[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2003, Book I)]
[January 28, 2003]
[Pages 82-90]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



[[Page 82]]

Address Before a Joint Session of the Congress on the State of the Union
January 28, 2003

    Mr. Speaker,  Dennis Vice President 
Cheney, Members of Congress, distinguished 
citizens and fellow citizens: Every year, by law and by custom, we meet 
here to consider the state of the Union. This year, we gather in this 
Chamber deeply aware of decisive days that lie ahead.
    You and I serve our country in a time of great consequence. During 
this session of Congress, we have the duty to reform domestic programs 
vital to our country. We have the opportunity to save millions of lives 
abroad from a terrible disease. We will work for a prosperity that is 
broadly shared, and we will answer every danger and every enemy that 
threatens the American people.
    In all these days of promise and days of reckoning, we can be 
confident. In a whirlwind of change and hope and peril, our faith is 
sure; our resolve is firm; and our Union is strong.
    This country has many challenges. We will not deny, we will not 
ignore, we will not pass along our problems to other Congresses, to 
other Presidents, and other generations. We will confront them with 
focus and clarity and courage.
    During the last 2 years, we have seen what can be accomplished when 
we work together. To lift the standards of our public schools, we 
achieved historic education reform, which must now be carried out in 
every school and in every classroom so that every child in America can 
read and learn and succeed in life. To protect our country, we 
reorganized our Government and created the Department of Homeland 
Security, which is mobilizing against the threats of a new era. To bring 
our economy out of recession, we delivered the largest tax relief in a 
generation. To insist on integrity in American business, we passed tough 
reforms, and we are holding corporate criminals to account.
    Some might call this a good record. I call it a good start. Tonight 
I ask the House and the Senate to join me in the next bold steps to 
serve our fellow citizens.
    Our first goal is clear: We must have an economy that grows fast 
enough to employ every man and woman who seeks a job. After recession, 
terrorist attacks, corporate scandals, and stock market declines, our 
economy is recovering. Yet, it's not growing fast enough or strongly 
enough. With unemployment rising, our Nation needs more small businesses 
to open, more companies to invest and expand, more employers to put up 
the sign that says ``Help Wanted.''
    Jobs are created when the economy grows. The economy grows when 
Americans have more money to spend and invest, and the best and fairest 
way to make sure Americans have that money is not to tax it away in the 
first place.
    I am proposing that all the income-tax reductions set for 2004 and 
2006 be made permanent and effective this year. And under my plan, as 
soon as I've signed the bill, this extra money will start showing up in 
workers' paychecks. Instead of gradually reducing the marriage penalty, 
we should do it now. Instead of slowly raising the child credit to 
$1,000, we should send the checks to American families now.
    The tax relief is for everyone who pays income taxes, and it will 
help our economy immediately. Ninety-two million Americans will keep, 
this year, an average of almost $1,100 more of their own money. A family 
of four with an income of $40,000 would see their Federal income taxes 
fall from $1,178 to $45 per year. Our plan will improve the bottom line 
for more than 23 million small businesses.
    You, the Congress, have already passed all these reductions and 
promised them for future years. If this tax relief is good for

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Americans 3 or 5 or 7 years from now, it is even better for Americans 
today.
    We should also strengthen the economy by treating investors equally 
in our tax laws. It's fair to tax a company's profits. It is not fair to 
again tax the shareholder on the same profits. To boost investor 
confidence and to help the nearly 10 million seniors who receive 
dividend income, I ask you to end the unfair double taxation of 
dividends.
    Lower taxes and greater investment will help this economy expand. 
More jobs mean more taxpayers and higher revenues to our Government. The 
best way to address the deficit and move toward a balanced budget is to 
encourage economic growth and to show some spending discipline in 
Washington, DC.
    We must work together to fund only our most important priorities. I 
will send you a budget that increases discretionary spending by 4 
percent next year, about as much as the average family's income is 
expected to grow. And that is a good benchmark for us. Federal spending 
should not rise any faster than the paychecks of American families.
