    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2006, Book II)]
    [September 28, 2006]
    [Pages 1713-1721]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at a Luncheon for Gubernatorial Candidate Robert R. Riley in Birmingham, Alabama
    September 28, 2006

        Thanks for coming. It is a joy to be back in Alabama, and I
    appreciate your warm welcome. I am proud to stand with one of the
    Nation's finest Governors and ask for your help in reelecting Bob Riley
    as Governor of Alabama.
        He deserves to be reelected because he's got a record he can run on.
    He has made

    [[Page 1714]]

    you proud. He listens to the people. He shares your values for the good
    of Alabama and for the good of all citizens, regardless of their
    political party. Bob Riley needs to be reelected as your Governor.
        I'm proud to be here with Patsy, first lady
    of the great State of Alabama. Riley and I married well, and we're both
    wise enough to listen to our wives. [Laughter] So Laura said, ``When you get down to Alabama, say hello to our
    friends on her behalf,'' and so I do. I bring greetings from Laura Bush,
    a wonderful mother, a fantastic wife, and a great First Lady for the
    United States of America. And Patsy, thank you for being here. Thank you
    for serving your State with dignity, just like Riley is serving the
    State with dignity.
        I'm also proud to recognize the candidate for the Lieutenant
    Governor, a man who will stand tall for the
    State of Alabama--[laughter]--my friend Luther Strange. I have gotten to
    know your State attorney general, Troy King. He is
    an accomplished attorney, who brings great credit to the office he
    holds. I can say without a doubt, he's the right candidate to serve as
    the State attorney for this great State of Alabama. Troy, thanks for
    serving; it was an honor to meet your wife, Paige. I want to thank the State auditor, Beth
    Chapman, who is with us here today. I thank
    Twinkle Cavanaugh, who is the
    chairman of the Alabama Republican Party, and I want to thank all the
    grass roots activists who have joined us here today.
        This is a fantastic fundraiser. The next thing that needs to be done
    is a fantastic grass roots effort to turn out the vote. For those of you
    who are stuffing the envelopes and putting up the signs and getting on
    the telephones, and turning people out to vote, I want to thank you in
    advance for what you're going to do for this excellent Governor.
        You win campaigns by having somebody who has got a vision and can
    carry the message, and you also win campaigns by finding your voters and
    turning them out. For all the grass roots activists here today, thanks
    for coming, and thanks for what you do.
        I want to thank the State and local officials who are here. Thanks
    for serving. I appreciate your willingness to be a public servant. I
    want to thank the Selma High School Choir. I appreciate you lending your
    beautiful voices to this important occasion.
        One of the most important jobs of a Governor is to set a tone for a
    State. Bob Riley and I share a philosophy about the role of government
    when it comes to the economy. The role of government is not to create
    wealth; the role of government is to create an environment in which the
    entrepreneurial spirit can flourish, in which small business grow to be
    big businesses, an environment in which people are able to find work.
        I was noticing that the unemployment rate in the great State of
    Alabama is 3.5 percent, which says Riley knows what he's doing when it
    comes time to this economy. When you have people working, it makes sense
    to put the man in charge of setting the tone for the State back in
    office.
        You know, one of the things Bob and I understand is that one way to
    grow the economy is to let people keep more of their own taxes. You see,
    we believe that when you've got more of your own money in your pocket to
    save, spend, or invest, the economy grows.
        He told me that he's running on cutting taxes, another reason to put
    him back in office as the Governor of Alabama. And I'm telling you,
    cutting taxes works.
        You might remember what this economy of ours has been through. We've
    been through a recession and corporate scandals, a terrorist attack, a
    war, hurricanes, and high gasoline prices. Yet we're growing, and we
    intend to keep growing. And the best way to keep growing is to keep the
    people's taxes low.
        The the tax cuts we passed are working, and it's a campaign issue as
    far as I'm concerned. There's no doubt in my mind that

