    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2007, Book I)]
    [May 1, 2007]
    [Pages 508-513]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida
    May 1, 2007

        Thank you all. Thank you all for letting me come by to say hello. I
    am proud to address the CENTCOM Coalition Conference. CENTCOM's
    Coalition Village is a welcome reminder that in the fight against
    radicals and extremists and murderers of the innocent, we stand as one.
    We appreciate your country's contributions to this enormous challenge in
    the 21st century.
        I appreciate the fact that your work has helped to liberate millions
    of people. I appreciate the fact that your work has helped keep millions
    of people safe. And so I thank you for defending the security of the
    civilized world.
        I appreciate the fact that Fox Fallon
    has taken on this very important command. I can remember visiting him on
    the Hawaiian Islands. He had a house that overlooked the Pacific. It was
    quite a luxurious place. I told him, though, Tampa Bay is a good place
    to live, and the mission is vital. And so I thank you for taking it on,
    Admiral.
        I appreciate General Doug Brown,
    commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command. I'm proud to be here
    with General David Petraeus, commander,
    Multi-National Force--Iraq. I thank the coalition members here. I
    welcome the ambassadors who have joined us. I thank Dr. Rubaie, National Security Adviser to the Prime

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    Minister of a free Iraq. It's good to see
    you, sir. Please give my very best to the Prime Minister. I thank the
    other Iraqis who are here with us. Thank you for your courage; thank you
    for your determination; thank you for making history.
        CENTCOM has built an impressive record of achievement in a short
    period of time. This command was established by President Ronald Reagan
    to deter a Soviet invasion of the Middle East in the latter days of the
    cold war. That era is receding into memory, but it was a long struggle,
    one of constant dangers and one of fierce debates. Victory often seemed
    elusive. Yet victory did come, because America and her allies stood firm
    against an empire and an ideology that vowed to destroy us.
        Once again, history has called on great nations to assume great
    responsibilities. And once again, it is vital that allies, despite
    occasional disagreements, hold firm against vicious and determined
    enemies.
        We saw the action of this vicious and determined enemy here in
    America on September the 11th, 2001. Terrorists murdered citizens from
    more than 80 countries. Since that September morning, acts of terror
    have appeared in places like Mombasa and Casablanca and Riyadh and
    Jakarta and Istanbul and London and Amman and Madrid and Beslan and Bali
    and Algiers and elsewhere. September the 11th was not an isolated
    incident. These terrorists bring death to innocents all across the
    globe. They bring death to commuters on subway trains and guests who
    have checked into the wrong hotel and children attending their first
    week of school.
        Our main enemy is Al Qaida and its affiliates. Their allies choose
    their victims indiscriminately. They murder the innocent to advance a
    focused and clear ideology. They seek to establish a radical Islamic
    caliphate so they can impose a brutal new order on unwilling people,
    much as Nazis and Communists sought to do in the last century. This
    enemy will accept no compromise with the civilized world. Here is what
    Al Qaida charter says about those who oppose their plans: ``We will not
    meet them halfway, and there will be no room for dialog with them.''
    These enemies have embraced a cult of death. They are determined to
    bring days of even greater destruction on our people. They seek the
    world's most dangerous weapons. Against this kind of enemy, there is
    only one effective response: We must go on the offense, stay on the
    offense, and take the fight to them.
        America is joined in this fight by more than 90 nations, including
    every country represented in this room. An era of new threats requires
    new forms of engagement, new strategies, and new tactics. So we've
    reinvigorated historic alliances, such as NATO, and formed new and
    dynamic coalitions to address the dangers of the--of our time. Our broad
    coalition has protected millions of people. We have worked to stop the
    spread of dangerous weapons. We have taken the fight to the enemy where
    they live so we don't have to face them where we live. This is a record
    that all our countries can be proud of, and the United States of America
    is proud to stand with you.
        Working together, America and our allies have shared intelligence
    that helped thwart many attacks. We uncovered and stopped terrorist
    conspiracies targeting Embassies in Yemen and Singapore and ships in the
    Straits of Hormuz and the Straits of Gibraltar. We stopped a Southeast
    Asian terrorist cell grooming operatives for terrorist attacks. We
    stopped an Al Qaida cell seeking to develop anthrax. British authorities
    disrupted a plot to blow up aircraft flying over the Atlantic toward the
    United States.
        Working together, coalition forces have captured or killed key
    leaders of terrorist networks. Philippine forces killed top leaders of
    an Al Qaida affiliate. Spanish police captured fugitives wanted in the
    connection--in connection with the Madrid train bombings. Terrorist
    cells have been broken

