    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2008, Book II)]
    [December 17, 2008]
    [Pages 1471-1475]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at the United States Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania
    December 17, 2008

        Thank you very much. Please be seated. Thank you for the warm
    welcome. I'm sorry I'm late. [Laughter] But I am honored to be back at
    the Army War College. A few weeks ago, you celebrated this college's
    107th birthday. I was interested to learn that the school was originally
    located across the street from the White House. Apparently after a few
    years on Pennsylvania Avenue, it was time to pack up your bags.
    [Laughter] Laura and I know the feeling.
    [Laughter]
        General Williams, thank you for your
    leadership. Sergeant Major Powell, thank you
    for greeting me.
        I'm traveling today with the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Jim Peake. I assume he got a seat. [Laughter] Peake,
    how are you--finally, yes! [Laughter] He actually was a 1988 graduate of
    the U.S. Army War College. He claimed he was the president of the class.
    [Laughter] But he also modestly informed me that the reason why is
    because he was the oldest member of the class. [Laughter] Anyway, Mr.
    Secretary, thanks for your service.
        Students, faculty, and staff, it's good to be with you.
        Over the past century, this important institution has become one of
    our Nation's most revered places. It really has been. After all, the
    graduates of this college are legendary--and perhaps I'm looking at
    legends--Dwight Eisenhower, Omar Bradley, George Patton to Norm
    Schwarzkopf, Tommy
    Franks, and a man who I visited

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    with recently, Ray Odierno. I want to
    thank you for continuing this college's noble tradition of military
    scholarship. I thank you for volunteering to serve our Nation during a
    time of war. I appreciate the officers from our partner nations who are
    studying here and who are strengthening their countries' friendship with
    the United States.
        I know many of you have served overseas in the war on terror. This
    weekend I was honored to make one final trip to the frontlines in Iraq
    and Afghanistan. During my trip, I had the opportunity to spend time
    with men and women in uniform, and I've got to tell you, there is
    nothing better, to be the Commander in Chief and stand in front of brave
    souls who bring such dignity to the United States of America.
        They say, ``What are you going to miss?'' I'm going to miss a lot of
    things, like no traffic jams on the way from Harrisburg. [Laughter] But
    I'm most going to miss being the Commander in Chief. It is amazing to
    serve with people who are willing to stand up and step forward to
    address the great challenge to freedom and democracy of our time. We
    have been called to action, and many have agreed to serve.
        You know, the threat alert emerged long before September the 11th.
    Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the followers of a hateful and twisted
    ideology grew in strength and number. In lands where repression and
    despair reigned, these extremists found willing recruits for their
    murderous vision. They unleashed an unprecedented campaign of terror
    against the United States, attacking the World Trade Center in 1993,
    bombing two of our Embassies in Africa in 1998, striking the USS Cole in
    2000.
        For many years, our Nation viewed these attacks as isolated
    incidents, and we responded with limited measures. That changed on
    September the 11th, 2001. On that morning, Americans woke to news of a
    plane crashing into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Within
    the span of 90 minutes, a second plane struck the South Tower, a third
    one pierced the rings of the Pentagon, and a fourth vanished from the
    skies above Pennsylvania. By nightfall, the sun had set on a very
    different world. With rumors of more attacks swirling, Americans went to
    bed wondering what the future would bring.
        On that night, virtually no one would have predicted that more than
    7 years would pass without another terrorist attack on our soil. It's
    not a matter of luck. It is a tribute to the dedicated men and women who
    work day and night to defend our great land. It's the result of tough
    decisions that we began making immediately after September the 11th.
        You see, in those uncertain first weeks, there was no obvious
    precedent to follow. We faced a choice among many different courses of
    action. On one end of the spectrum, we could have responded with a
    purely defensive strategy, hunkering down behind our borders and
    retreating from the world stage. On the other end of the spectrum, we
    could have sought revenge through instant retaliation, attacking nations
    that support terror with no broader strategy to address the root cause
    of the problem.
        I rejected both these extremes in favor of a deliberate and
    comprehensive approach, one where we used all elements of our national
    power to keep America safe at home, the understanding we needed to take
    the fight to the enemy abroad, and the idea of promoting liberty as the
    alternative to terror.
        Last week, I spoke at West Point about transforming our military to
    wage this war. And today I'm going to talk to you about the strategy we
    pursued to keep our country safe, the results we've achieved, and the
    institutions we leave behind for future Presidents to carry on this
    struggle.
        After September the 11th, we fundamentally reshaped our strategy for
    protecting the American people around three core principles. First, we
    recognized that our homeland security and intelligence capabilities were
    inadequate. So we launched the

