[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2002, Book I)]
[April 17, 2002]
[Pages 622-626]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia
April 17, 2002

    Well, thank you all very much. At ease. Thank you all very much for 
that warm welcome. General Myers, thank 
you. General Bunting and General 
Casey, Secretary Marsh, Congressman Goodlatte, Albert 
Beveridge, members of the corps of 
cadets, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen.
    I want to thank you for your warm welcome and thank you for inviting 
me to one of America's great institutions. I brought along a little 
graduation present. I'm sure you'll like it; some of you will need it. 
[Laughter] As Commander in Chief, I hereby grant amnesty. [Applause] 
General Bunting, I'm sure you can tell 
who needed it. [Laughter] And I know you'll be generous in the 
interpretation of this doctrine. [Laughter]
    I want to congratulate the winners of the George C. Marshall ROTC 
Award. The more than 260 young men and women who represent--the winners 
represent the best of our country and the best future for the United 
States Army. You stand out among the nearly 30,000 young Americans who 
are today enrolled in the Army ROTC, the officers who will serve in the 
military of the future and one day will lead it.
    A majority of the Army's current officers started out in the ROTC. 
For nearly 90 years, this great program has developed leaders and shaped 
character. Those looking for idealism on the college campuses of America 
will find it in the men and women of the ROTC. ROTC's traditions and 
values are a contribution and a credit to every college and every 
university where they're found.
    Secretary of State Colin Powell was in 
the ROTC at City College of New York, an experience that helped set the 
course of his life. In his own words, he said this: ``The order, the 
self-discipline, the pride that had been instilled in me by our ROTC 
prepared me well for my Army career or, for that matter, any career I 
might have chosen.'' Colin Powell's career has taken him from service in 
Vietnam to the top rank in the military and now on a peace mission to 
the Middle East. America is fortunate and I am proud to have ROTC 
graduate Colin Powell serving our country.
    Only one other Army general has gone on to serve as Secretary of 
State, and that was George Marshall himself, VMI's highest ranking cadet 
in the class of 1901.
    As Army Chief of Staff, General Marshall became the architect of 
America's victory in the Second World War. He fought tenaciously against 
our enemies and then worked just as hard to secure the peace. President 
Truman considered George C. Marshall the greatest man he knew. Above 
all, said Winston Churchill, Marshall ``always fought victoriously 
against defeatism, discouragement, and disillusionment.'' The key to 
morale and to victory, Marshall said, is ``steadfastness and courage and 
hope.''
    And today, we are called to defend freedom against ruthless enemies. 
And once

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again, we need steadfastness, courage, and hope. The war against terror 
will be long. And as George Marshall so clearly understood, it will not 
be enough to make the world safer; we must also work to make the world 
better.
    In the days just after September the 11th, I told the American 
people that this would be a different war, fought on many fronts. Today, 
around the world, we make progress on the many fronts. In some cases, we 
use military force. In others, we're fighting through diplomacy, 
financial pressure, or special operations. In every case, we will defeat 
the threats against our country and the civilized world.
    Our progress--our progress is measured day by day, terrorist by 
terrorist. We recently apprehended one of Al Qaida's top leaders, a man 
named Abu Zubaydah. He was spending a lot of 
time as one of the top operating officials of Al Qaida, plotting and 
planning murder. He's not plotting, and he's not planning anymore. He's 
under lock and key, and we're going to give him some company. We're 
hunting down the killers one by one.
    We're learning a lot about Al Qaida operations and their plans. As 
our enemies have fled their hideouts in Afghanistan, they left some 
things behind. We found laptop computers, drawings, and maps. And 
through them, we're gaining a clearer picture of the terrorists' targets 
and their methods.
    Our international coalition against these killers is strong and 
united and acting. European nations have frozen almost $50 million in 
suspected terrorist assets, and that's important. Many European states 
are taking aggressive and effective law enforcement action to join us in 
rounding up these terrorists and their cells. We're making good 
progress. Yet, it's important for Americans to know this war will not be 
quick, and this war will not be easy.
    The first phase of our military operation was in Afghanistan, where 
our Armed Forces continue to perform with bravery and with skill. You've 
got to understand that, as we routed out the Taliban, they weren't sent 
in to conquer; they were sent in to liberate. And they succeeded, and 
our military makes us proud.
    The battles in Afghanistan are not over. American and allied troops 
are taking risks today in what we call Operation Mountain Lion, hunting 
down the Al Qaida and Taliban forces and keeping them on the run. 
Coalition naval forces, in the largest combined flotilla since World War 
II, are patrolling escape routes and intercepting ships to search for 
terrorists and their supplies.
    As the spring thaw comes, we expect cells of trained killers to try 
to regroup, to murder, create mayhem, and try to undermine Afghanistan's 
efforts to build a lasting peace. We know this from not only 
intelligence but from the history of military conflict in Afghanistan. 
It's been one of initial success followed by long years of floundering 
and ultimate failure. We're not going to repeat that mistake.
    In the United States of America, the terrorists have chosen a foe 
unlike they have any--they have never faced before. They've never faced 
a country like ours before: We're tough; we're determined; we're 
relentless. We will stay until the mission is done.
    We know that true peace will only be achieved when we give the 
Afghan people the means to achieve their own aspirations. Peace--peace 
will be achieved by helping Afghanistan develop its own stable 
government. Peace will be achieved by helping Afghanistan train and 
develop its own national army. And peace will be achieved through an 
education system for boys and girls which works.
    We're working hard in Afghanistan. We're clearing minefields. We're 
rebuilding roads. We're improving medical care. And we will work to help 
Afghanistan to develop an economy that can feed its people without 
feeding the world's demand for drugs.
    And we help the Afghan people recover from the Taliban rule. And as 
we do so,

