[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2003, Book I)]
[April 28, 2003]
[Pages 388-392]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]
Remarks on Operation Iraqi Freedom in Dearborn, Michigan
April 28, 2003
The President. Thank you for that warm welcome. I'm glad to be here.
I regret that I wasn't here a few weeks ago when the statue came down. I
understand you had quite a party. I don't blame you. A lot of the people
in the Detroit area had waited years for that great day.
Many Iraqi Americans know the horrors of Saddam's regime firsthand. You also know the joys of freedom
you have found here in America. You are living proof the Iraqi people
love freedom and living proof the Iraqi people can flourish in
democracy. People who live in Iraq deserve the same freedom that you and
I enjoy here in America. And after years of tyranny and torture, that
freedom has finally arrived.
I have confidence in the future of a free Iraq. The Iraqi people are
fully capable of self-government. Every day, Iraqis are moving toward
democracy and embracing the responsibilities of active citizenship.
Every day, life in Iraq improves as coalition troops work to secure
unsafe areas and bring food and medical care to those in need.
America pledged to rid Iraq of an oppressive regime, and we kept our
word. America now pledges to help Iraqis build a prosperous and peaceful
nation, and we will keep our word again.
Mr. Mayor, thanks, I appreciate you
greeting me once again here in Dearborn. I appreciate your leadership.
If you've got any problems with the garbage or the potholes, call the
mayor. [Laughter]
I want to thank members of the congressional delegation who have
joined us today. Thank you all for coming. Michigan is well represented
in the Halls of the United
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States Congress. I want to thank the folks from the State government who
have joined us today, and local governments.
I appreciate so very much the CEOs of the major automobile
manufacturing companies who are based here in Detroit who are here, Rick
Wagoner, Richard, Jr. Bill Ford, Jr. and Dieter Zetsche. Thank
you all for coming. I look forward to discussing things with you later.
Right before I came in here I had the opportunity to meet with some
extraordinary men and women, our fellow Americans who knew the cruelties
of the old Iraq. And like me, they believed deeply in the promise of a
new Iraq.
I spoke with Najda Egaily, a Sunni Muslim
from Basra who moved to the United States 5 years ago. Najda learned the
price of dissent in Iraq in 1988, when her brother-in-law was killed
after laughing at a joke about Saddam Hussein
in a house that was bugged.
``In Iraq,'' Najda says, ``we could never
speak to anyone about Saddam Hussein. We had
to make sure the windows were closed.'' The windows are now open in
Iraq. Najda and her friends will never forget seeing the images of
liberation in Baghdad. Here's what she said: ``We called each other, and
we were shouting. We never believed that Saddam Hussein would be gone.''
Audience member. He's gone.
The President. Like Najda, a lot of Iraqis--a lot of Iraqis--feared
the dictator, the tyrant, would never go away. You're right.
He's gone.
Audience members. U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!
Audience member. [Inaudible]--back in the--[inaudible]----
Audience member. Because of you, Mr. President, so can you.
Audience member. [Inaudible]
The President. We love free speech in America. [Laughter]
I talked to Tarik Daoud, a Catholic from
Basra who now lives in Bloomfield Hills. When the dictator regime fell,
here's what Tarik said. He said, ``I am more hopeful today than I've
ever been since 1958. We need to take the little children in Iraq and
hold their hands and really teach them what freedom is all about.'' He
says, ``The new generation could really make democracy work.''
He's right to be optimistic. From the
beginning of this conflict, we have seen brave Iraqi citizens taking
part in their own liberation. Iraqis have warned our troops about
landmines and enemy hideouts and military arsenals.
Earlier this month, Iraqis helped marines
locate the
seven American
prisoners Jr. of
war who were then rescued in Northern Iraq. One courageous Iraqi man
Iraqi citizens are now working closely with our troops to restore
order to their cities and improve the life of their nation. In Basra,
hundreds of police volunteers have joined with coalition forces to
patrol the streets. In Baghdad, more than 1,000 citizens are doing joint
patrols with coalition troops. And residents are also working with
coalition troops to collect unexploded munitions from neighborhoods and
repair the telephone system. People are working to improve the lives of
the average citizens in Iraq. I want you to listen to what an Iraqi
engineer said who was working with U.S. Army engineers to restore power
to Baghdad. He said, ``We are very glad to work with the Americans to
have power for the facilities. The Americans are working to help us.''