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    largest reorganization of the Federal Government since the beginning of
    the cold war with one overriding purpose, and that was to prevent new
    attacks.
        Secondly, we recognized that even with the best defenses, we could
    not afford to wait for the terrorists to attack again. So we launched a
    global campaign to take the fight to the terrorists abroad, to dismantle
    their networks, to dry up their financing, and find their leaders and
    bring them to justice. We sent a clear message that America will make no
    distinction between the terrorists and those who harbor them.
        Immediately after September the 11th, we gave the Taliban in
    Afghanistan two options: surrender the leaders of Al Qaida, or you can
    share in their fate. When the regime leaders made their choice, we made
    ours. We removed the Taliban from power, we shut down the terrorist
    training camps, and we liberated more than 25 million Afghans.
        After 9/11, we also reexamined the danger posed by Iraq, a country
    that combined support for terror, the development and use of weapons of
    mass destruction, aggression against its neighbors, routine attacks on
    American forces, systemic violations of U.N. resolutions. We concluded
    that the world could not tolerate such a destabilizing and dangerous
    force in the heart of the Middle East. I offered Saddam Hussein a final
    chance to resolve the issue peacefully. It was his choice to make. And
    when he refused, we acted with a coalition of nations to protect our
    people and liberate 25 million Iraqis.
        Thirdly, we recognized that the war on terror is more than a battle
    of arms. It is an ideological struggle for hearts and minds. And to
    prevail, we must counter the terrorists' hateful ideology with a more
    hopeful alternative based on liberty and justice. So after removing the
    threatening regimes in Afghanistan and Iraq, we refused to take the easy
    course of trading one strongman for another. Instead, we stayed to help
    young democracies emerge as beacons for hope for people across the
    Middle East. We increased our support for democratic reformers and
    dissidents around the world. We expanded our efforts to combat the
    conditions of despair and hopelessness that give rise to rage and
    radicalism.
        While there's room for honest and healthy debate about the decisions
    I've made--and there's plenty of debate--there can be no debate about
    the results in keeping America safe.
        Here at home we prevented numerous terrorist attacks, including an
    attempt to bomb fuel tanks at JFK Airport, a plot to blow up airliners
    bound for the east coast, a scheme to attack a shopping mall in the
    Chicago area, and a plan to destroy the tallest skyscraper in Los
    Angeles. We'll never know how many lives have been saved. But this is
    for certain: Since 9/11, there's not been another terrorist attack on
    American soil.
        And this is certain as well: Around the world, we're driving the
    terrorists from their safe havens. We are choking off their financing.
    We are severely disrupting their operations. Together with our allies,
    we killed or captured hundreds of Al Qaida leaders and operatives,
    including the architect of the September the 11th attacks, Khalid Sheikh
    Mohammed. And thanks to the success
    of the surge, the courage of our troops, and the determination of the
    Iraqi people, we have delivered a devastating blow to Al Qaida in the
    land Usama bin Laden once called the central
    battleground in the war on terror.
        In the broader struggle between freedom and terror, people around
    the world have made their choice clear. In Afghanistan, 8 million men
    and women went to the polls to elect a President for the first time in their history. In Iraq, 12
    million people defied the terrorists and elected a representative
    government. You know, one of the things I'll never forget are the ink-
    stained fingers of people who had a chance to vote their conscience. In
    countries from Liberia

