    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2003, Book II)]
    [October 23, 2003]
    [Pages 1382-1386]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks to the Australian Parliament in Canberra
    October 23, 2003

        President Bush. Governor-General Michael Jeffery, Prime Minister John Howard,
    Speaker of the House, Leader of the
    Senate, Leader of the Opposition Simon
    Crean, distinguished Members of the House and
    the Senate, Premiers, members of the diplomatic corps, ladies and
    gentlemen: Laura and I are honored to be in the Commonwealth of
    Australia. I want to thank the Prime Minister for his invitation. I want
    to thank the Members and Senators for convening this session of the
    Parliament. I want to thank the people of Australia for a gracious
    welcome.
        Five months ago, your Prime Minister was a
    distinguished visitor of ours in Crawford, Texas, at our ranch. You
    might remember that I called him a ``man of steel.'' [Laughter] That's
    Texan for ``fair dinkum.'' [Laughter] Prime Minister John Howard is a
    leader of exceptional courage who exemplifies the finest qualities of
    one of the world's great democracies. I'm proud to call him friend.
        Americans know Australia as a land of independent and enterprising
    and good-hearted people. We see something familiar here, something we
    like. Australians are

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    fair-minded and tolerant and easygoing. Yet in times of trouble and
    danger, Australians are the first to step forward, to accept the hard
    duties, and to fight bravely until the fighting is done.
        In a hundred years of experience, American soldiers have come to
    know the courage and good fellowship of the ``diggers'' at their side.
    We fought together in the Battle of Hamel, together in the Coral Sea,
    together in New Guinea, on the Korean Peninsula, in Vietnam. And in the
    war on terror, once again we're at each other's side.
        In this war, the Australia and American people have witnessed the
    methods of the enemy. We saw the scope of their hatred on September the
    11, 2001. We saw the depth of their cruelty on October the 12, 2002. We
    saw destruction and grief, and we saw our duty. As free nations in
    peril, we must fight this enemy with all our strength.
        No country can live peacefully in a world that the terrorists would
    make for us. And no people are immune from the sudden violence that can
    come to an office building or an airplane or a nightclub or a city bus.
    Your nation and mine have known the shock and felt the sorrow and laid
    the dead to rest. And we refuse to live our lives at the mercy of
    murderers.
        The nature of the terrorist threat defines the strategy we are using
    to fight it. These committed killers will not be stopped by
    negotiations. They will not respond to reason. The terrorists cannot be
    appeased. They must be found. They must be fought, and they must be
    defeated.
        The terrorists hide and strike within free societies, so we're
    draining their funds, disrupting their plans, finding their leaders. The
    skilled work of Thai and Indonesia and other authorities in capturing
    the terrorist
    Hambali--suspected of planning the murders in Bali and other attacks--
    was a model of the determined campaign we are waging.
        The terrorists seek safe harbor to plot and to train, so we're
    holding the allies of terror to account. America, Australia, and other
    nations acted in Afghanistan to destroy the home base of Al Qaida and
    rid that country of a terror regime. And the Afghan people, especially
    Afghan women, do not miss the bullying and the beatings and the public
    executions at the hands of the Taliban.
        The terrorists hope to gain chemical, biological, or nuclear
    weapons, the means to match their hatred. So we're confronting outlaw
    regimes that aid terrorists, that pursue weapons of mass destruction,
    and that defy the demands of the world. America, Australia, and other
    nations acted in Iraq to remove a grave and gathering danger, instead of
    wishing and waiting while tragedy drew closer.
        Since the liberation of Iraq, we have discovered Saddam's
    clandestine network of biological laboratories, the design work on
    prohibited long-range missiles, his elaborate campaign to hide illegal
    weapons programs. Saddam Hussein spent years
    frustrating U.N. inspectors for a simple reason: because he was
    violating U.N. demands. And in the end, rather than surrender his
    programs and abandon his lies, he chose defiance and his own undoing.
        Who can possibly think that the world would be better off with
    Saddam Hussein still in power? Surely not the
    dissidents who would be in his prisons or end up in his mass graves.
    Surely not the men and women who would fill Saddam's torture chambers
    and rape rooms. Surely not the families of the victims he murdered with
    poison gas. Surely not anyone who cares about human rights and democracy
    and stability in the Middle East. Today, Saddam's regime is gone, and no
    one----

    [At this point, there was a disturbance in the audience.]