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    up by countries including Britain and Canada and Denmark and Italy and
    France and Indonesia, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and Turkey. We must
    stay on the offense. We must defeat the enemy overseas so we don't have
    to face them in our countries.
        Working together, America and our allies have shut down funding
    channels and frozen terrorist assets, making it harder for our enemies
    to finance attacks. It makes it hard for the enemies to purchase
    weapons, to train and move around their recruits. The international
    community, through the United Nations, has imposed measures to identify
    terrorist financiers and prevent them from using international financial
    systems to fund their acts of murder and terror.
        Working together, America and our allies are training local forces
    to conduct counterterrorism activities in their own regions. We are
    helping key nations stop terrorists from establishing safe havens inside
    their borders, including Indonesia and the Philippines and Yemen. The
    Trans-Sahara Counterterrorism Partnership provides counterterrorism and
    military assistance to Chad and Mali, Niger, Mauritania, Algeria,
    Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, and Tunisia. The East African
    Counterterrorism Initiative provides border security and police training
    to Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Tanzania,
    and Uganda.
        We're active. We're working together to make this world a safer
    place. Working together, our coalition is taking steps to stop
    terrorists from obtaining the world's most dangerous weapons. More than
    80 nations have joined the Proliferation Security Initiative. We're
    working to stop shipments of materials related to weapons of mass
    destruction on land, at sea, and in the air.
        Working together, America and other nations have acted boldly to
    confront adversaries who threaten international security. In
    Afghanistan, coalition forces drove the Taliban from power, removed Al
    Qaida training camps, and helped bring freedom to 25 million people.
        Since their liberation, the Afghan people have made enormous
    strides. Afghans chose the first democratically elected
    President in their history. They've held free
    elections for a National Assembly. The Afghan economy has doubled in
    size. And more than 4.6 million Afghan refugees have come home. It's one
    of the largest return movements in the history of the world.
        The Taliban and their Al Qaida allies are actively working to
    undermine this progress. They want power to impose their vision. Our
    coalition, led by NATO, is going on the offense against them. Coalition
    and Afghan forces have conducted dozens of operations over the past few
    months to go after enemy strongholds, including an operation launched
    this week targeting the Taliban in Helmand Province in the south of
    Afghanistan. We've seized dozens of caches of weapons and ammunition and
    improvised explosive devices. We're making progress in training the
    growing Afghan National Army. At least 20 other nations are supporting
    efforts to rebuild Afghanistan. We appreciate these contributions. And
    we will stand with our partners and the Afghan people until this
    important work is done.
        Just as America and our allies are standing together in Afghanistan,
    a determined coalition is committed to winning the fight in Iraq. Four
    years ago, we confronted a brutal tyrant who had used weapons of mass
    destruction, supported terrorists, invaded his neighbors, oppressed his
    people, and tested the resolve and the credibility of the United
    Nations. Saddam Hussein ignored every opportunity to comply with more
    than a dozen resolutions passed by the U.N. Security Council. So
    coalition forces went into Iraq, removed his vicious regime, and helped
    bring freedom to the Iraqi people.
        In 2005, nearly 12 million Iraqis demonstrated their desire, their
    deep desire to live in freedom and peace. Iraqis voted in