    A growing economy and a focus on essential priorities will be 
crucial to the future of Social Security. As we continue to work 
together to keep Social Security sound and reliable, we must offer 
younger workers a chance to invest in retirement accounts that they will 
control and they will own.
    Our second goal is high quality, affordable health for all 
Americans. The American system of medicine is a model of skill and 
innovation, with a pace of discovery that is adding good years to our 
lives. Yet for many people, medical care costs too much, and many have 
no health coverage at all. These problems will not be solved with a 
nationalized health care system that dictates coverage and rations care.
    Instead, we must work toward a system in which all Americans have a 
good insurance policy, choose their own doctors, and seniors and low-
income Americans receive the help they need. Instead of bureaucrats and 
trial lawyers and HMOs, we must put doctors and nurses and patients back 
in charge of American medicine.
    Health care reform must begin with Medicare. Medicare is the binding 
commitment of a caring society. We must renew that commitment by giving 
seniors access to preventive medicine and new drugs that are 
transforming health care in America.
    Seniors happy with the current Medicare system should be able to 
keep their coverage just the way it is. And just like you, the Members 
of Congress, and your staffs and other Federal employees, all seniors 
should have the choice of a health care plan that provides prescription 
drugs.
    My budget will commit an additional $400 billion over the next 
decade to reform and strengthen Medicare. Leaders of both political 
parties have talked for years about strengthening Medicare. I urge the 
Members of this new Congress to act this year.
    To improve our health care system, we must address one of the prime 
causes of higher cost, the constant threat that physicians and hospitals 
will be unfairly sued. Because of excessive litigation, everybody pays 
more for health care, and many parts of America are losing fine doctors. 
No one has ever been healed by a frivolous lawsuit. I urge the Congress 
to pass medical liability reform.
    Our third goal is to promote energy independence for our country 
while dramatically improving the environment. I have sent you a 
comprehensive energy plan to promote energy efficiency and conservation, 
to develop cleaner technology, and to produce more energy at home. I 
have sent you Clear Skies legislation that mandates a 70-percent cut in 
air pollution from powerplants over the next 15 years. I have sent you a 
Healthy Forests Initiative, to help prevent the catastrophic fires that 
devastate communities, kill wildlife, and burn away millions of acres of 
treasured forests.

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    I urge you to pass these measures, for the good of both our 
environment and our economy. Even more, I ask you to take a crucial step 
and protect our environment in ways that generations before us could not 
have imagined.
    In this century, the greatest environmental progress will come about 
not through endless lawsuits or command-and-control regulations but 
through technology and innovation. Tonight I'm proposing $1.2 billion in 
research funding so that America can lead the world in developing clean, 
hydrogen-powered automobiles.
    A simple chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen generates 
energy which can be used to power a car, producing only water, not 
exhaust fumes. With a new national commitment, our scientists and 
engineers will overcome obstacles to taking these cars from laboratory 
to showroom, so that the first car driven by a child born today could be 
powered by hydrogen and pollution-free. Join me in this important 
innovation to make our air significantly cleaner and our country much 
less dependent on foreign sources of energy.
    Our fourth goal is to apply the compassion of America to the deepest 
problems of America. For so many in our country, the homeless and the 
fatherless, the addicted, the need is great. Yet there's power, wonder-
working power, in the goodness and idealism and faith of the American 
people.
    Americans are doing the work of compassion every day, visiting 
prisoners, providing shelter for battered women, bringing companionship 
to lonely seniors. These good works deserve our praise. They deserve our 
personal support, and when appropriate, they deserve the assistance of 
the Federal Government.
    I urge you to pass both my Faith-Based Initiative and the ``Citizen 
Service Act,'' to encourage acts of compassion that can transform 
America, one heart and one soul at a time.
