[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2007, Book I)]
[April 4, 2007]
[Pages 388-393]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]
Remarks to Military Personnel and Their Families at Fort Irwin,
California
April 4, 2007
The President. Thank you, all. I've been waiting all day to say,
``Hooah!''
Audience members. Hooah!
The President. Thank you for greeting me. General Cone, thanks. I appreciate your service to our country, and
thanks for leading these men and women. I'm honored also to be with
Jill. Thank you for joining us today for lunch.
Command Sergeant Kim Boyink has been a
generous host. Sarge, I appreciate being with you. Thank you for your
service. Thanks for setting such a good example for the enlisted folks.
I often tell people that the backbone of the Army is the sergeant.
Audience members. Hooah!
The President. And I appreciate you sergeants who have joined us
here, and I appreciate you serving.
I want to thank two Members
of the United States Congress who
have traveled with me today, men who have concerns about Fort Irwin and
have reflected those concerns in different appropriations measures in
the United States Congress. In other words, they understand the
importance of this mission, and they understand the importance of making
sure the folks who are stationed here have the best possible housing and
food--could work a little bit on it, but--[laughter]. But I do want to
introduce to you the Congressmen from this district, Congressman Buck
McKeon. Where are you, Buck? There he is. Thanks, Buck. And Congressman
Jerry Lewis, ranking member of the Appropriations Committee.
I'm proud to be here with Mayor Dale of
the city of Barstow. I appreciate you coming, Mr. Mayor. It's nice of
you to be here. Thanks for being here.
I appreciate not only those who wear the uniform who are here today;
I want to thank your families, too, for coming. It means a lot to me to
be with our military families. I'll say a word about our military
families here in a minute.
I do want to thank those who have just returned from Afghanistan,
the 699th Maintenance Company.
Audience members. Hooah!
The President. I guess the best words I can say are, welcome--I
mean, thanks, and welcome back. We're glad you're here.
I appreciate those of you who are about to deploy in an important
theater in this war against radicals and extremists, this war on terror:
the ``Red Devils'' of the 58th Engineers, the ``Renegades'' of the 557th
Maintenance Company, the ``Super HET'' of the 2d Transportation Company.
I appreciate your--[applause].
Ours is a remarkable country when people volunteer to serve our
country in a time of war. The amazing thing about our United States
military is, thousands and thousands have signed up knowing full well
that we're a nation at war. The Government didn't say: You have to do
this; you choose--you chose to do it on your own. You decided to put
your country ahead of self in many ways. I'm proud to be the Commander
in Chief of such decent people, such honorable people, and such noble
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people. And I'm proud to be in your presence today.
I also want to thank the families. I understand how difficult this
war is on America's military families. I understand the rotations are
difficult for the moms and husbands and sons and daughters. I understand
that when a loved one is deployed, it creates anxiety. I also understand
our military families are very supportive of those who wear the uniform.
And so on behalf of a grateful nation, I say thanks to the families who
are here and all across the United States of America. You're an integral
part of making sure this volunteer army is as successful as it is today.
This country's life changed on September the 11th, 2001, and my
attitude about the world changed that day too. I decided that I--that
our most important task in Washington was to protect you, protect the
American people. And I decided that I would use all the resources at our
disposal to do that. Like many Americans, we struggle with understanding
with what this attack meant. But if you think about the leadup to the
attack, you think about the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center
in 1993 or the extremist attack on our troops in Lebanon or the
Embassies in Africa, Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia, or the USS Cole.
In other words, the attack on September the 11th wasn't the first
move by the extremists. As a matter of fact, they conducted their acts
of murder believing that there wouldn't be a response. They became
convinced that free nations were weak, and they grew bolder believing
that history was on their side.
After the attacks of September the 11th, I vowed to our country that
we wouldn't tire, that we would use whatever it took to protect us. And
so we changed our strategy. The strategy is to defeat the enemy overseas
so we don't have to face them here at home. The strategy is to find
those who would kill Americans and bring them to justice. So for those
of you in--who have been in Afghanistan, you're helping this young
democracy recover from a period of time in which brutal extremists
provided safe haven to an enemy which attacked the United States. Part
of our doctrine is, if you harbor a terrorist, you're equally as guilty
as the terrorists.
Another part of the doctrine is, when you see a threat, we must take
threats seriously, before they come here to hurt us. See, what changed
on September the 11th is, oceans can no longer protect the people in the
United States from harm. I saw a threat in Saddam Hussein. The world is
better off without Saddam Hussein in power, and so are the citizens of
Iraq.
