[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2003, Book I)]
[May 1, 2003]
[Pages 410-413]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Address to the Nation on Iraq From the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln
May 1, 2003

    Thank you all very much. Admiral Kelly, 
Captain Card, officers and sailors of the 
U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln, my fellow Americans: Major combat operations in 
Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies 
have prevailed. And now our coalition is engaged in securing and 
reconstructing that country.
    In this battle, we have fought for the cause of liberty and for the 
peace of the world. Our Nation and our coalition are proud of this 
accomplishment; yet it is you, the members of the United States 
military, who achieved it. Your courage, your willingness to face danger 
for your country and for each other, made this day possible. Because of 
you, our Nation is more secure. Because of you, the tyrant has fallen, and Iraq is free.
    Operation Iraqi Freedom was carried out with a combination of 
precision and speed and boldness the enemy did not expect and the world 
had not seen before. From distant bases or ships at sea, we sent planes 
and missiles that could destroy an enemy division or strike a single 
bunker. Marines and soldiers charged to Baghdad across 350 miles of 
hostile ground, in one of the swiftest advances of heavy arms in 
history. You have shown the world the skill and the might of the 
American Armed Forces.
    This Nation thanks all the members of our coalition who joined in a 
noble cause. We thank the Armed Forces of the United Kingdom, Australia, 
and Poland, who shared in the hardships of war. We thank all the 
citizens of Iraq who welcomed our troops and joined in the liberation of 
their own country. And tonight I have a special word for Secretary 
Rumsfeld, for General Franks, and for all the men and women who wear the uniform 
of the United States: America is grateful for a job well done.
    The character of our military through history--the daring of 
Normandy, the fierce courage of Iwo Jima, the decency and idealism that 
turned enemies into allies--is fully present in this generation. When 
Iraqi civilians looked into the faces of our service men and women, they 
saw strength and kindness and good will. When I look at the members of 
the United States military, I see the best of our country, and I'm 
honored to be your Commander in Chief.
    In the images of fallen statues, we have witnessed the arrival of a 
new era. For a hundred of years of war, culminating in

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the nuclear age, military technology was designed and deployed to 
inflict casualties on an ever-growing scale. In defeating Nazi Germany 
and Imperial Japan, Allied forces destroyed entire cities, while enemy 
leaders who started the conflict were safe until the final days. 
Military power was used to end a regime by breaking a nation.
    Today, we have the greater power to free a nation by breaking a 
dangerous and aggressive regime. With new tactics and precision weapons, 
we can achieve military objectives without directing violence against 
civilians. No device of man can remove the tragedy from war; yet it is a 
great advance when the guilty have far more to fear from war than the 
innocent.
    In the images of celebrating Iraqis, we have also seen the ageless 
appeal of human freedom. Decades of lies and intimidation could not make 
the Iraqi people love their oppressors or desire their own enslavement. 
Men and women in every culture need liberty like they need food and 
water and air. Everywhere that freedom arrives, humanity rejoices, and 
everywhere that freedom stirs, let tyrants fear.
    We have difficult work to do in Iraq. We're bringing order to parts 
of that country that remain dangerous. We're pursuing and finding 
leaders of the old regime, who will be held to account for their crimes. 
We've begun the search for hidden chemical and biological weapons and 
already know of hundreds of sites that will be investigated. We're 
helping to rebuild Iraq, where the dictator 
built palaces for himself instead of hospitals and schools. And we will 
stand with the new leaders of Iraq as they establish a Government of, 
by, and for the Iraqi people.
    The transition from dictatorship to democracy will take time, but it 
is worth every effort. Our coalition will stay until our work is done. 
And then we will leave, and we will leave behind a free Iraq.
    The battle of Iraq is one victory in a war on terror that began on 
September the 11th, 2001, and still goes on. That terrible morning, 19 
evil men, the shock troops of a hateful ideology, gave America and the 
civilized world a glimpse of their ambitions. They imagined, in the 
words of one terrorist, that September the 11th would be the ``beginning 
of the end of America.'' By seeking to turn our cities into killing 
fields, terrorists and their allies believed that they could destroy 
this Nation's resolve and force our retreat from the world. They have 
failed.
    In the battle of Afghanistan, we destroyed the Taliban, many 
terrorists, and the camps where they trained. We continue to help the 
Afghan people lay roads, restore hospitals, and educate all of their 
children. Yet we also have dangerous work to complete. As I speak, a 
Special Operations task force, led by the 82d Airborne, is on the trail 
of the terrorists and those who seek to undermine the free Government of 
Afghanistan. America and our coalition will finish what we have begun.
    From Pakistan to the Philippines to the Horn of Africa, we are 
hunting down Al Qaida killers. Nineteen months ago, I pledged that the 
terrorists would not escape the patient justice of the United States. 
And as of tonight, nearly one-half of Al Qaida's senior operatives have 
been captured or killed.
    The liberation of Iraq is a crucial advance in the campaign against 
terror. We've removed an ally of Al Qaida and cut off a source of 
terrorist funding. And this much is certain: No terrorist network will 
gain weapons of mass destruction from the Iraqi regime, because the 
regime is no more.
    In these 19 months that changed the world, our actions have been 
focused and deliberate and proportionate to the offense. We have not 
forgotten the victims of September the 11th--the last phone calls, the 
cold murder of children, the searches in the rubble. With those attacks, 
the terrorists and their supporters declared war on the United States, 
and war is what they got.