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we find mounting horror--evidence of horror. In the Hazarajat region, 
the Red Cross has found signs of massacres committed by the Taliban last 
year, victims who lie in mass graves. This is the legacy of the first 
regime to fall in the war against terror. These mass graves are a 
reminder of the kind of enemy we have fought and have defeated. And they 
are the kind of evil we continue to fight.
    By helping to build an Afghanistan that is free from this evil and 
is a better place in which to live, we are working in the best 
traditions of George Marshall. Marshall knew that our military victory 
against enemies in World War II had to be followed by a moral victory 
that resulted in better lives for individual human beings.
    After 1945, the United States of America was the only nation in the 
world strong enough to help rebuild a Europe and a Japan that had been 
decimated by World War II. Today, our former enemies are our friends, 
and Europe and Japan are strong partners in the rebuilding of 
Afghanistan. This transformation is a powerful testimony to the success 
of Marshall's vision and a beacon to light the path that we too must 
follow.
    In the second phase of the war on terror, our military and law 
enforcement intelligence officers are helping countries around the world 
in their efforts to crack down on terror within their borders. Global 
terrorism will be defeated only by global response. We must prevent Al 
Qaida from moving its operations to other countries. We must deny 
terrorists the funds they need to operate. We must deny them safe havens 
to plan new horrors and indoctrinate new recruits.
    We're working with Yemen's Government to prevent terrorists from 
reassembling there. We sent troops to help train local forces in the 
Philippines, to help them defeat terrorists trying to establish a 
militant regime. And in the Republic of Georgia, we provide temporary 
help to its military as it routs out a terrorist cell near the Russian 
border. Wherever global terror threatens the civilized world, we and our 
friends and our allies will respond and will respond decisively.
    Every nation that joins our cause is welcome. Every nation that 
needs our help will have it. And no nation can be neutral. Around the 
world, the nations must choose: They are with us, or they're with the 
terrorists.
    And in the Middle East, where acts of terror have triggered mounting 
violence, all parties have a choice to make. Every leader, every state 
must choose between two separate paths, the path of peace or the path of 
terror. In the stricken faces of mothers, Palestinian mothers and 
Israeli mothers, the entire world is witnessing the agonizing cost of 
this conflict. Now, every nation and every leader in the region must 
work to end terror.
    All parties have responsibilities. These responsibilities are not 
easy, but they're clear. And Secretary of State Powell is helping make them clear. I want to thank Secretary 
Powell for his hard work at a difficult task. He returns home having 
made progress towards peace.
    We're confronting hatred that is centuries old, disputes that have 
lingered for decades. But I want you to know, I will continue to lead 
toward a vision of peace.
    We will continue to remind folks they have responsibilities in the 
short run to defuse the current crisis. The Palestinian Authority must 
act--must act on its words of condemnation against terror. Israel must 
continue its withdrawals. And all Arab states must step up to their 
responsibilities. The Egyptians and Jordanians and Saudis have helped in 
the wider war on terrorism, and they must help confront terrorism in the 
Middle East. All parties have a responsibility to stop funding or 
inciting terror. And all parties must say clearly that a murderer is not 
a martyr; he or she is just a murderer.
    And all parties must realize that the only vision for a long-term 
solution is for two