    Last year, I called on my fellow citizens to participate in the USA 
Freedom Corps, which is enlisting tens of thousands of new volunteers 
across America. Tonight I ask Congress and the American people to focus 
the spirit of service and the resources of Government on the needs of 
some of our most vulnerable citizens, boys and girls trying to grow up 
without guidance and attention and children who have to go through a 
prison gate to be hugged by their mom or dad. I propose a $450 million 
initiative to bring mentors to more than a million disadvantaged junior 
high students and children of prisoners. Government will support the 
training and recruiting of mentors. Yet it is the men and women of 
America who will fill the need. One mentor, one person, can change a 
life forever, and I urge you to be that one person.
    Another cause of hopelessness is addiction to drugs. Addiction 
crowds out friendship, ambition, moral conviction and reduces all the 
richness of life to a single destructive desire. As a government, we are 
fighting illegal drugs by cutting off supplies and reducing demand 
through antidrug education programs. Yet for those already addicted, the 
fight against drugs is a fight for their own lives. Too many Americans 
in search of treatment cannot get it. So tonight I propose a new $600 
million program to help an additional 300,000 Americans receive 
treatment over the next 3 years.
    Our Nation is blessed with recovery programs that do amazing work. 
One of them is found at the Healing Place Church in Baton Rouge, 
Louisiana. A man in the program said, ``God does miracles in people's 
lives, and you never think it could be you.'' Tonight let us bring to 
all Americans who struggle with drug addiction this message of hope: The 
miracle of recovery is possible, and it could be you.
    By caring for children who need mentors and for addicted men and 
women who need treatment, we are building a more welcoming society, a 
culture that values

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every life. And in this work, we must not overlook the weakest among us. 
I ask you to protect infants at the very hour of their birth and end the 
practice of partial-birth abortion. And because no human life should be 
started or ended as the object of an experiment, I ask you to set a high 
standard for humanity and pass a law against all human cloning.
    The qualities of courage and compassion that we strive for in 
America also determine our conduct abroad. The American flag stands for 
more than our power and our interests. Our Founders dedicated this 
country to the cause of human dignity, the rights of every person, and 
the possibilities of every life. This conviction leads us into the world 
to help the afflicted and defend the peace and confound the designs of 
evil men.
    In Afghanistan, we helped to liberate an oppressed people. And we 
will continue helping them secure their country, rebuild their society, 
and educate all their children, boys and girls. In the Middle East, we 
will continue to seek peace between a secure Israel and a democratic 
Palestine. Across the Earth, America is feeding the hungry. More than 60 
percent of international food aid comes as a gift from the people of the 
United States. As our Nation moves troops and builds alliances to make 
our world safer, we must also remember our calling as a blessed country 
is to make the world better.
    Today, on the continent of Africa, nearly 30 million people have the 
AIDS virus, including 3 million children under the age 15. There are 
whole countries in Africa where more than one-third of the adult 
population carries the infection. More than 4 million require immediate 
drug treatment. Yet across that continent, only 50,000 AIDS victims--
only 50,000--are receiving the medicine they need. Because the AIDS 
diagnosis is considered a death sentence, many do not seek treatment. 
Almost all who do are turned away. A doctor in rural South Africa 
describes his frustration. He says, ``We have no medicines. Many 
hospitals tell people, `You've got AIDS. We can't help you. Go home and 
die.''' In an age of miraculous medicines, no person should have to hear 
those words.
    AIDS can be prevented. Antiretroviral drugs can extend life for many 
years. And the cost of those drugs has dropped from $12,000 a year to 
under $300 a year, which places a tremendous possibility within our 
grasp. Ladies and gentlemen, seldom has history offered a greater 
opportunity to do so much for so many.