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    if the national Democrats had control of the House or the Senate, they'd
    raise your taxes. And there's no doubt in my mind raising your taxes
    will hurt this economy. The best way to keep the people in Alabama
    working and the best way to keep the people across this country working
    is to make the tax cuts we passed permanent.
        When I was the Governor of Texas, I used to tell people education is
    to a State what national defense is to the Federal Government. The
    single most important priority of a State is to make sure the people get
    educated. And Bob Riley has made the school system of Alabama his top
    priority, but he's made the school system in Alabama a priority in a
    different kind of way. See, he refuses to accept the status quo when he
    finds mediocrity or failure.
        You know, I was talking to Margaret Spellings. She's my buddy from the State of Texas who is now
    the Secretary of Education. And Margaret Spellings, if she were here,
    would tell you that Alabama has some of the most innovative programs in
    the United States of America when it comes to making sure every single
    child gets an education. You got a Governor who is an education Governor
    and needs to be returned to your State capitol.
        He is spending money on schools, and that's important. But he also
    understands money alone won't bring excellence to the classrooms. And
    that's why he has set high standards, and that's why he insists upon
    strong accountability measures. The best way to achieve educational
    excellence for every child in your State is to measure, is to determine
    whether a child is learning how to read, write, and add and subtract,
    and if not, correct problems early before it's too late.
        I'm proud of the standards your Governor has set. I'm proud to call
    my friend an educational innovator. I'm proud that he has made reading a
    top priority. I'm proud he's challenging the soft bigotry of low
    expectations. I'm proud he's working hard to make sure no child is left
    behind in the State of Alabama.
        Riley and I just went over to--excuse me--Governor Riley--
    [laughter]--and I went over to Hoover, Alabama, today, the home of the
    mighty Bucs, the number one high school football team in the United
    States. That's kind of hard for a Texan to say. [Laughter] But we went
    over for a different reason, because we both understand that in order
    for America to remain competitive in the 21st century, in order for
    Alabama to remain competitive in the 21st century, we must diversify
    away from foreign sources of oil.
        And so we went to a E-85 ethanol distribution place. See, what
    happened is, is that the fine mayor of Hoover
    and its city council decided that they were going to use ethanol as the
    primary fuel for their police automobiles. That's called innovation.
    It's called thinking ahead.
        I found it to be really interesting to talk to the officers who
    drive the vehicles that are run on fuel that is 85 percent ethanol, in
    other words, fuel made from corn. So I said to the guy, do you--see, he has a choice, he can either use
    gasoline or ethanol. I said, ``Which one do you use?'' He says, ``I like
    the ethanol.'' I said, ``Why?'' He said, ``It's got a lot of get up and
    go to it.'' In other words, it works well.
        What we're beginning to see is a change in how we fuel our
    automobiles. We're spending a lot of money at the Federal level, your
    money, to try to advance new technologies to make us less dependent on
    oil. It's in the national interests that we become less dependent on oil
    from overseas. After all, a lot of the oil we get is from parts of the
    world that don't particularly care for us right now.
        I look forward to the day when more and more of you have flex-fuel
    vehicles and you can go and make the decision as to whether or not you
    want to use ethanol as the primary source of energy in your automobile
    or gasoline. I look forward to the day when I can say to the American

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    people, ``Because we've got more corn growing, we're less dependent on
    foreign sources of oil.'' I look forward to the day when you can use
    wood chips from Alabama trees as the feedstock for ethanol. I look
    forward to the day when we have these great breakthroughs of research
    and technology done right here in Auburn University to say to the
    American people, the research we're doing today means your children are
    going to be less dependent on oil in the future.
        And Bob Riley is a partner in encouraging diversification away from
    hydrocarbons that we import from overseas. And I appreciate his stance.
    I appreciate his vision. He's got a vision for the people of Alabama,
    and he's got the skill and capability of implementing that vision. He's
    done an excellent job for the people. And I want to thank you for
    supporting him to put him back in office. It's good for this State that
    Bob Riley is the Governor. I want to talk about--I want to spend a
    little time on what else occupies my mind, other than making sure our
    economy grows. And it's this: My most solemn responsibility and the most
    solemn duty of the Federal Government, as a matter of fact governments
    at all levels, is to protect the American people.
        We are a nation at war. I wish I could report differently, but you
    need to have a President who sees the world the way it is, not the way
    somebody would hope it would be. In order to protect this people, we
    must understand the nature of the threats we face. We face an enemy that
    is brutal, an enemy that is determined, an enemy that has a set of
    beliefs that is the opposite of our beliefs.
        I'll never forget the lessons of September the 11th, 2001, and I
    will continue to use, as I vowed then to the American people, every
    element of national power to defeat the terrorists and to defend the
    freedom of the United States of America.
        And that starts with making sure those responsible for defending you
    have all the tools necessary to do so. As the Commander in Chief of the
    finest group of men and women produced in this country, I'll make you
    this pledge: Our troops will have whatever it takes to do the job we
    have asked them to do.
        And we have got to make sure that our intelligence officers have the
    tools they need to protect you and our law enforcement officers have the
    tools they need to protect you. So working with the Congress, we passed
    what was called the PATRIOT Act, an act that broke down barriers and
    walls that prevented the intelligence community from sharing information
    with the law enforcement community.
        You see, we recognize that in order to protect you, all elements of
    national government must be able to communicate freely to defeat this
    enemy. If somebody that we think is Al Qaida or an Al Qaida affiliate
    gets on the telephone and is making a phone call into the United States,
    we want to know why, in order to protect the American people.
        In order to make sure we get the information necessary to protect
    you--see, this is a different kind of war. We cannot measure the enemy's
    progress based upon the movement of tanks or airplanes. These people
    hide in remote regions of the world and then strike with lethality, as
    we learned firsthand in our country.
        And therefore we must find kernels of information that then will
    enable us to track them down and bring them to justice before they hurt
    Americans. And that's why it's essential that I created a program with
    the professionals in the Central Intelligence Agency to detain and
    question key terrorist leaders and operatives that were captured on the
    battlefield. As a result of this program, we have--we've learned
    information that enabled us to save American lives.
        I also believed it was important to set up military commissions that
    will enable us to bring to justice the people that ordered the attacks
    on the United States of America. The Supreme Court said, you must

