[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 38, Number 46 (Monday, November 18, 2002)]
[Pages 2018-2021]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at a White House Reception for Veterans

November 11, 2002

    Good morning, and welcome to the White House. Thank you for joining 
us in observing Veterans Day. On this holiday, the 11th day of the 11th 
month, Americans reflect on the great sacrifices of military service. 
And we honor every man and every woman who has accepted those 
sacrifices.
    In Veterans Day gatherings across America, we think first of those 
who fell and never lived to be called veterans. We remember those whose 
fate is still undetermined. We look around us to all the veterans and 
retired members of the military with admiration and with respect.
    Especially in this time of war, we see in our veterans an example of 
courage and selfless sacrifice and service that inspires a new 
generation and will lead this country to victory. I want to thank Tony 
Principi and Elizabeth for their service to our country.

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    Our veterans have had no better friend and no more able 
administrator than Tony Principi as the head of the Department of 
Veterans Affairs.
    I want to thank the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs for joining us, 
General Richard Myers. Thank you. I appreciate members of the mighty 
Virginia delegation for being here--[laughter]--anchored by two 
incredibly able United States Senators, John Warner and George Allen--
the chairman.
    I appreciate Congressman Jim Moran for joining us as well. Thank you 
for being here, Jim. We're honored you're here. Congressman Chris Smith 
from New Jersey is with us as well. Thank you for coming, Chris.
    I want to thank our Secretary of the Navy, Gordon England, for 
joining us. Mr. Secretary, we're honored you're here. Leo Mackay, who is 
the Deputy Secretary of Veterans Affairs, is with us today. I thank you 
for coming, Leo--appreciate you being here.
    Members of our Joint Chiefs are here: General John Jumper and 
General Eric Shinseki. Thank you all for coming. Major General James 
Jackson, Commanding General of the U.S. Army Military District of 
Washington, is here with his wife. Thank you for coming.
    I want to thank the sergeant majors who are here, representing the 
fine enlisted folks all around our country. Thank you guys for coming.
    I appreciate the Medal of Honor recipients who are with us today: 
Nick Bacon and David Dolby, Wesley Fox and Howard V. Lee. We're honored 
you're here. Thank you all for coming.
    I want to thank the leadership of the national veterans service 
organizations who are with us today. I appreciate your hard work and 
concern for our veterans all across the country. Thank you for coming.
    I'm honored--so honored to welcome to the White House World War II 
Allied forces veterans from one of our strongest friends, Great Britain. 
I'm honored you guys are here. Thank you for coming.
    We've got veterans from the United States who are in this fantastic 
room as well as veterans from Great Britain. And we're honored you all 
are here. It's my pleasure to welcome you to the people's house.
    The veterans in this room are among 25 million living men and women 
who have served this country in uniform. Certain experiences bind 
veterans from every branch of the service. All have known the life of 
answering to superiors, following orders, and observing a code.
    From the hour you repeated the oath to the day of your honorable 
discharge, your time belonged to America and your country came before 
all else. There are still veterans among us who marched to the orders of 
General Pershing, served in the army of Eisenhower, sailed in the fleet 
of Nimitz. Many more served with honor during the conflicts in Korea, 
Vietnam, the Persian Gulf, and throughout the vigil of the cold war.
    For some veterans, service in the military fulfilled a dream. For 
others, military service was an unexpected honor. For most veterans will 
tell you that it was the defining experience in their lives. A veteran 
named Jim Shenton writes, returning home from service in Europe at the 
age of 20, here's what he had to write.
    He'd been in the army for nearly 3 years, and he saw action from 
Normandy to the liberation of Buchenwald. When he arrived home, he said, 
``It has been a long journey home. I was a thousand years older.'' Many 
war veterans share in that experience. You carry memories of great 
heroism and great suffering. You've seen the worst that men can do to 
one another and the best that men can do for one another. And whether 
their service came abroad or at home, every veteran has shared the 
responsibility of keeping America strong.
    On Veterans Day, the American people take pride in every citizen who 
has defended America, in times of calm and in times of danger. We live 
today in a time of danger. War has come once again to America. Our 
Nation is called to meet great challenges, and our military is called to 
the defense of our people and to the defense of our freedoms.
    The enemies of America have killed thousands of our citizens, and 
they desire to kill thousands more. They're discovering, as others 
before them, the fierce resolve of this great Nation. We will not forget 
the harm that was done to us. We will not be distracted from the task 
before us. No enemy that