    We have confronted and will continue to confront HIV/AIDS in our own 
country. And to meet a severe and urgent crisis abroad, tonight I 
propose the Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, a work of mercy beyond all 
current international efforts to help the people of Africa. This 
comprehensive plan will prevent 7 million new AIDS infections, treat at 
least 2 million people with life-extending drugs, and provide humane 
care for millions of people suffering from AIDS and for children 
orphaned by AIDS. I ask the Congress to commit $15 billion over the next 
5 years, including nearly $10 billion in new money, to turn the tide 
against AIDS in the most afflicted nations of Africa and the Caribbean.
    This Nation can lead the world in sparing innocent people from a 
plague of nature. And this Nation is leading the world in confronting 
and defeating the manmade evil of international terrorism.
    There are days when our fellow citizens do not hear news about the 
war on terror. There's never a day when I do not learn of another threat 
or receive reports of operations in progress or give an order in this 
global war against a scattered network of killers. The war goes on, and 
we are winning.
    To date, we've arrested or otherwise dealt with many key commanders 
of Al Qaida. They include a man who directed logistics and funding for 
the September the 11th attacks, the chief of Al Qaida operations in the 
Persian Gulf who planned the

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bombings of our embassies in east Africa and the U.S.S. Cole, an Al 
Qaida operations chief from Southeast Asia, a former director of Al 
Qaida's training camps in Afghanistan, a key Al Qaida operative in 
Europe, a major Al Qaida leader in Yemen. All told, more than 3,000 
suspected terrorists have been arrested in many countries. Many others 
have met a different fate. Let's put it this way: They are no longer a 
problem to the United States and our friends and allies.
    We are working closely with other nations to prevent further 
attacks. America and coalition countries have uncovered and stopped 
terrorist conspiracies targeting the Embassy in Yemen, the American 
Embassy in Singapore, a Saudi military base, ships in the Straits of 
Hormuz and the Straits of Gibraltar. We've broken Al Qaida cells in 
Hamburg, Milan, Madrid, London, Paris, as well as Buffalo, New York.
    We have the terrorists on the run. We're keeping them on the run. 
One by one, the terrorists are learning the meaning of American justice.
    As we fight this war, we will remember where it began: Here, in our 
own country. This Government is taking unprecedented measures to protect 
our people and defend our homeland. We've intensified security at the 
borders and ports of entry, posted more than 50,000 newly trained 
Federal screeners in airports, begun inoculating troops and first-
responders against smallpox, and are deploying the Nation's first early 
warning network of sensors to detect biological attack. And this year, 
for the first time, we are beginning to field a defense to protect this 
Nation against ballistic missiles.
    I thank the Congress for supporting these measures. I ask you 
tonight to add to our future security with a major research and 
production effort to guard our people against bioterrorism, called 
Project BioShield. The budget I send you will propose almost $6 billion 
to quickly make available effective vaccines and treatments against 
agents like anthrax, botulinum toxin, Ebola, and plague. We must assume 
that our enemies would use these diseases as weapons, and we must act 
before the dangers are upon us.
    Since September the 11th, our intelligence and law enforcement 
agencies have worked more closely than ever to track and disrupt the 
terrorists. The FBI is improving its ability to analyze intelligence and 
is transforming itself to meet new threats. Tonight I am instructing the 
leaders of the FBI, the CIA, the Homeland Security, and the Department 
of Defense to develop a Terrorist Threat Integration Center, to merge 
and analyze all threat information in a single location. Our Government 
must have the very best information possible, and we will use it to make 
sure the right people are in the right places to protect all our 
citizens.
    Our war against terror is a contest of will in which perseverance is 
power. In the ruins of two towers, at the western wall of the Pentagon, 
on a field in Pennsylvania, this Nation made a pledge, and we renew that 
pledge tonight: Whatever the duration of this struggle and whatever the 
difficulties, we will not permit the triumph of violence in the affairs 
of men; free people will set the course of history.