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    Our war against terror is proceeding according to the principles 
that I have made clear to all: Any person involved in committing or 
planning terrorist attacks against the American people becomes an enemy 
of this country and a target of American justice; any person, 
organization, or government that supports, protects, or harbors 
terrorists is complicit in the murder of the innocent and equally guilty 
of terrorist crimes; any outlaw regime that has ties to terrorist groups 
and seeks or possesses weapons of mass destruction is a grave danger to 
the civilized world and will be confronted; and anyone in the world, 
including the Arab world, who works and sacrifices for freedom has a 
loyal friend in the United States of America.
    Our commitment to liberty is America's tradition, declared at our 
founding, affirmed in Franklin Roosevelt's Four Freedoms, asserted in 
the Truman Doctrine and in Ronald Reagan's 
challenge to an evil empire. We are committed to freedom in Afghanistan, 
in Iraq, and in a peaceful Palestine. The advance of freedom is the 
surest strategy to undermine the appeal of terror in the world. Where 
freedom takes hold, hatred gives way to hope. When freedom takes hold, 
men and women turn to the peaceful pursuit of a better life. American 
values and American interests lead in the same direction: We stand for 
human liberty.
    The United States upholds these principles of security and freedom 
in many ways, with all the tools of diplomacy, law enforcement, 
intelligence, and finance. We're working with a broad coalition of 
nations that understand the threat and our shared responsibility to meet 
it. The use of force has been and remains our last resort. Yet all can 
know, friend and foe alike, that our Nation has a mission: We will 
answer threats to our security, and we will defend the peace.
    Our mission continues. Al Qaida is wounded, not destroyed. The 
scattered cells of the terrorist network still operate in many nations, 
and we know from daily intelligence that they continue to plot against 
free people. The proliferation of deadly weapons remains a serious 
danger. The enemies of freedom are not idle, and neither are we. Our 
Government has taken unprecedented measures to defend the homeland, and 
we will continue to hunt down the enemy before he can strike.
    The war on terror is not over, yet it is not endless. We do not know 
the day of final victory, but we have seen the turning of the tide. No 
act of the terrorists will change our purpose or weaken our resolve or 
alter their fate. Their cause is lost. Free nations will press on to 
victory.
    Other nations in history have fought in foreign lands and remained 
to occupy and exploit. Americans, following a battle, want nothing more 
than to return home. And that is your direction tonight. After service 
in the Afghan and Iraqi theaters of war, after 100,000 miles on the 
longest carrier deployment in recent history, you are homeward bound. 
Some of you will see new family members for the first time; 150 babies 
were born while their fathers were on the Lincoln. Your families are 
proud of you, and your Nation will welcome you.
    We are mindful as well that some good men and women are not making 
the journey home. One of those who fell, Corporal Jason Mileo, spoke to his parents 5 days before his death. Jason's father said, ``He 
called us from the center of Baghdad, not to brag but to tell us he 
loved us. Our son was a soldier.''
    Every name, every life, is a loss to our military, to our Nation, 
and to the loved ones who grieve. There's no homecoming for these 
families. Yet we pray, in God's time, their reunion will come.
    Those we lost were last seen on duty. Their final act on this Earth 
was to fight a great evil and bring liberty to others. All of you--all 
in this generation of our military--have taken up the highest calling of 
history. You're defending your country and protecting the innocent from 
harm. And

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wherever you go, you carry a message of hope, a message that is ancient 
and ever new. In the words of the prophet Isaiah, ``To the captives, 
`come out,' and to those in darkness, `be free.'''
    Thank you for serving our country and our cause. May God bless you 
all, and may God continue to bless America.

Note: The President spoke at 6 p.m. on the deck of the U.S.S. Abraham 
Lincoln at sea off the coast of San Diego, CA. In his remarks, he 
referred to Rear Adm. John M. Kelly, USN, commander, Abraham Lincoln 
Battle Group; Capt. Kendall L. Card, USN, commanding officer, U.S.S. 
Abraham Lincoln; and Gen. Tommy R. Franks, USA, combatant commander, 
U.S. Central Command. The Office of the Press Secretary also released a 
Spanish language transcript of this address.