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threatens our security or endangers our people will escape the patient 
justice and the overwhelming power of the United States of America.
    That justice and that power have been demonstrated in Afghanistan. 
And our work in that country goes on. More than a year after the 
campaign began, our troops remain engaged in a difficult and dangerous 
mission. We must not permit Afghanistan ever again to become a base for 
the training of terrorists and for the export of murder.
    The people of Afghanistan still face many hardships. Yet they are 
free from tyranny. And as a result, more than 2 million Afghan refugees 
have returned home to a free land. The Afghan people with a new 
Government are building a future of hope, and they have a committed 
friend in the American people. We are helping to build roads and 
bridges, sharing the methods of modern agriculture. We're providing 
textbooks for classrooms. We're building clinics and bringing medicine 
to the sick.
    Recently, Afghan children were dying of whooping cough. Yet they 
were in a region so remote that the vaccine would lose potency before it 
could arrive by horse. So the United States acted. We sent helicopters 
to deliver those vaccines and, as a result, save more than 100 children 
every week.
    Defeating our enemy and defending our freedoms is the best tradition 
of our military, and so is helping the innocent. We're making good 
progress in this, the first war of the 21st century. For years, the 
terrorists trained in the camps of Afghanistan. Those camps no longer 
exist. Some of the terrorists met their fate in caves and mountains of 
that country. Others were a little luckier, and they're now in custody, 
answering questions. Yet many trained killers are still scattered 
amongst 60 nations.
    And ridding the world of this threat requires a different kind of 
strategy. We're in a different kind of war. The global terrorist threat 
is not met on a single conventional battlefield. The terrorists find 
allies in outlaw regimes but themselves have no land or capital or 
standing army to defend. They send other people's children on missions 
of suicide and murder. That's how they operate. They accept no rule of 
morality or law of war.
    But we now know the nature of this enemy. We know what they're all 
about. And they will be pursued, and they will be found, and they will 
be defeated, no matter where they hide.
    Shortly after September the 11th, 2001, I announced a doctrine that 
said, ``Either you're with the United States and those of us who love 
freedom, or you're with the enemy.'' And that doctrine still stands 
today. And today, more than 90 other Governments are actively 
cooperating with us in the war on terrorism.
    Justice has been brought to terrorists in countries from Spain to 
the Philippines to Pakistan to Indonesia. And we're still on the hunt. 
Sometimes you'll see successes, and sometimes you won't. But one thing 
is certain, an enemy that conspires in the shadows will not be safe in 
the shadows. Terrorists who plot to kill Americans and our friends 
should know this: No matter how long it takes, their day of justice will 
come.
    Success in the war on terror is measured in the safety of innocent 
people from sudden and catastrophic violence. And we must oppose the 
threat of such violence from any source. We oppose the terror network 
and all who harbor and support terrorists.
    And we oppose a uniquely dangerous regime that possesses the weapons 
of mass murder, has used the weapons of mass murder, and could supply 
those weapons to terror groups. The dictator in Iraq has had a long 
history of aggression and a deep hatred of America. The United States 
Government, and once again the United Nations Security Council, share a 
determination: The Iraqi regime must not produce or possess chemical, 
biological, or nuclear weapons. Iraq pledged to disarm more than a 
decade ago. It's been a decade of systematic deception, unmet 
obligations, unpunished violations.
    Those games are now over. Saddam Hussein will fully disarm and prove 
that he has done so, or America will lead a coalition to disarm him.
    This is an urgent task for America and the world, because the events 
of September the 11th clearly demonstrate that a threat that gathers on 
the other side of the Earth can bring suffering to the American 
homeland.

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The danger from Iraq is clear, and it's multiplied a thousand times over 
by the possibility of a chemical or biological or nuclear attack. The 
time to confront this threat is before it arrives, not the day after.
    I have no greater responsibility than protecting the American 
people. Should military action become necessary for our own security, I 
will commit the full force and might of the United States military, and 
we will prevail.
    In whatever lies ahead, the United States will remain a friend to 
the Iraqi people. They have suffered years of brutal repression, years 
of domestic terror from their own rulers. A new regime would bring 
deliverance for them.
    Iraqi resources are abundant; its culture is rich; its citizens are 
talent--talented. And given a chance, there is no limit to what the 
Iraqi people can achieve. Their hopes are the same as all people in 
every land, to lead lives of dignity in a nation at peace. And America 
will help them.
    As many veterans have seen in countries around the world, captive 
people have greeted American soldiers as liberators, and there is good 
reason. We have no territorial ambitions. We don't seek an empire. Our 
Nation is committed to freedom for ourselves and for others. We and our 
allies have fought evil regimes and left in their place self-governing 
and prosperous nations.
    And in every conflict, the character of our Nation has been 
demonstrated in the conduct of the United States military. Where they 
have served, America's veterans are remembered by civilians with 
affection, not fear.
    One veteran recalls the closing days of the Second World War. In the 
spring of 1945, he said, ``Around the world, the sight of a 12-man squad 
of teenage boys armed in uniform brought terror to people's hearts. But 
there was an exception, a squad of GIs, a sight that brought the biggest 
smiles you ever saw to people's lips and joy to their hearts. GIs meant 
candy and cigarettes, C-rations and freedom.'' ``America,'' he said, 
``has sent the best of her young men around the world, not to conquer 
but to liberate, not to terrorize but to help.''
    As the Commander in Chief of Veterans Day, 2002, I see that same 
spirit in our military. These men and women are still the best of 
America. They are prepared for every mission we give them, and they are 
worthy of the standards set for them by America's veterans. Our veterans 
from every era are the finest of citizens. We owe them the life we know 
today. They command the respect of the American people, and they have 
our everlasting gratitude.
    May God bless America's veterans.

Note: The President spoke at 8:54 a.m. in the East Room at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to Elizabeth Ann Principi, wife of 
Secretary Anthony J. Principi; Nancy Jackson, wife of Maj. Gen. James T. 
Jackson, USA; and President Saddam Hussein of Iraq.