[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2001, Book II)]
[December 11, 2001]
[Pages 1500-1505]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks at the Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina
December 11, 2001

    Thank you all very much. Please be seated. Thank you for that warm 
welcome. I'm glad to be back here at the Citadel.
    I have come to talk about the future security of our country, in a 
place where I took up this subject 2 years ago as candidate for 
President. In September 1999 I said here at the Citadel that America was 
entering a period of consequences that would be defined by the threat of 
terror

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and that we faced a challenge of military transformation. That threat 
has now revealed itself, and that challenge is now the military and 
moral necessity of our time. So today I will set forth the commitments 
essential to victory in our war against terror.
    I want to thank Major General John Grinalds for his hospitality. I want to thank the Citadel Board of 
Visitors, the staff, and the faculty. I understand the Governor is here. And I know my friends the Lieutenant 
Governor, the speaker, and the attorney general are 
here, and it was great to have seen them at the airport. I thank my 
friend Adjutant General Stan Spears for 
being here.
    I'm grateful that Senator Hollings 
and members of the South Carolina congressional delegation flew down on 
Air Force One. I only wish that the senior Senator was on the airplane so I could have wished him a happy 
99th birthday.
    But most of all--most of all--I want to say how much I appreciate 
being in the presence of some of America's finest, the South Carolina 
Corps of Cadets of Citadel.
    Four days ago, I joined the men and women of the U.S.S. Enterprise 
to mark the 60th anniversary of Pearl Harbor. December 7th, 1941, was a 
decisive day that changed our Nation forever. In a single moment, 
America's ``splendid isolation'' was ended. And the 4 years that 
followed transformed the American way of war. The age of battleships 
gave way to the offensive capability of aircraft carriers. The tank, 
once used only to protect infantry, now served to cut through enemy 
lines. At Guadalcanal and Normandy and Iwo Jima, amphibious warfare 
proved its worth. And by war's end, no one would ever again doubt the 
value of strategic air power.
    Even more importantly, an American President and his successors 
shaped a world beyond a war. They rebuilt Europe with the Marshall plan, 
formed a great alliance for freedom in NATO, and expressed the hope of 
collective security in the United Nations. America took the lead, 
becoming freedom's defender and assuming responsibilities that only we 
could bear.
    September the 11th, 2001--3 months and a long time ago--set another 
dividing line in our lives and in the life of our Nation. An illusion of 
immunity was shattered. A faraway evil became a present danger. And a 
great cause became clear: We will fight terror and those who sponsor it, 
to save our children from a future of fear.
    To win this war, we have to think differently. The enemy who 
appeared on September the 11th seeks to evade our strength and 
constantly searches for our weaknesses. So America is required once 
again to change the way our military thinks and fights. And starting on 
October 7th, the enemy in Afghanistan got the first glimpses of a new 
American military that cannot and will not be evaded.
    When I committed U.S. forces to this battle, I had every confidence 
that they would be up to the task, and they have proven me right. The 
Taliban and the terrorists set out to dominate a country and intimidate 
the world. Today, from their caves, it's all looking a little different. 
And no cave is deep enough to escape the patient justice of the United 
States of America.
    We are also beginning to see the possibilities of a world beyond the 
war on terror. We have a chance, if we take it, to write a hopeful 
chapter in human history. All at once, a new threat to civilization is 
erasing old lines of rivalry and resentment between nations. Russia and 
America are building a new cooperative relationship. India and the 
United States are increasingly aligned across a range of issues, even as 
we work closely with Pakistan. Germany and Japan are assuming new 
military roles appropriate to their status as great democracies. The 
vast majority of countries are now on the same side of a moral and 
ideological divide. We're making common cause with every