        Speaker Andrew. Senator Brown, I warn you--
    Senator Brown will excuse himself from the House. Senator Brown will
    excuse himself from the House. The Sergeant will remove Senator Brown
    from the House.

    [[Page 1384]]

        The President.
        President Bush. Surely no one who cares about human rights and
    democracy and stability in the Middle East. Today, Saddam
    Hussein's regime is gone, and no one should
    mourn its passing.
        In the months leading up to our action in Iraq, Australia and
    America went to the United Nations. We are committed to multilateral
    institutions, because global threats require a global response. We're
    committed to collective security, and collective security requires more
    than solemn discussions and sternly worded pronouncements. It requires
    collective will. If the resolutions of the world are to be more than ink
    on paper, they must be enforced. If the institutions of the world are to
    be more than debating societies, they must eventually act. If the world
    promises serious consequences for the defiance of the lawless, then
    serious consequences must follow.
        Because we enforced Resolution 1441 and used force in Iraq as a last
    resort, there is one more free nation in the world, and all free nations
    are more secure.
        We accepted our obligations with open eyes, mindful of the
    sacrifices that had been made and those to come. The burdens fall most
    heavily on the men and women of our Armed Forces and their families. The
    world has seen the bravery and skill of the Australian military. Your
    Special Operations forces were among the first units on the ground in
    Iraq. And in Afghanistan, the first casualty among America's allies was
    Australian, Special Air Service Sergeant Andrew Russell. This afternoon, I will lay a wreath at the Australian
    War Memorial in memory of Sergeant Russell and the long line of
    Australians who have died in the service to this nation. And my Nation
    honors their service to the cause of freedom, to the cause we share.
        Members and Senators, with decisive victories behind us, we have
    decisive days ahead. We cannot let up on our offensive against terror,
    even a bit. And we must continue to build stability and peace in the
    Middle East and Asia as the alternatives to hatred and fear.
        We seek the rise of freedom and self-government in Afghanistan and
    in Iraq for the benefit of their people, as an example to their
    neighbors and for the security of the world. America and Australia are
    helping the people of both those nations to defend themselves, to build
    the institutions of law and democracy, and to establish the beginnings
    of free enterprise.
        These are difficult tasks in civil societies wrecked by years of
    tyranny. And it should surprise no one that the remnants and advocates
    of tyranny should fight liberty's advance. The advance of liberty will
    not be halted. The terrorists and the Taliban and Saddam holdouts are
    desperately trying to stop our progress. They will fail. The people of
    Afghanistan and Iraq measure progress every day. They are losing the
    habits of fear, and they are gaining the habits of freedom.
        Some are skeptical about the prospects for democracy in the Middle
    East and wonder if its culture can support free institutions. In fact,
    freedom has always had its skeptics. Some doubted that Japan and other
    Asian countries could ever adopt the ways of self-government. The same
    doubts have been heard at various times about Germans and Africans. At
    the time of the Magna Carta, the English were not considered the most
    promising recruits for democracy. [Laughter] And to be honest,
    sophisticated observers had serious reservations about the scruffy
    travelers who founded our two countries. [Laughter] Every milestone of
    liberty was considered impossible before it was achieved. In our time,
    we must decide our own belief: Either freedom is the privilege of an
    elite few, or it is the right and capacity of all humanity.
        By serving our ideals, we also serve our interests. If the Middle
    East remains a place of anger and hopelessness and incitement, this
    world will tend toward division and chaos and violence. Only the spread