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    work with the legislature to achieve these objectives, and we're doing
    just that.
        Last night--yesterday afternoon, the House of Representatives voted
    on the legislation we put forward to create military commissions and to
    continue that vital program of questioning detainees. The bill passed,
    but I want to remind you about the vote. The bill passed over the
    objections of 160 House Democrats, including the entire Democrat
    leadership.
        We must give our professionals the tools necessary to protect the
    American people in this war on terror, and those in the House of
    Representatives were wrong to vote against this bill.
        Ours is an important job to protect you. We have to be right 100
    percent of the time, and the enemy only has to be right once. And that's
    why it's important that we do the--pass the laws that we've asked the
    Senate and the House to pass. And that's also why it's important that we
    must defeat the enemy overseas so we do not have to face them here at
    home.
        And there's a lot of debate in Washington about this war on terror.
    And perhaps you heard something about what's called a National
    Intelligence Estimate. The National Intelligence Estimate is a
    classified document that, in this case, analyzed the threat we faced
    from terrorists and extremists.
        As you know, parts of that classified document were recently leaked
    to the press, a sure sign that elections are right around the corner.
    Some in the other party have been quoting selectively from the document
    for partisan political gain, and so I felt that it was important for
    people to actually see what was in the document, and so I declassified
    it.
        And I'd like to share some thoughts about what was in the NIE with
    you today. It offers a frank assessment of where we are in the war on
    terror. It confirms that we face a determined and capable enemy. It
    lists four underlying factors that are fueling the extremist movement:
    longstanding grievances such as corruption and injustice, or fear of
    Western domination; the second such factor was the jihad in the Iraq;
    the third was the slow pace of reform in Muslim nations; and the fourth
    factor that the leaders of this extremist movement were using to recruit
    was anti-Americanism.
        It concludes that the terrorists are exploiting all these factors to
    enhance their movement. The debate over this document raises really an
    important question about the war on terror: Should we be on the offense
    or not? Some in Washington--some decent people, patriotic people--feel
    like we should not be on the offensive in this war on terror. Here's
    what a senior Democrat in Congress put it
    when she was discussing Iraq. She said, ``The President says that
    fighting them there makes it less likely we'll have to fight them here.
    The opposite is true.'' She went on to say, ``Because we are fighting
    them there, it may become more likely that we'll have to fight them
    here.''
        History tells us that logic is false. We didn't create terrorism by
    fighting terrorism. Iraq is not the reason why the terrorists are at war
    against us. Our troops were not in Iraq when the terrorists first
    attacked the World Trade Center. They were not in Iraq when they blew up
    our Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. They were not in Iraq when they
    bombed the USS Cole. And we were not in Iraq when the extremists killed
    nearly 3,000 of our people on September the 11th, 2001.
        Five years after the 9/11 attacks, some in Washington, DC, still
    don't understand the nature of the enemy. The only way to protect our
    citizens at home is to keep the pressure on the enemy across the world.
    When terrorists spend their days working to avoid capture, they are less
    able to plot and plan and execute new attacks. We will stay on the
    offense. We will fight them across the world, and we will stay in this
    fight until the fight is won.