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    three national elections--choosing a transitional government, adopting
    the most progressive, democratic Constitution in the Arab world, and
    then electing a Government under that Constitution. In 2006, a thinking
    enemy, a brutal enemy responded to this progress and struck back,
    staging sensational attacks that led to a tragic escalation of sectarian
    rage and reprisal in Baghdad.
        As sectarian violence threatened to destroy this young democracy,
    our coalition faced a choice. One option was to help the Iraqi
    Government tamp down the sectarian violence and provide them with the
    breathing space they need to achieve reconciliation, provide them the
    breathing space they need to take the political and economic measures
    necessary to make sure our military efforts were effective. The other
    option was to pull back from the capital before the Iraqis could defend
    themselves against these radicals and extremists and death squads and
    killers. That risked turning Iraq into a cauldron of chaos. Our enemy,
    the enemies of freedom, love chaos. Out of that chaos, they could find
    new safe havens.
        Withdrawal would have emboldened these radicals and extremists. It
    would have confirmed their belief that our nations were weak. It would
    help them gain new recruits, new resources. It would cause them to
    believe they could strike free nations at their choice.
        Withdrawal would have increased the probability that coalition
    troops would be forced to return to Iraq one day and confront an enemy
    that is even more dangerous. Failure in Iraq should be unacceptable to
    the civilized world. The risks are enormous.
        So after an extensive review, I ordered a new strategy that is
    dramatically different from the one we were pursuing before. I listened
    to our military commanders; I listened to politicians from both sides of
    the aisle. I made a decision. And I appointed our new commander, General
    David Petraeus, to carry this--carry out
    this strategy. This new strategy recognizes that our top priority must
    be to help the Iraqi Government secure its capital so they can make
    economic and political progress.
        The Iraqis cannot yet do this on their own. So I ordered
    reinforcements to help Iraqis secure their population, to go after those
    inciting sectarian violence, and to help the Iraqis get their capital
    under control.
        This strategy is still in its early stages. Some of the
    reinforcements General Petraeus requested
    have not yet arrived in Baghdad. He believes it will take months before
    we can adequately gauge the strategy's potential for success. Yet at
    this early hour, we are seeing some signs that give us hope. Coalition
    forces have captured a number of key terrorist leaders who are providing
    information about how Al Qaida operates in Iraq. They stopped a car bomb
    network that had killed many citizens of Baghdad, and destroyed major
    car bomb factories. There has been a decline in sectarian violence. And
    in some areas of the capital, Iraqis are returning to their
    neighborhoods with an increased feeling of security.
        Terrorists and the extremists continue to unleash horrific acts of
    violence. Al Qaida is playing a major role. Last week, General Petraeus
    called Al Qaida ``probably public enemy number one'' in Iraq. He said
    that Al Qaida has made Iraq ``the central front in their global
    campaign.'' And that's why success in Iraq is critical to the security
    of free people everywhere.
        There are those who say America is engaged in this fight alone. Each
    of you here knows better. The Iraqis are suffering a lot, but they're in
    this fight. I'm impressed by the courage of the Iraqi people. Today
    there are more than 30 nations supporting the operations in Iraq. I
    appreciate the 17 NATO nations that have contributed forces or been part
    of the NATO Training Mission to help the Iraqis. I appreciate Georgia's
    recent decision to contribute 2,000 troops.

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        America joins in honoring the coalition troops who have been killed
    in Iraq and the others who have been wounded in combat. I want your
    countries to know that the sacrifices made by these brave soldiers are
    for a noble cause, a necessary cause, and we grieve for them as we
    grieve for our own. Your countries have risked too much and fought too
    hard for anyone to dismiss or disregard your contributions. Our nations
    are standing together in this fight, and I want your citizens to know,
    America is deeply grateful.
        America is also grateful for the increasing contributions
    international organizations are making for Iraq's stability. On
    Thursday, the United Nations will host a conference in Egypt to sign an
    International Compact for Iraq, an agreement that will bring new
    economic assistance in exchange for greater economic reform. Then on
    Friday, Iraq's neighbors will meet to discuss ways to promote political
    reconciliation in Iraq, to promote stability in Iraq. These meetings
    will be attended by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and senior officials from other G-8 nations. Iran
    and Syria have been invited to attend, and this will be an important
    test of whether these regimes are truly interested in playing a
    constructive role in Iraq.
        Everyone in this room knows the consequences of failure in Iraq, and
    that we should also appreciate the consequences of success because we
    have seen them before. Following World War II, many nations helped lift
    the defeated populations of Japan and Germany and stood with them as
    they built representative governments from societies that had been
    ravaged and decimated. We committed years and resources to this cause,
    and that effort has been repaid many times over in three generations of
    prosperity and peace. During the cold war, the NATO alliance worked to
    liberate nations from Communist tyranny, even as allies bickered, and
    millions marched in the streets against us, and the pundits lost hope.
    We emerged from that struggle with a Europe that is now whole and free
    and at peace.
        We look back at that history and marvel at what millions of ordinary
    people accomplished. Yet success was not preordained, and the outcome
    was not certain. Only now we can see those eras with the proper
    perspective. And I believe that one day, future generations will look
    back at this time in the same way, and they will be awed by what our
    coalition has helped to build. They will see that we strengthened
    alliances, offered new relevance to international institutions,
    encouraged new forms of multilateral engagement, and laid the foundation
    of peace for generations to come.
        These are difficult times. These are tough times. These are times
    that test the resolve of free people. These are times that require hard
    work and courage and faith in the ability of liberty to yield the peace
    we want. And so I thank you for your contributions. Thank you for
    standing for what's right. Thank you for helping the liberated. And
    thank you for working for peace.
        God bless.

    Note: The President spoke at 12:45 p.m. In his remarks, he referred to
    William J. ``Fox'' Fallon, USN, commander, U.S. Central Command; Prime
    Minister Nuri al-Maliki of Iraq; and President Hamid Karzai of
    Afghanistan.

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