Iraqi Americans, including some from Michigan, are building bridges
between our troops and Iraqi civilians. Members of the Free Iraqi Forces
are serving as translators
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for our troops and are delivering humanitarian aid to the citizens. One
of these volunteers, an Iraqi American who fled Saddam
Hussein's regime in 1991, recently returned
to his homeland with the 101st Airborne Division. A few weeks ago, when
he first saw the cheering crowds of Iraqis welcome coalition troops in
Hillah, he wept. He said people could hardly believe what was happening,
and he told them, ``Believe it. Liberation is coming.''
Yes, there were some in our country who doubted the Iraqi people
wanted freedom, or they just couldn't imagine they would be welcome--
welcoming to a liberating force. They were mistaken, and we know why.
The desire for freedom is not the property of one culture; it is the
universal hope of human beings in every culture.
Whether you're Sunni or Shi'a or Kurd or Chaldean or Assyrian or
Turkoman or Christian or Jew or Muslim--no matter what your faith,
freedom is God's gift to every person in every nation. As freedom takes
hold in Iraq, the Iraqi people will choose their own leaders and their
own Government. America has no intention of imposing our form of
government or our culture. Yet, we will ensure that all Iraqis have a
voice in the new Government and all citizens have their rights
protected.
In the city of An Nasiriyah, where free Iraqis met recently to
discuss the political future of their country, they issued a statement
beginning with these words: Iraq must be democratic.
Audience members. U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!
The President. Thank you. That historic declaration expresses the
commitment of the Iraqi people and their friends, the American people.
The days of repression from any source are over. Iraq will be
democratic.
The work of building a new Iraq will take time. That nation is
recovering not just from weeks of conflict but from decades of
totalitarian rule.
In a nation where the dictator treated himself to palaces with gold
faucets and grand fountains, 4 out of 10 citizens did not even have
clean water to drink. While a former regime exported milk and dates and
corn and grain for its own profit, more than half a million Iraqi
children were malnourished. As Saddam Hussein
let more than $200 million worth of medicine and medical supplies sit in
warehouses, one in eight Iraqi children were dying before the age of 5.
And while the dictator spent billions on weapons, including gold-covered
AK-47s, nearly a quarter of Iraqi children were born underweight. Saddam
Hussein's regime impoverished the Iraqi people in every way.
Today, Iraq has only about half as many hospitals as it had in 1990.
Seventy percent of its schools are rundown and overcrowded. A quarter of
the Iraqi children are not in school at all. Under Saddam's regime, the Iraqi people did not have a power system
they could depend on. These problems plagued Iraq long before the recent
conflict. We're helping the Iraqi people to address these challenges,
and we will stand with them as they defeat the dictator's legacy.
Right now, engineers are on the ground working with Iraqi experts to
restore power and fix broken water pipes in Baghdad and other cities.
We're working with the International Red Cross, the Red Crescent
Societies, the International Medical Corps, and other aid agencies to
help Iraqi hospitals get safe water and medical supplies and reliable
electricity. Our coalition is cooperating with the United Nations to
help restart the ration distribution system that provides food at
thousands of sites in Iraq. And coalition medical facilities have
treated Iraqis from everything from fractures and burns to symptoms of
stroke.
One Iraqi man who was given medical help with his wife and sister
aboard the U.S. Navy ship Comfort said, ``They treat us like family.
There are babies in Iraq
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who are not cared for by their mothers as well as the nurses have cared
for us.''
Already, we are seeing important progress in Iraq. It wasn't all
that long ago that the statue fell, and now we're seeing progress. Rail
lines are reopening, and fire stations are responding to calls. Oil--
Iraqi oil owned by the Iraqi people--is flowing again to fuel Iraq's
powerplants.