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        In order to win this war, we need to understand that the terrorists
    and extremists are opportunists. They will grab onto any cause to incite
    hatred and to justify the killing of innocent men, women, and children.
    If we weren't in Iraq, they would be using our relationship and
    friendship with Israel as a reason to recruit, or the Crusades, or
    cartoons as a reason to commit murder. They recruit based upon lies and
    excuses, and they murder because of their raw desire for power. They
    hope to impose their dominion over the broader Middle East and establish
    a radical Islamic empire where millions are ruled according to their
    hateful ideology. We know this because Al Qaida has told us.
        The terrorist Zawahiri, number two
    man in the Al Qaida team--Al Qaida network, he said, we'll proceed with
    several incremental goals. The first stage is to expel the Americans
    from Iraq; the second stage is to establish an Islamic authority, then
    develop it and support it until it achieves the level of caliphate; the
    third stage, extend the jihad wave to secular countries neighboring
    Iraq; and the fourth stage, the clash with Israel.
        This is the words of the enemy. The President of the United States
    and the Congress must listen carefully to what the enemy says in order
    to be able to protect you. It makes sense for us to take their words
    seriously, if our most important job is the security of the United
    States. Mr. Zawahiri has laid out their
    plan. That's why they attacked us on September the 11th. That's why they
    fight us in Iraq today. And that is why they must be defeated.
        Some Democrats in Congress say that we should not be fighting the
    terrorists in Iraq; it was a mistake to go into Iraq in the first place.
    I believe these Democrats need to answer a simple question: Do they
    really believe that we would be better off if Saddam Hussein were still in power? In a recent interview, the top
    Democrat on the Intelligence Committee was asked this very question. And his answer was, ``Yes,
    yes, and, yes.''
        If this is what the Democrats think, they need to make this case to
    the American people; they need to make the case that the world would be
    better off it Saddam Hussein were still in
    power. If Saddam Hussein were still in power, he would still be
    sponsoring terror and paying families of suicide bombers. If he were
    still in power, he would still be pursuing weapons of mass destruction.
    He would still be killing his own people. He would still be firing at
    our pilots. He would still be defying the United Nations. He would still
    be bilking the Oil-for-Food Programme and using one of the largest oil
    reserves in the world to threaten Western economies and to fuel his
    ambitions.
        After the attacks of September the 11th, it became clear that the
    United States of America must confront threats before they come and hurt
    us. Saddam Hussein's regime was a serious
    threat, a risk the world could not afford to take. America, Iraqis, and
    the world are safer because Saddam Hussein is not in power.
        In a recent series of speeches, I made it clear that we're in the
    early hours of a long struggle for civilization. I have made it clear
    that we're in the ideological struggle of the 21st century. I've also
    made it clear that the safety of the American people depends on the
    outcome of the battle in the streets of Baghdad.
        I strongly believe that Iraq is a central front in the war on
    terror. The Democrats may not think so, but Usama bin Laden does. Here are the words of bin Laden, ``I now address
    the whole Islamic nation: Listen and understand. The most serious issue
    today for the whole world is this third world war is raging in Iraq.''
    He calls it ``a war of destiny between infidelity and Islam.'' He says,
    ``The whole world is watching this war,'' and that it will end in
    ``victory and glory or misery and humiliation.''

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        For Al Qaida, Iraq is not a distraction from their war on America;
    it is a central battlefield where there's--outcome of the struggle will
    be decided.
        The NIE I quoted earlier says this about Iraq. It said, ``Perceived
    jihadist success there,'' in Iraq, ``would inspire more fighters to
    continue the struggle elsewhere.'' It also says that ``Should jihadists
    leaving Iraq perceive themselves, and be perceived, to have failed, we
    judge fewer fighters will be inspired to carry on the fight.''
        Democrats in Washington have been quoting the NIE a lot in recent
    days, but you don't hear them quoting that part of the document. The
    Democrats can't have it both ways. Either they believe that Iraq is a
    distraction from the war on terror or they agree with the intelligence
    community and the terrorists themselves that the outcome of Iraq is
    important in the war on terror. Truth is, the Democrats are using the
    NIE to mislead the American people and justify their policy of
    withdrawal from Iraq.
        The American people need to know what withdrawal from Iraq would
    mean. By withdrawing from Iraq before the job is done, we would be doing
    exactly what the extremists and terrorists want. The terrorists' entire
    strategy is based on the belief that America is weak and does not have
    the stomach for the long fight. Bin Laden
    has called American withdrawals from places like Beirut and Somalia as
    proof that if the terrorists are patient, America will lose her nerve
    and withdraw in disgrace.
        The greatest danger is not that America's presence in Iraq is
    drawing new recruits to the terrorist cause; the greatest danger is that
    an American withdrawal from Iraq would embolden the terrorists and help
    them find new recruits to carry out even more destructive attacks on the
    American homeland. And that is why the United States of America will
    stand with the brave Iraqis and defeat the terrorists in Iraq.
        The stakes are high in this war. It's really important that the
    United States of America understands the nature of this enemy and
    understands what it would mean to leave Iraq before the job is done. If
    we were to abandon this young democracy to the extremists, imagine what
    other reformers and people of moderation would think about the United
    States of America. If we were to abandon our mission in Iraq where many
    have sacrificed, imagine what the enemy would think about the United
    States of America and our will.
        If we were to abandon Iraq and create a vacuum in that country and
    that country were then taken over by the extremists, make no mistake
    about it, they would have mighty assets to use in order to inflict
    economic pain on the United States of America. We're not going to let
    this happen. America is a nation that keeps its commitments to those who
    long for liberty and want to live in peace. America is a nation that
    will keep its commitment to make sure that you're secure. America is a
    nation that does not retreat in the face of thugs and assassins.
        We're going to help the Iraqi people. Remember, 12 million of them
    voted in elections last December. That probably seems like a decade ago
    to you, but when the history is finally written, it will be just a
    comma. Twelve million people stood up in the face of assassins and car
    bombers and said, ``We want to be free.''
        I'm not surprised. I was pleased. I'm not surprised because I
    believe in this principle, a principle which should be a guiding light
    of American foreign policy: There is an Almighty, and a gift of that
    Almighty to every man, woman, and child on the face of the Earth is
    freedom. I believe deep in the soul of every person is the desire to
    live in liberty, and I know that liberty will yield the peace we want
    for generations to come.
        From the beginning of the struggle, I've made it clear that we will
    defend this country by giving people the tools needed, that we'll defend
    America by staying on the offense, that we will find the terrorists and