    Today, the gravest danger in the war on terror, the gravest danger 
facing America and the world, is outlaw regimes that seek and possess 
nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. These regimes could use such 
weapons for blackmail, terror, and mass murder. They could also give or 
sell those weapons to terrorist allies, who would use them without the 
least hesitation.
    This threat is new. America's duty is familiar. Throughout the 20th 
century, small groups of men seized control of great nations, built 
armies and arsenals, and set out to dominate the weak and intimidate the 
world. In each case, their ambitions of cruelty and murder had no limit. 
In each case, the ambitions of Hitlerism, militarism, and communism were 
defeated by the will of

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free peoples, by the strength of great alliances, and by the might of 
the United States of America.
    Now, in this century, the ideology of power and domination has 
appeared again and seeks to gain the ultimate weapons of terror. Once 
again, this Nation and all our friends are all that stand between a 
world at peace and a world of chaos and constant alarm. Once again, we 
are called to defend the safety of our people and the hopes of all 
mankind. And we accept this responsibility.
    America is making a broad and determined effort to confront these 
dangers. We have called on the United Nations to fulfill its charter and 
stand by its demand that Iraq disarm. We're strongly supporting the 
International Atomic Energy Agency in its mission to track and control 
nuclear materials around the world. We're working with other governments 
to secure nuclear materials in the former Soviet Union and to strengthen 
global treaties banning the production and shipment of missile 
technologies and weapons of mass destruction.
    In all these efforts, however, America's purpose is more than to 
follow a process; it is to achieve a result, the end of terrible threats 
to the civilized world. All free nations have a stake in preventing 
sudden and catastrophic attacks. And we're asking them to join us, and 
many are doing so. Yet the course of this Nation does not depend on the 
decisions of others. Whatever action is required, whenever action is 
necessary, I will defend the freedom and security of the American 
people.
    Different threats require different strategies. In Iran, we continue 
to see a Government that represses its people, pursues weapons of mass 
destruction, and supports terror. We also see Iranian citizens risking 
intimidation and death as they speak out for liberty and human rights 
and democracy. Iranians, like all people, have a right to choose their 
own Government and determine their own destiny, and the United States 
supports their aspirations to live in freedom.
    On the Korean Peninsula, an oppressive regime rules a people living 
in fear and starvation. Throughout the 1990s, the United States relied 
on a negotiated framework to keep North Korea from gaining nuclear 
weapons. We now know that that regime was deceiving the world and 
developing those weapons all along. And today, the North Korean regime 
is using its nuclear program to incite fear and seek concessions. 
America and the world will not be blackmailed.
    America is working with the countries of the region, South Korea, 
Japan, China, and Russia, to find a peaceful solution and to show the 
North Korean Government that nuclear weapons will bring only isolation, 
economic stagnation, and continued hardship. The North Korean regime 
will find respect in the world and revival for its people only when it 
turns away from its nuclear ambitions.
    Our Nation and the world must learn the lessons of the Korean 
Peninsula and not allow an even greater threat to rise up in Iraq. A 
brutal dictator, with a history of reckless 
aggression, with ties to terrorism, with great potential wealth, will 
not be permitted to dominate a vital region and threaten the United 
States.
    Twelve years ago, Saddam Hussein faced 
the prospect of being the last casualty in a war he had started and 
lost. To spare himself, he agreed to disarm of all weapons of mass 
destruction. For the next 12 years, he systematically violated that 
agreement. He pursued chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons, even 
while inspectors were in his country. Nothing to date has restrained him 
from his pursuit of these weapons, not economic sanctions, not isolation 
from the civilized world, not even cruise missile strikes on his 
military facilities.
    Almost 3 months ago, the United Nations Security Council gave Saddam 
Hussein his

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final chance to disarm. He has shown instead utter contempt for the 
United Nations and for the opinion of the world. The 108 U.N. inspectors 
were sent to conduct--were not sent to conduct a scavenger hunt for 
hidden materials across a country the size of California. The job of the 
inspectors is to verify that Iraq's regime is disarming. It is up to 
Iraq to show exactly where it is hiding its banned weapons, lay those 
weapons out for the world to see, and destroy them as directed. Nothing 
like this has happened.