In Hillah, more than 80 percent of the city has now running water.
City residents can buy meats and grains and fruits and vegetables at
local shops. The mayor's office, the city council have been
reestablished.
In Basra, where more than half of the water treatment facilities
were not working before the conflict--more than half weren't
functioning--water supplies are now reaching 90 percent of the city. The
opulent Presidential palace in Basra will now serve a new and noble
purpose. We've established a water purification unit there to make
hundreds of thousands of liters of clean water available to the
residents of the city of Basra.
Day by day, hour by hour, life in Iraq is getting better for the
citizens. Yet, much work remains to be done. I have directed Jay
Garner and his team to help Iraq achieve specific
long-term goals. And they're doing a superb job. Congress recently
allocated 2.5--nearly $2.5 billion for Iraq's relief and reconstruction.
With that money, we are renewing Iraq with the help of experts from
inside our Government, from private industry, from the international
community, and most importantly, from within Iraq.
We are dispatching teams across Iraq to assess the critical needs of
the Iraqi people. We're clearing landmines. We're working with Iraqis to
recover artifacts, to find the hoodlums who ravished the National Museum
of Antiquities in Baghdad. Like many of you here, we deplore the actions
of the citizens who ravished that museum, and we will work with the
Iraqi citizens to find out who they were and to bring them to justice.
We're working toward an Iraq where, for the first time ever,
electrical power is reliable and widely available. One of our goals is
to make sure everybody in Iraq has electricity. Already, 17 major
powerplants in Iraq are functioning. Our engineers are meeting with
Iraqi engineers. We're visiting powerplants throughout the country and
determining which ones need repair, which ones need to be modernized,
and which ones are obsolete, powerplant by powerplant. More Iraqis are
getting the electricity they need.
We're working to make Iraq's drinking water clean and dependable.
American and Iraqi water sanitation engineers are inspecting treatment
plants across the country to make sure they have enough purification
chemicals and power to produce safe water.
We're working to give every Iraqi access to immunizations and
emergency treatment and to give sick children and pregnant women the
health care they need. Iraqi doctors and nurses and other medical
personnel are now going back to work. Throughout the country, medical
specialists from many countries are identifying the needs of Iraqi
hospitals for everything from equipment and repairs to water to
medicines.
We're working to improve Iraqi schools by funding a back-to-school
campaign that will help train and recruit Iraqi teachers, provide
supplies and equipment, and bring children across Iraq back into clean
and safe schools. And as we do that, we will make sure that the schools
are no longer used as military arsenals and bunkers and that teachers
promote reading, rather than regime propaganda.
And because Iraq is now free, economic sanctions are pointless. It
is time for the United Nations to lift the sanctions so the Iraqis can
use some resources to build their own prosperity.
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Like so many generations of immigrants, Iraqi Americans have
embraced and enriched this great country without ever forgetting the
land of your birth. Liberation for Iraq has been a long time coming, but
you never lost faith. You knew the great sorrow of Iraq. You also knew
the great promise of Iraq, and you shared the hope of the Iraqi people.
You and I both know that Iraq can realize those hopes. Iraq can be
an example of peace and prosperity and freedom to the entire Middle
East. It'll be a hard journey, but at every step of the way, Iraq will
have a steady friend in the American people.
May God continue to bless the United States of America, and long
live a free Iraq.
Note: The President spoke at 1:46 p.m. in the theater at the Ford
Community and Performing Arts Center. In his remarks, he referred to
former President Saddam Hussein of Iraq; Mayor Michael A. Guido of
Dearborn; G. Richard Wagoner, Jr., president and chief executive
officer, General Motors Corp.; William Clay Ford, Jr., chairman of the
board and chief executive officer, Ford Motor Co.; Dieter Zetsche,
president and chief executive officer, Chrysler Group; and Lt. Gen. Jay
Garner, USA (Ret.), Director, Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian
Assistance for Post-war Iraq, Department of Defense. The Office of the
Press Secretary also released a Spanish language transcript of these
remarks.