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states--Israel, Palestine--to live side by side in security and in 
peace. That will require hard choices and leadership by Israelis, 
Palestinians, and their Arab neighbors. The time is now for all to make 
the choice for peace.
    And finally, the civilized world faces a grave threat from weapons 
of mass destruction. A small number of outlaw regimes today possess and 
are developing chemical and biological and nuclear weapons. They're 
building missiles to deliver them and at the same time cultivating ties 
to terrorist groups. In their threat to peace, in their mad ambitions, 
in their destructive potential, and in the repression of their own 
people, these regimes constitute an axis of evil, and the world must 
confront them.
    America, along with other nations, will oppose the proliferation of 
dangerous weapons and technologies. We will proceed with missile 
defenses to protect the American people, our troops, and our friends and 
allies. And America will take the necessary action to oppose emerging 
threats.
    We'll be deliberate, and we will work with our friends and allies. 
And as we do so, we will uphold our duty to defend freedom. We will 
fight against terrorist organizations in different ways, with different 
tactics, in different places. And we will fight the threat from weapons 
of mass destruction in different ways, with different tactics, in 
different places.
    Yet, our objective is always the same: We will defeat global terror, 
and we will not allow the world's most dangerous regimes to threaten us 
with the world's most dangerous weapons.
    America has a much greater purpose than just eliminating threats and 
containing resentment, because we believe in the dignity and value of 
every individual. America seeks hope and opportunity for all people in 
all cultures. And that is why we're helping to rebuild Afghanistan. And 
that is why we've launched a new compact for development through the 
Millennium Challenge Account. And that is why we work for free trade, to 
lift people out of poverty throughout the world.
    A better world can seem very distant when children are sent to kill 
other children and old hatreds are stoked and carefully passed from one 
generation to another and a violent few love death more than life. Yet 
hatred, fanaticism are not the way of the future, because the hopes of 
humanity are always stronger than its hatreds.
    And these hopes are universal in every country and in every 
country--in every culture. Men and women everywhere want to live in 
dignity, to create and build and own, to raise their children in peace 
and security.
    The way to a peaceful future can be found in the nonnegotiable 
demands of human dignity. Dignity requires the rule of law, limits on 
the power of the state, respect for women, private property, equal 
justice, religious tolerance. No nation owns these principles. No nation 
is exempt from them.
    Sixty years ago, few would have predicted the triumph of these 
values in Germany and Japan. Fifteen years ago, few would have predicted 
the advance of these values in Russia. Yet, Americans are not surprised. 
We know that the demands of human dignity are written in every heart. 
The demands have a power and momentum of their own, defying all 
pessimism. And they are destined to change lives and nations on every 
continent.
    America has acted on these hopes throughout our history. General 
George Marshall is admired for the war he fought, yet best remembered 
for the peace he secured. The Marshall plan, rebuilding Europe and 
lifting up former enemies, showed that America is not content with 
military victory alone. Americans always see a greater hope and a better 
day, and America sees a just and hopeful world beyond the war on terror.
    Many of you will help achieve this better world. At a young age, 
you've taken up

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a great calling. You'll serve your country and our values. You'll 
protect your fellow citizens. And by your effort and example, you will 
advance the cause of freedom around the world. And so I'm here to thank 
you for your commitment and congratulate you on the high honor you have 
received.
    May God bless you all, and may God bless America.

Note: The President spoke at 10:15 a.m. in Cameron Hall as part of the 
George C. Marshall ROTC Award Seminar. In his remarks, he referred to 
Gen. Richard B. Myers, USAF, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Maj. 
Gen. (Virginia militia) Josiah Bunting III, superintendent, Virginia 
Military Institute; Maj. Gen. John T.D. Casey, USA, commanding general, 
U.S. Army Cadet Command; former Secretary of the Army John O. Marsh, 
Jr.; Albert J. Beveridge III, president and chief executive officer, 
George C. Marshall Foundation; and Abu Zubaydah, a leader of the Al 
Qaida terrorist organization who was captured March 28.