In the long term, we must remember that freedom is universal, and
the best way to defeat an ideology. And make no mistake about it, these
extremists believe things. For example, they don't believe you can
worship freely; they don't believe you should speak your mind; they
don't believe in dissent; they don't believe in human rights. We believe
in the right for people to worship. We believe in the dignity of each
human being. Our ideology is based on the universality of liberty. Their
dark ideology is based upon hatred. And the way to defeat--ultimately
defeat those who would do harm to America is, give people a chance to
live in a free society. And that's the work we're doing, whether it be
in Afghanistan or in Iraq. And I want to thank you for your sacrifice
and service.
Iraq obviously has got the attention of the United States, as it
should. It's a tough war. The American people are weary of this war.
They're wondering whether or not we can succeed. They're horrified by
the suicide bombings they see.
I analyzed all the situation here this fall. I listened to the
advice from the military; I listened to the advice from the political
people, all in reaction to the fact that Al Qaida and the extremists
bombed a sacred place, which caused sectarian violence to begin to rage.
And it looked like that if action wasn't taken, the capital of this
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young democracy would be overwhelmed by chaos.
And I had a choice to make, and that is whether or not to pull back
and hope that chaos wouldn't spread, or to do something about the
sectarian violence that was taking place and to help the Iraqis bring
order to their capital in order to give them breathing space, time to
reconcile their differences after having lived under the thumb of a
tyrant for years.
In weighing the options, I thought about the consequences of a
country that could sustain itself and defend itself and serve as an ally
in the war on terror. And those consequences will have profound impact
over the next years, over the decades, to know that in the midst of the
Middle East, there can flourish free societies, societies where people
can live together, societies where people can express their opinions,
societies where people can live a free life. That's important because
history has proven, has shown that free societies don't war with each
other. But it's also important to have allies in this war against the
extremists who would do us harm.
I've also thought about the consequences of failure and what it
would mean to the American people. If chaos were to reign in the capital
of that country, it could spill out to the rest of the country. It could
then spill out to the region, where you would have religious extremists
fighting each other with one common enemy: the United States of America
or our ally, for example, like Israel.
The enemy that had done us harm would be emboldened. They would have
seen the mighty United States of America retreat before the job was
done, which would enable them to better recruit. They have made it
clear--``they'' being people like Usama bin Laden or Zawahiri--have made
it clear they want to drive us from Iraq to establish safe haven in
order to launch further attacks. In my judgment, defeat--leaving before
the job was done, which I would call defeat--would make this United
States of America at risk to further attack.
In other words, this is a war in which, if we were to leave before
the job is done, the enemy would follow us here. That's the lesson of
September the 11th. It's an integral part of my thinking about how to
secure this country--to do the most important job that the Government
must do, and that is to protect the American people.
So I made a decision, in consultation with our military commanders,
people of sound military judgment, people who have made a career about
how to set strategies in place to achieve military victories. And the
new strategy we developed was to, rather than retreat, reinforce; rather
than pull back, was to go in with additional troops to help this young
democracy do the job that the 12 million people who voted in free
elections want them to do, which is to provide security so a mother can
raise her child the way we would want our mothers to be able to raise
our children, to provide security so that the political reconciliation
necessary can go forward in a more secure environment.
As I made the decision to send in more troops, I also made the
decision to send in a new commander, General David Petraeus. He's an expert on counterinsurgency. Right now about
half of the reinforcements that are expected to go to Baghdad have
arrived. American and Iraqi troops are, however, on the move. They're
rounding up both Shi'a and Sunni extremists; they're rounding up those
who would do harm to innocent people.
We're after Al Qaida. After all, Al Qaida wants us to fail because
they can't stand the thought of a free society in their midst. We're
destroying car bomb factories, killing and capturing hundreds of
insurgents, and neighborhoods are being reclaimed. There is progress,
but the enemy sees that progress, and they're responding in a brutal
way.
I was amazed by the story of the extremists who put two children
into a automobile
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so that they could make it into a crowded area. Then they got of the car
and blew up the car with the children inside. It only hardens my resolve
to help free Iraq from a society in which people can do that to
children. And it makes me realize the nature of the enemy that we face,
which hardens my resolve to protect the American people. The people who
do that are not people. You know, it's not a civil war, it is pure evil.
And I believe we have an obligation to protect ourselves from that evil.
So while we're making progress, it also is tough. And so the way to deal
with it is to stay on the offense, is to help these Iraqis.
I had a meeting, a SVTS--what they call a SVTS, it's a real-time
video conference--with Prime Minister Maliki. I urged him, of course, to continue making the actions
necessary to reconcile in their society: pass an oil law, a de-
Ba'athification law. It's interesting to watch a government emerge. It's
interesting to watch this new democracy begin to take on
responsibilities, and they are. They said they would commit additional
troops into Baghdad; they have. They said they'd name a commander for
the city of Baghdad; they did. They said they
would man checkpoints; they are. They said they'd spend a significant
amount of their own money for their reconstruction; they have budgeted
$10 billion.