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    and Lebanon to Georgia and Ukraine, citizens have taken to the streets
    to cast off the chains of tyranny and demand their God-given right for
    freedom. And around the world, more people live in liberty than at any
    other time in human history.
        This is a hopeful beginning. Yet it is only a beginning. Like the
    struggle against communism during the cold war, the struggle against
    terror will be a generational conflict, one that will continue long
    beyond my Presidency. As my administration leaves office next month, we
    will leave behind the institutions and tools our country needs to
    prevail in the long struggle ahead.
        We'll leave behind a vastly upgraded network of homeland defenses.
    Federal, State, and local law enforcement officers are working together
    more closely than ever before. The number of Border Patrol agents has
    doubled since 2001. Our airports and seaports have bolstered screening
    procedures. Major cities have installed early-warning systems for
    detecting biological and radiological attacks. And to better coordinate
    a comprehensive strategy for keeping our people safe, we have a new
    Cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security.
        We'll leave behind a revamped intelligence community that has new
    tools for staying one step ahead of our enemies. Under the new Director
    of National Intelligence, Federal agencies are collecting and sharing
    information more effectively than ever before. At the new National
    Counterterrorism Center, representatives from 16 different Federal
    agencies are working side by side to track any new threat. The FBI:
    Agents and analysts have shifted their focus from investigating
    terrorist attacks after they happen to gathering intelligence to prevent
    them from happening in the first place. The Treasury Department: There
    are new programs to shut down financing for terrorism. The CIA: Human
    intelligence capabilities have improved. More operations officers have
    deployed overseas to penetrate the terrorist organizations. There's a
    program to interrogate key terrorist leaders. At the NSA, there are
    expanded efforts to monitor terrorist communications around the world.
    We need to quickly figure out who the terrorists are talking to and what
    they're saying in order to protect the homeland.
        We will leave behind new technologies and resources for our military
    to keep the pressure on the enemy. Our forces are more mobile and more
    agile and better positioned now to deploy to trouble spots around the
    world. On the battlefield, they have access to real-time intelligence
    that would have been unimaginable just a couple of years ago. With
    weapons like the Predator drone in our arsenal, our troops can conduct
    precision strikes on terrorists in hard-to-reach areas while sparing
    innocent life. At institutions like the Army War College, our men and
    women in uniform are studying new counterinsurgency and counterterrorism
    strategies, because we're going to depend on you. Long after I'm gone,
    Presidents will count on you.
        We will leave behind a strong coalition of more than 90 nations--
    composing almost half the world--who have committed to combating terror
    and sharing intelligence and keeping our citizens safe. This coalition
    includes Saudi Arabia, the nation that produced 15 of the 9/11 hijackers
    and now serves as a staunch ally in the war on terror. This coalition
    includes Pakistan, a country that was a supporter of the Taliban before
    September the 11th and today is a strong partner of the United States.
    This coalition includes two of America's newest and most courageous
    friends, the free nations of Afghanistan and Iraq. This coalition
    includes members of the new Proliferation Security Initiative and the
    new Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism, who are working to
    prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction.
        We will leave behind new programs to help change the conditions of
    suffering and hopelessness that give rise to extremism and terror. In
    Afghanistan and Iraq, new

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    Provincial Reconstruction Teams are helping rebuild war-torn communities
    and revive local economies and restore basic government services. On the
    continent of Africa, millions are receiving lifesaving treatment, thanks
    to America's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. And around the world,
    countries that govern wisely and open up their economy and invest in the
    health and education of their people are receiving strong support
    through Millennium Challenge grants.
        And finally, we leave behind an unprecedented commitment to
    extending the reach of liberty and democracy. Key organizations devoted
    to supporting freedom enjoy stronger government support than ever
    before. Official U.S. policy now requires our diplomats to seek out and
    support dissidents and democratic reformers in unfree nations. And it is
    now the stated policy of the United States to seek the end of tyranny in
    all nations, for all time.
        Until that day comes, the United States will not rest in our fight
    against oppression and terror. As President, I've had no higher
    responsibility than waging this struggle for the security and liberty of
    our people. After 9/11, I vowed that I would never forget the wounds
    from that day, and I'm not. That day defined my Presidency, and that day
    changed the course of history. And while we cannot know the path ahead,
    we can be confident in the destination: a world where the American
    people are safe and children around the world grow up with hope and
    peace.
        We can be confident because freedom is universal. I strongly believe
    there's an Almighty, and a gift of that Almighty to every man, woman,
    and child on the face of the Earth is freedom. We can be confident
    because we're blessed with men and women who willingly put the welfare
    of their nation before themselves. As long as we have defenders of such
    character and courage, our Nation will always be in good hands and the
    future will always be bright.
        So I thank you for inviting me today. I thank you for having given
    me the honor of a lifetime to serve as your Commander in Chief. God
    bless.

    Note: The President spoke at 12:58 p.m. In his remarks, he referred to
    Maj. Gen. Robert M. Williams, USA, commandant, U.S. Army War College,
    who introduced the President; and Command Sgt. Maj. Jose M. Powell, USA,
    U.S. Army War College; Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr., USA (Ret.),
    former commander, and Gen. Tommy R. Franks, USA (Ret.), former
    commander, U.S. Central Command; Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, USA,
    commanding general, Multi-National Force--Iraq; Usama bin Laden, leader
    of the Al Qaida terrorist organization; and President Hamid Karzai of
    Afghanistan. The Office of the Press Secretary also released a Spanish
    language transcript of these remarks.