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    of freedom and hope in the Middle East in the long term will bring peace
    to that region and beyond. And the liberation of more than 50 million
    Iraqis and Afghans from tyranny is progress to be proud of.
        Our nations must also confront the immediate threat of
    proliferation. We cannot allow the growing ties of trade and the forces
    of globalization to be used for the secret transport of lethal
    materials. So our two countries are joining together in the
    Proliferation Security Initiative. We're preparing to search planes and
    ships and trains and trucks carrying suspect cargo to seize weapons or
    missile shipments that raise proliferation concerns. Last month,
    Australia hosted the first maritime interdiction exercise in the Coral
    Sea.
        Australia and the United States are also keeping pressure on Iran to
    conform to its letter and spirit of the nonproliferation obligations.
    We're working together to convince North Korea that the continued
    pursuit of nuclear weapons will bring only further isolation. The wrong
    weapons, the wrong technology in the wrong hands, has never been so
    great a danger, and we are meeting that danger together.
        Our nations have a special responsibility throughout the Pacific to
    help keep the peace, to ensure the free movement of people and capital
    and information, and advance the ideals of democracy and freedom.
    America will continue to maintain a forward presence in Asia, continue
    to work closely with Australia.
        Today, America and Australia are working with Japan and the
    Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, and Singapore and other nations to
    expand trade and to fight terror, to keep the peace in the Taiwan
    Straits.
        Your country is hosting President Hu Jintao.
    Australia's agenda with China is the same as my country's. We're
    encouraged by China's cooperation in the war on terror. We're working
    with China to ensure the Korean Peninsula is free of nuclear weapons. We
    see a China that is stable and prosperous, a nation that respects the
    peace of its neighbors and works to secure the freedom of its own
    people.
        Security in the Asia-Pacific region will always depend on the
    willingness of nations to take responsibility for their neighborhood, as
    Australia is doing. Your service and your sacrifice helped to establish
    a new Government and a new nation in East Timor. And working with New
    Zealand and other Pacific Island states, you're helping the Solomon
    Islands reestablish order and build a just Government. By your
    principled actions, Australia is leading the way to peace in Southeast
    Asia. And America is grateful.
        Together----

    [There was a disturbance in the audience.]

        President Bush. Together, my country, with Australia, is promoting
    greater economic opportunity. Our nations are now working to complete a
    U.S.-Australia Free Trade Agreement that will add momentum to the free
    trade throughout the Asian-Pacific region, while producing jobs in our
    own countries.

    [There was a disturbance in the audience.]

        Speaker Andrew. Senator Nettle will resume
    her seat. Sergeant, remove Senator Nettle. Senator Nettle will resume
    her seat. The President has the call. Senator Nettle is warned. Sergeant
    will remove Senator Nettle.
        President Bush. I love free speech. [Laughter]
        Speaker Andrew. The President has the call.
        President Bush. The relationship between America and Australia is
    vibrant and vital. Together, we will meet the challenges and the perils
    of our own time. In the desperate hours of another time, when the
    Philippines were on the verge of falling and your country faced the
    prospect of invasion, General Douglas MacArthur addressed Members of the
    Australian Parliament. He spoke of a code that unites our two nations,
    the code of free people, which, he said,

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    ``embraces the things that are right and condemns the things that are
    wrong.''
        More then 60 years later, that code still guides us. We call evil by
    its name and stand for freedom that leads to peace. Our alliance is
    strong. We value, more than ever, the unbroken friendship between the
    Australian and the American peoples. My country is grateful to you and
    to all the Australian people for your clear vision and for your strength
    of heart. And I thank you for your hospitality. May God bless you all.

    Note: The President spoke at 11:30 a.m. at the Australian Parliament
    House. In his remarks, he referred to Governor-General Michael Jeffery,
    Prime Minister John Howard, Speaker of the House of Representatives Neil
    Andrew, President of the Senate Paul Calvert, and Leader of the
    Opposition Simon Crean of Australia; Nurjaman Riduan Isamuddin (known as
    Hambali), Al Qaida's chief operational planner in Southeast Asia; former
    President Saddam Hussein of Iraq; and President Hu Jintao of China.
    Speaker Andrew referred to Senators Bob Brown and Kerry Nettle of
    Australia.