    The United Nations concluded in 1999 that Saddam Hussein had biological weapons sufficient to produce over 
25,000 liters of anthrax, enough doses to kill several million people. 
He hasn't accounted for that material. He's given no evidence that he 
has destroyed it.
    The United Nations concluded that Saddam Hussein had materials 
sufficient to produce more than 38,000 liters of botulinum toxin, enough 
to subject millions of people to death by respiratory failure. He hasn't 
accounted for that material. He's given no evidence that he has 
destroyed it.
    Our intelligence officials estimate that Saddam Hussein had the 
materials to produce as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard, and VX nerve 
agent. In such quantities, these chemical agents could also kill untold 
thousands. He's not accounted for these materials. He has given no 
evidence that he has destroyed them.
    U.S. intelligence indicates that Saddam Hussein had upwards of 
30,000 munitions capable of delivering chemical agents. Inspectors 
recently turned up 16 of them, despite Iraq's recent declaration denying 
their existence. Saddam Hussein has not accounted for the remaining 
29,984 of these prohibited munitions. He's given no evidence that he has 
destroyed them.
    From three Iraqi defectors we know that Iraq, in the late 1990s, had 
several mobile biological weapons labs. These are designed to produce 
germ warfare agents and can be moved from place to a place to evade 
inspectors. Saddam Hussein has not disclosed 
these facilities. He's given no evidence that he has destroyed them.
    The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed in the 1990s that 
Saddam Hussein had an advanced nuclear 
weapons development program, had a design for a nuclear weapon, and was 
working on five different methods of enriching uranium for a bomb. The 
British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought 
significant quantities of uranium from Africa. Our intelligence sources 
tell us that he has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes 
suitable for nuclear weapons production. Saddam Hussein has not credibly 
explained these activities. He clearly has much to hide.
    The dictator of Iraq is not disarming. To 
the contrary, he is deceiving. From intelligence sources we know, for 
instance, that thousands of Iraqi security personnel are at work hiding 
documents and materials from the U.N. inspectors, sanitizing inspection 
sites, and monitoring the inspectors themselves. Iraqi officials 
accompany the inspectors in order to intimidate witnesses. Iraq is 
blocking U-2 surveillance flights requested by the United Nations. Iraqi 
intelligence officers are posing as the scientists inspectors are 
supposed to interview. Real scientists have been coached by Iraqi 
officials on what to say. Intelligence sources indicate that Saddam 
Hussein has ordered that scientists who 
cooperate with U.N. inspectors in disarming Iraq will be killed, along 
with their families.
    Year after year, Saddam Hussein has gone 
to elaborate lengths, spent enormous sums, taken great risks to build 
and keep weapons of mass destruction. But why? The only possible 
explanation, the only possible use he could have for those weapons, is 
to dominate, intimidate, or attack.
    With nuclear arms or a full arsenal of chemical and biological 
weapons, Saddam Hussein could resume his 
ambitions of conquest in the Middle East and create deadly

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havoc in that region. And this Congress and the American people must 
recognize another threat. Evidence from intelligence sources, secret 
communications, and statements by people now in custody reveal that 
Saddam Hussein aids and protects terrorists, including members of Al 
Qaida. Secretly and without fingerprints, he could provide one of his 
hidden weapons to terrorists or help them develop their own.
    Before September the 11th, many in the world believed that Saddam 
Hussein could be contained. But chemical 
agents, lethal viruses, and shadowy terrorist networks are not easily 
contained. Imagine those 19 hijackers with other weapons and other 
plans, this time armed by Saddam Hussein. It would take one vial, one 
canister, one crate slipped into this country to bring a day of horror 
like none we have ever known. We will do everything in our power to make 
sure that that day never comes.