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    bring them to justice so they can't hurt us here at home. But I've also
    made it clear that defeating the terrorists in the long run requires
    defeating their hateful ideology.
        The NIE explicitly states, the National Intelligence Estimate, that
    I have been discussing and has been widely discussed in the newspapers
    states this, that the terrorists greatest vulnerability is that their
    ideology is ``unpopular with the vast majority of Muslims.'' People want
    to be free. People want to be able to express themselves freely. Mothers
    in the Muslim world share the same thing as mothers here; they want
    their children to grow up in a peaceful world.
        And that's why it's essential that the United States of America
    stand with moderates and reformers and peaceful people, millions of men
    and women in the Muslim world who want a normal life and a more hopeful
    future for their children and their grandchildren. And as this powerful
    majority gains control over the destiny--over their destiny through the
    democratic progress, they will marginalize the radicals and extremists
    and their hateful vision of the world.
        The transition from tyranny to democracy is tough work, but it's
    necessary work. It's the calling of history. It's the challenge to our
    generation to defend America and to lay the foundation of peace for
    generations to come. The extremists and the radicals will exploit these
    difficulties in every way they can. They will try to shake our will.
    They will use the murder of innocent men and women and children in order
    to convince America that the fight isn't worth it. Yet in the long run,
    America, if we keep our faith in our principles, will prevail.
        Encouraging the rise of free societies across the broader Middle
    East is the only way to overcome the threat of terrorism and to protect
    the American people in the long run. We owe it to a generation of
    children to come to do the hard work now. Imagine a Middle East where
    there's competing factions of extremism. Imagine a Middle East where the
    radicals control oil. Imagine a Middle East where there's an armed
    theocracy with a nuclear weapon. Fifty years from now, people will say,
    ``Couldn't they see it; why couldn't they see the threat?''
        Now is the time for the United States of America to lay the
    foundation of peace, to confront the challenges we have square on, to
    protect our country, to do our duty so that generations will look back
    and say, ``Thank God this generation of Americans was willing to serve
    and serve strong.''
        The stakes in this war are high, and so are the stakes this
    November. Americans face the choice between two parties with two
    different attitudes on this war on terror. Five years after 9/11, the
    worst attack on American homeland in our history, the Democrats offer
    nothing but criticism and obstruction and endless second-guessing. The
    party of FDR and the party of Harry Truman has become the party of cut-
    and-run.
        Our party's record is clear. We see the stakes. We understand the
    nature of the enemy. We know that the enemy wants to attack us again. We
    will not wait to respond to the enemy. We're not going to wait for them
    to attack us in order to respond. We will fight them wherever they make
    a stand. We will settle for nothing less than victory.
        Thanks for coming. God bless.

    Note: The President spoke at 1:34 p.m. at the Birmingham Jefferson
    Convention Complex. In his remarks, he referred to Mayor Tony Petelos of
    Hoover, AL; former President Saddam Hussein of Iraq; and Usama bin
    Laden, leader of the Al Qaida terrorist organization.

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