     the consequences on September the 11th, when the terrorists 
     brought death and destruction to our country. The policy 
     wasn't working.
       The experience of September the 11th made clear, in the 
     long run, the only way to secure our nation is to change the 
     course of the Middle East. So America has committed its 
     influence in the world to advancing freedom and liberty and 
     democracy as the great alternatives to repression and 
     radicalism. (Applause.) We're taking the side of democratic 
     leaders and moderates and reformers across the Middle East. 
     We strongly support the voices of tolerance and moderation in 
     the Muslim world. We're standing with Afghanistan's elected 
     government against al Qaeda and the Taliban remnants that are 
     trying to restore tyranny in that country. We're standing 
     with Lebanon's young democracy against the foreign forces 
     that are seeking to undermine the country's sovereignty and 
     independence. And we're standing with the leaders of Iraq's 
     unity government as they work to defeat the enemies of 
     freedom, and chart a more hopeful course for their people. 
     This is why victory is so important in Iraq. By helping 
     freedom succeed in Iraq, we will help America, and the Middle 
     East, and the world become more secure.
       During the last five years we've learned a lot about this 
     enemy. We've learned that they're cunning and sophisticated. 
     We've witnessed their ability to change their methods and 
     their tactics with deadly speed--even as their murderous 
     obsessions remain unchanging. We've seen that it's the 
     terrorists who have declared war on Muslims, slaughtering 
     huge numbers of innocent Muslim men and women around the 
     world.
       We know what the terrorists believe, we know what they have 
     done, and we know what they intend to do. And now the world's 
     free nations must summon the will to meet this great 
     challenge. The road ahead is going to be difficult, and it 
     will require more sacrifice. Yet we can have confidence in 
     the outcome, because we've seen freedom conquer tyranny and 
     terror before. In the 20th century, free nations confronted 
     and defeated Nazi Germany. During the Cold War, we confronted 
     Soviet communism, and today Europe is whole, free and at 
     peace.
       And now, freedom is once again contending with the forces 
     of darkness and tyranny. This time, the battle is unfolding 
     in a new region--the broader Middle East. This time, we're 
     not waiting for our enemies to gather in strength. This time, 
     we're confronting them before they gain the capacity to 
     inflict unspeakable damage on the world, and we're 
     confronting their hateful ideology before it fully takes 
     root.
       We see a day when people across the Middle East have 
     governments that honor their dignity, and unleash their 
     creativity, and count their votes. We see a day when across 
     this region citizens are allowed to express themselves 
     freely, women have full rights, and children are educated and 
     given the tools necessary to succeed in life. And we see a 
     day when all the nations of the Middle East are allies in the 
     cause of peace.
       We fight for this day, because the security of our own 
     citizens depends on it. This is the great ideological 
     struggle of the 21st century--and it is the calling of our 
     generation. All civilized nations are bound together in this 
     struggle between moderation and extremism. By coming 
     together, we will roll back this grave threat to our way of 
     life. We will help the people of the Middle East claim their 
     freedom, and we will leave a safer and more hopeful world for 
     our children and grandchildren.
       God bless. (Applause.)

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Delaware is recognized.
  Mr. CARPER. Mr. President, good morning.
  (The remarks of Mr. Carper pertaining to the introduction of S. 3846 
are printed in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced Bills 
and Joint Resolutions.'')
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Connecticut is recognized.
  Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I be allowed to 
speak in morning business for 15 minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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