[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 38, Number 29 (Monday, July 22, 2002)]
[Pages 1210-1212]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Letter on the ``National Strategy for Homeland Security''

July 16, 2002

My fellow Americans:

    Since September 11, 2001, our Nation has taken great strides to 
improve homeland security. Citizens, industry, and government leaders 
from across the political spectrum have cooperated to a degree rarely 
seen in American history. Congress has passed important laws that have 
strengthened the ability of our law enforcement agencies to investigate 
and prosecute terrorists and those who

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support them. We have formed a global coalition that has defeated 
terrorists and their supporters in Afghanistan and other parts of the 
world. More than 60,000 American troops are deployed around the world in 
the war on terrorism. We have strengthened our aviation security and 
tightened our borders. We have stockpiled medicines to defend against 
bioterrorism and improved our ability to combat weapons of mass 
destruction. We have improved information sharing among our intelligence 
agencies, and we have taken important steps to protect our critical 
infrastructure.
    We are today a Nation at risk to a new and changing threat. The 
terrorist threat to America takes many forms, has many places to hide, 
and is often invisible. Yet the need for homeland security is not tied 
solely to today's terrorist threat. The need for homeland security is 
tied to our enduring vulnerability. Terrorists wish to attack us and 
exploit our vulnerabilities because of the freedoms we hold dear.
    The U.S. government has no more important mission than protecting 
the homeland from future terrorist attacks. Yet the country has never 
had a comprehensive and shared vision of how best to achieve this goal. 
On October 8, I established the Office of Homeland Security within the 
White House and, as its first responsibility, directed it to produce the 
first National Strategy for Homeland Security.
    The National Strategy for Homeland Security is the product of more 
than eight months of intense consultation across the United States. My 
Administration has talked to literally thousands of people--governors 
and mayors, state legislators and Members of Congress, concerned 
citizens and foreign leaders, professors and soldiers, firefighters and 
police officers, doctors and scientists, airline pilots and farmers, 
business leaders and civic activists, journalists and veterans, and the 
victims and their families. We have listened carefully. This is a 
national strategy, not a federal strategy.
    We must rally our entire society to overcome a new and very complex 
challenge. Homeland security is a shared responsibility. In addition to 
a national strategy, we need compatible, mutually supporting state, 
local, and private-sector strategies. Individual volunteers must channel 
their energy and commitment in support of the national and local 
strategies. My intent in publishing the National Strategy for Homeland 
Security is to help Americans achieve a shared cooperation in the area 
of homeland security for years to come. The Strategy seeks to do so by 
answering four basic questions:
 <bullet>    What is ``homeland security'' and what missions does it 
            entail?
 <bullet>    What do we seek to accomplish, and what are the most 
            important goals of homeland security?
 <bullet>    What is the federal executive branch doing now to 
            accomplish these goals and what should it do in the future?
 <bullet>    What should non-federal governments, the private sector, 
            and citizens do to help secure the homeland?
    The National Strategy for Homeland Security is a beginning. It calls 
for bold and necessary steps. It creates a comprehensive plan for using 
America's talents and resources to enhance our protection and reduce our 
vulnerability to terrorist attacks. We have produced a comprehensive 
national strategy that is based on the principles of cooperation and 
partnership. As a result of this Strategy, firefighters will be better 
equipped to fight fires, police officers better armed to fight crime, 
businesses better able to protect their data and information systems, 
and scientists better able to fight Mother Nature's deadliest diseases. 
We will not achieve these goals overnight . . . but we will achieve 
them.
    Our enemy is smart and resolute. We are smarter and more resolute. 
We will prevail against all who believe they can stand in the way of 
America's commitment to freedom, liberty, and our way of life.
                                                George W. Bush
 The White House,
 July 16, 2002

Note: The letter was published in the ``National Strategy for Homeland 
Security.''

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