    Some have said we must not act until the threat is imminent. Since 
when have terrorists and tyrants announced their intentions, politely 
putting us on notice before they strike? If this threat is permitted to 
fully and suddenly emerge, all actions, all words, and all 
recriminations would come too late. Trusting in the sanity and restraint 
of Saddam Hussein is not a strategy, and it 
is not an option.
    The dictator who is assembling the 
world's most dangerous weapons has already used them on whole villages, 
leaving thousands of his own citizens dead, blind, or disfigured. Iraqi 
refugees tell us how forced confessions are obtained, by torturing 
children while their parents are made to watch. International human 
rights groups have cataloged other methods used in the torture chambers 
of Iraq: electric shock, burning with hot irons, dripping acid on the 
skin, mutilation with electric drills, cutting out tongues, and rape. If 
this is not evil, then evil has no meaning.
    And tonight I have a message for the brave and oppressed people of 
Iraq: Your enemy is not surrounding your country; your enemy is ruling your country. And the day he and his regime 
are removed from power will be the day of your liberation.
    The world has waited 12 years for Iraq to disarm. America will not 
accept a serious and mounting threat to our country and our friends and 
our allies. The United States will ask the U.N. Security Council to 
convene on February the 5th to consider the facts of Iraq's ongoing 
defiance of the world. Secretary of State Powell will present information and intelligence about Iraqi's 
legal--Iraq's illegal weapons programs, its attempt to hide those 
weapons from inspectors, and its links to terrorist groups.
    We will consult. But let there be no misunderstanding: If Saddam 
Hussein does not fully disarm, for the safety 
of our people and for the peace of the world, we will lead a coalition 
to disarm him.
    Tonight I have a message for the men and women who will keep the 
peace, members of the American Armed Forces: Many of you are assembling 
in or near the Middle East, and some crucial hours may lay ahead. In 
those hours, the success of our cause will depend on you. Your training 
has prepared you. Your honor will guide you. You believe in America, and 
America believes in you.
    Sending Americans into battle is the most profound decision a 
President can make. The technologies of war have changed; the risks and 
suffering of war have not. For the brave Americans who bear the risk, no 
victory is free from sorrow. This Nation fights reluctantly, because we 
know the cost and we dread the days of mourning that always come.
    We seek peace. We strive for peace. And sometimes peace must be 
defended. A future lived at the mercy of terrible threats is no peace at 
all. If war is forced upon us, we will fight in a just cause and by just 
means, sparing, in every way we can, the innocent. And if war is forced 
upon us, we will fight with the full force and

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might of the United States military, and we will prevail.
    And as we and our coalition partners are doing in Afghanistan, we 
will bring to the Iraqi people food and medicines and supplies and 
freedom.
    Many challenges, abroad and at home, have arrived in a single 
season. In 2 years, America has gone from a sense of invulnerability to 
an awareness of peril, from bitter division in small matters to calm 
unity in great causes. And we go forward with confidence, because this 
call of history has come to the right country.
    Americans are a resolute people who have risen to every test of our 
time. Adversity has revealed the character of our country, to the world 
and to ourselves. America is a strong nation and honorable in the use of 
our strength. We exercise power without conquest, and we sacrifice for 
the liberty of strangers.
    Americans are a free people who know that freedom is the right of 
every person and the future of every nation. The liberty we prize is not 
America's gift to the world; it is God's gift to humanity.
    We Americans have faith in ourselves, but not in ourselves alone. We 
do not know--we do not claim to know all the ways of providence, yet we 
can trust in them, placing our confidence in the loving God behind all 
of life and all of history.
    May He guide us now. And may God continue to bless the United States 
of America.

Note: The President spoke at 9:01 p.m. in the House Chamber of the 
Capitol. In his remarks, he referred to President Saddam Hussein of 
Iraq. The Office of the Press Secretary also released a Spanish language 
transcript of this address.