And there's more work to be done, and I reminded the Prime
Minister of that. And I reminded him that
our patience is not unlimited. I also reminded him that we want him to
succeed, that it's in the interest of the United States that this young
democracy succeed. It's in the interest we gain a new ally in the war on
terror in the midst of a part of the world that produced 19 kids that
came and killed 3,000 of our citizens.
Just as the strategy is starting to make inroads, a narrow majority
in the Congress passed legislation they knew all along I would not
accept. Their bills impose an artificial deadline for withdrawal from
Iraq. Their bills substitute the judgment of Washington politicians for
the judgment of our military commanders. Their bills add billions of
dollars in porkbarrel spending, spending that is unrelated to the war
that you're engaged in. Then, instead of sending an acceptable bill to
my desk, they went on spring break.
In the meantime, the clock is ticking for our military. The
Secretary of Defense, the Chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Chief of Staff of
the Army have warned that if Congress
delays these funds past mid-April, we'll have significant consequences
for our Armed Forces. Army Chief of Staff says this: ``Without approval
of the supplemental funds in April, we will be forced to take
increasingly draconian measures, which will impact Army readiness and
impose hardship on our soldiers and their families.''
For example, the Army says that without these funds, it will be
forced to consider cutting back on training for Guard and Reserve units
and, eventually, for active duty personnel. The folks at Fort Irwin know
firsthand how important training is. Washington has a responsibility to
ensure that you have the resources you need to keep this training going.
Soon Congress will return from its break. I urge them to work on
legislation to fund our troops but that does not tell our military how
to conduct war and sets an artificial timetable for withdrawal. The
enemy does not measure the conflict in Iraq in terms of timetables. They
plan to fight us, and we've got to fight them, alongside the Iraqis. A
strategy that encourages this enemy to wait us out is dangerous. It's
dangerous for our troops; it's dangerous for our country's security. And
it's not going to become the law.
There are fine, fine people debating this issue in Washington, DC.
They're patriotic. They're people who have got passionate points of view
about this war, and I understand that. Yet we cannot allow honest
differences in Washington to harm our troops
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in battle or their families here at home. Members of Congress have sent
their message. Now they need to send me a war spending measure that I
can sign into law, so we can provide our troops and their families with
the funds and support they deserve and they need.
I spent some time with the soldiers out in the field, and I want to
share with you what I told them. The work that you have volunteered to
do will have a lasting impact on the world in which we live. When we
succeed in helping this Iraqi Government become a country that can
sustain itself, defend itself, govern itself, and serve as an ally in
the war on terror, we will have delivered a significant blow to those
who have designs on harming the American people, because they can't
stand the thought of free societies in their midst. They can't stand the
thought of people being able to have a government of, by, and for the
people. It is the opposite of what they view.
But we have done this kind of work before. The United States of
America has done the kind of work that spread liberty in parts of the
world where people never thought liberty could take hold. For example,
after World War II, after we had a brutal war with the Japanese and Nazi
Germany, our troops stayed behind and helped these societies recover and
grow and prosper. And now we're reaping the benefits of helping our
former enemies realize the blessings of liberty. Europe is free and at
peace.
You know, after the Korean war, if you had asked somebody: ``Can you
imagine an American President being able to stand up in front of some
troops and say, `The Far East is peaceful; a part of the world where we
lost thousands of our troops in World War II and Korea is now a
relatively peaceful part of the world.'?'' They would have said, ``What
a hopeless idealist that person is.'' And yet I can report to you that.
And I believe it is because our troops not only helped in Korea and
helped rebuild Japan, but I believe it's because the presence of the
United States gave breathing space to people to realize the blessings of
liberty.
I believe liberty is universal. I don't believe it is just for the
United States of America alone. I believe there is an Almighty, and I
believe the Almighty's gift to people worldwide is the desire to be
free. And I think, if given a chance, people will seize that moment. And
that's the work you're doing.
And so that's why I report to our citizens that the hard work we're
doing today is laying the foundation of peace for generations to come.
And it gives me great confidence to know that standing with the
President of the United States is a fantastic military: well-trained,
courageous, and dedicated to protecting this country.
I'm proud to be your Commander in Chief. May God bless you all.
Note: The President spoke at 1:19 p.m. In his remarks, he referred to
Brig. Gen. Robert W. Cone, USA, commanding general, U.S. Army National
Training Center and Fort Irwin, and his wife Jill; Command Sgt. Maj. Kim
D. Boyink, USA, U.S. Army National Training Center and Fort Irwin; Usama
bin Laden, leader of the Al Qaida terrorist organization; Ayman Al-
Zawahiri, founder of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and senior Al Qaida
associate; Gen. David H. Petraeus, USA, commanding general, Multi-
National Force--Iraq; Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki of Iraq; Lt. Gen.
Abboud Gambar, Iraqi commander of Baghdad, Iraqi Army; and Secretary of
Defense Robert M. Gates.
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