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nation that chooses lawful change over chaotic violence, every nation 
that values peace and safety and innocent life.
    Staring across this divide are bands of murderers supported by 
outlaw regimes. They are a movement defined by their hatreds. They hate 
progress and freedom and choice and culture and music and laughter and 
women and Christians and Jews and all Muslims who reject their distorted 
doctrines. They love only one thing: They love power, and when they have 
it, they use it without mercy.
    The great threat to civilization is not that the terrorists will 
inspire millions; only the terrorists themselves would want to live in 
their brutal and joyless world. The great threat to civilization is that 
a few evil men will multiply their murders and gain the means to kill on 
a scale equal to their hatred. We know they have this mad intent, and 
we're determined to stop them. Our lives, our way of life, and our every 
hope for the world depend on a single commitment: The authors of mass 
murder must be defeated and never allowed to gain or use the weapons of 
mass destruction.
    America and our friends will meet this threat with every method at 
our disposal. We will discover and destroy sleeper cells. We will track 
terrorist movements, trace their communications, disrupt their funding, 
and take their network apart piece by piece.
    Above all, we're acting to end the state sponsorship of terror. 
Rogue states are clearly the most likely sources of chemical and 
biological and nuclear weapons for terrorists. Every nation now knows 
that we cannot accept--and we will not accept--states that harbor, 
finance, train, or equip the agents of terror. Those nations that 
violate this principle will be regarded as hostile regimes. They have 
been warned. They are being watched, and they will be held to account.
    Preventing mass terror will be the responsibilities of Presidents 
far into the future. And this obligation sets three urgent and enduring 
priorities for America. The first priority is to speed the 
transformation of our military.
    When the cold war ended, some predicted that the era of direct 
threats to our Nation was over. Some thought our military would be used 
overseas--not to win wars but mainly to police and pacify, to control 
crowds and contain ethnic conflict. They were wrong.
    While the threats to America have changed, the need for victory has 
not. We are fighting shadowy, entrenched enemies, enemies using the 
tools of terror and guerrilla war. Yet we are finding new tactics and 
new weapons to attack and defeat them. This revolution in our military 
is only beginning, and it promises to change the face of battle.
    Afghanistan has been a proving ground for this new approach. These 
past 2 months have shown that an innovative doctrine and high-tech 
weaponry can shape and then dominate an unconventional conflict. The 
brave men and women of our military are rewriting the rules of war with 
new technologies and old values like courage and honor, and they have 
made this Nation proud.
    Our commanders are gaining a real-time picture of the entire 
battlefield and are able to get targeting information from sensor to 
shooter almost instantly. Our intelligence professionals and special 
forces have cooperated in battle-friendly--with battle-friendly Afghan 
forces, fighters who know the terrain, who know the Taliban, and who 
understand the local culture. And our special forces have the technology 
to call in precision airstrikes, along with the flexibility to direct 
those strikes from horseback, in the first cavalry charge of the 21st 
century.
    This combination--real-time intelligence, local allied forces, 
special forces, and precision air power--has really never been used 
before. The conflict in Afghanistan has taught us more about the future 
of our military than a decade of blue ribbon panels and think-tank 
symposiums.

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    The Predator is a good example. This unmanned aerial vehicle is able 
to circle over enemy forces, gather intelligence, transmit information 
instantly back to commanders, then fire on targets with extreme 
accuracy. Before the war, the Predator had skeptics because it did not 
fit the old ways. Now it is clear the military does not have enough 
unmanned vehicles. We're entering an era in which unmanned vehicles of 
all kinds will take on greater importance in space, on land, in the air, 
and at sea.
    Precision-guided munitions also offer great promise. In the Gulf 
war, these weapons were the exception; while in Afghanistan, they have 
been the majority of the munitions we have used. We're striking with 
greater effectiveness, at greater range, with fewer civilian casualties. 
More and more, our weapons can hit moving targets. When all of our 
military can continuously locate and track moving targets with 
surveillance from air and space, warfare will be truly revolutionized.
    The need for military transformation was clear before the conflict 
in Afghanistan and before September the 11th. Here at the Citadel in 
1999, I spoke of keeping the peace by redefining war on our terms. The 
same recommendation was made in the strategic review that Secretary 
Rumsfeld briefed me on last August, a 
review that I fully endorse. What's different today is our sense of 
urgency, the need to build this future force while fighting a present 
war. It's like overhauling an engine while you're going at 80 miles an 
hour. Yet we have no other choice.
    Our military has a new and essential mission. For states that 
support terror, it's not enough that the consequences be costly; they 
must be devastating. The more credible this reality, the more likely 
that regimes will change their behavior, making it less likely that 
America and our friends will need to use overwhelming force against 
them.
    To build our future force, the armed services must continue to 
attract America's best people with good pay and good living conditions. 
Our military culture must reward new thinking, innovation, and 
experimentation. Congress must give defense leaders the freedom to 
innovate, instead of micromanaging the Defense Department. And every 
service and every constituency of our military must be willing to 
sacrifice some of their own pet projects. Our war on terror cannot be 
used to justify obsolete bases, obsolete programs, or obsolete weapon 
systems. Every dollar of defense spending must meet a single test: It 
must help us build the decisive power we will need to win the wars of 
the future.
    Our country is united in supporting a great cause and in supporting 
those who fight for it. We will give our men and women in uniform every 
resource, every weapon, every tool they need to win the long battle that 
lies ahead.
    America's next priority to prevent mass terror is to protect against 
the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and the means to 
deliver them. I wish I could report to the American people that this 
threat does not exist, that our enemy is content with car bombs and box 
cutters, but I cannot.
    One former Al Qaida member has testified in court that he was 
involved in an effort 10 years ago to obtain nuclear materials. And the 
leader of Al Qaida calls that effort a religious duty. Abandoned Al 
Qaida houses in Kabul contained diagrams for crude weapons of mass 
destruction. And as we all know, terrorists have put anthrax into the 
U.S. mail and used sarin gas in a Tokyo subway.
    And almost every state that actively sponsors terror is known to be 
seeking weapons of mass destruction and the missiles to deliver them at 
longer and longer ranges. Their hope is to blackmail the United States 
into abandoning our war on terror and forsaking our friends and allies 
and security commitments around the world. Our enemies are bound for 
disappointment. America will never be blackmailed, and we

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will never forsake our commitment to liberty.
    To meet our new threats, I have directed my National Security 
Adviser and my Homeland Security 
Director to develop a comprehensive strategy on 
proliferation. Working with other countries, we will strengthen 
nonproliferation treaties and toughen export controls. Together, we must 
keep the world's most dangerous technologies out of the hands of the 
world's most dangerous people.
    A crucial partner in this effort is Russia, a nation we are helping 
to dismantle strategic weapons, reduce nuclear material, and increase 
security at nuclear sites. Our two countries will expand efforts to 
provide peaceful employment for scientists who formerly worked in Soviet 
weapons facilities. The United States will also work with Russia to 
build a facility to destroy tons of nerve agent. I'll request an overall 
increase in funding to support this vital mission.
    Even as we fight to prevent proliferation, we must prepare for every 
possibility. At home, we must be better prepared to detect, protect 
against, and respond to the potential use of weapons of mass 
destruction. Abroad, our military forces must have the ability to fight 
and win against enemies who would use such weapons against us.
    Biodefense has become a major initiative of ours. This year we've 
already requested nearly $3 billion additional dollars for biodefense, 
more than doubling the level of funding prior to September the 11th.
    The attacks on our Nation made it even more clear that we need to 
build limited and effective defenses against a missile attack. Our 
enemies seek every chance and every means to do harm to our country, our 
forces, and our friends, and we will not permit it.
    Suppose the Taliban and the terrorists had been able to strike 
America or important allies with a ballistic missile. Our coalition 
would have become fragile, the stakes in our war much, much higher. We 
must protect Americans and our friends against all forms of terror, 
including the terror that could arrive on a missile.
    Last week we conducted another promising test of our missile defense 
technology. For the good of peace, we're moving forward with an active 
program to determine what works and what does not work. In order to do 
so, we must move beyond the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, a treaty 
that was written in a different era for a different enemy. America and 
our allies must not be bound to the past. We must be able to build the 
defenses we need against the enemies of the 21st century.
    Our third and final priority in the fight against mass terror is to 
strengthen the advantage that good intelligence gives our country. Every 
day I make decisions influenced by the intelligence briefing of that 
morning. To reach decisions, a President needs more than data and 
information; a President needs real and current knowledge and analysis 
of the plans, intentions, and capabilities of our enemies.
    The last several months have shown that there is no substitute for 
good intelligence officers, people on the ground. These are the people 
who find the targets, follow our enemies, and help us disrupt their evil 
plans. The United States must rebuild our network of human intelligence. 
And we will apply the best new technology to gather intelligence on the 
new threats. Sophisticated systems like Global Hawk, an unmanned 
surveillance plane, are transforming our intelligence capabilities. Our 
technological strengths produce great advantages, and we will build on 
them.
    Our intelligence services and Federal law enforcement agencies must 
work more closely together and share timely information with our State 
and local authorities. The more we know, the more terrorist plans we can 
prevent and disrupt, and the better we'll be able to protect the 
American people.
    And in all they do, our intelligence agencies must attract the best 
people, the best

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collectors, the best analysts, the best linguists. We will give them the 
training they need and the compensation they deserve.
    There have been times here in America when our intelligence services 
were held in suspicion and even contempt. Now, when we face this new 
war, we know how much we need them. And for their dedication and for 
their service, America is grateful.
    We're also grateful to you, the students of the Citadel. Your 
uniforms symbolize a tradition of honor and sacrifice, renewed in your 
own lives. Many of you will enter our military, taking your place in the 
war against terror. That struggle may continue for many years, and it 
may bring great costs. But you will have chosen a great calling at a 
crucial hour for our Nation.
    The course we follow is a matter of profound consequence to many 
nations. If America wavers, the world will lose heart. If America leads, 
the world will show its courage. America will never waver; America will 
lead the world to peace. Our cause is necessary; our cause is just. And 
no matter how long it takes, we will defeat the enemies of freedom.
    In all that is to come, I know the graduates of the Citadel will 
bring credit to America, to the military, and to this great institution. 
In the words of your school song, you will go where you've always gone: 
``in the paths our fathers showed us . . . . Peace and Honor, God and 
Country, we will fight for thee.''
    God bless.

Note: The President spoke at 1:54 p.m. in McAlister Field House. In his 
remarks, he referred to Maj. Gen. John S. Grinalds, USMC (Ret.), 
president, the Citadel; and Gov. Jim H. Hodges, Lt. Gov. Bob Peeler, 
Attorney General Charlie Condon, Adj. Gen. Stanhope S. Spears, and 
Speaker of the House of Representatives David H. Wilkins of South 
Carolina. He also referred to his September 23, 1999, Presidential 
campaign speech at the Citadel, entitled ``A Period of Consequences.''