[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 39, Number 18 (Monday, May 5, 2003)]
[Pages 493-497]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on Operation Iraqi Freedom in Dearborn, Michigan

April 28, 2003

    The President. Thank you for that warm welcome. I'm glad to be here. 
I regret that I wasn't here a few weeks ago when the statue came down. I 
understand you had quite a party. I don't blame you. A lot of the people 
in the Detroit area had waited years for that great day.

[[Page 494]]

    Many Iraqi Americans know the horrors of Saddam Hussein's regime 
firsthand. You also know the joys of freedom you have found here in 
America. You are living proof the Iraqi people love freedom and living 
proof the Iraqi people can flourish in democracy. People who live in 
Iraq deserve the same freedom that you and I enjoy here in America. And 
after years of tyranny and torture, that freedom has finally arrived.
    I have confidence in the future of a free Iraq. The Iraqi people are 
fully capable of self-government. Every day, Iraqis are moving toward 
democracy and embracing the responsibilities of active citizenship. 
Every day, life in Iraq improves as coalition troops work to secure 
unsafe areas and bring food and medical care to those in need.
    America pledged to rid Iraq of an oppressive regime, and we kept our 
word. America now pledges to help Iraqis build a prosperous and peaceful 
nation, and we will keep our word again.
    Mr. Mayor, thanks, I appreciate you greeting me once again here in 
Dearborn. I appreciate your leadership. If you've got any problems with 
the garbage or the potholes, call the mayor. [Laughter]
    I want to thank members of the congressional delegation who have 
joined us today. Thank you all for coming. Michigan is well represented 
in the Halls of the United States Congress. I want to thank the folks 
from the State government who have joined us today, and local 
governments.
    I appreciate so very much the CEOs of the major automobile 
manufacturing companies who are based here in Detroit who are here, Rick 
Wagoner, Bill Ford, and Dieter Zetsche. Thank you all for coming. I look 
forward to discussing things with you later.
    Right before I came in here I had the opportunity to meet with some 
extraordinary men and women, our fellow Americans who knew the cruelties 
of the old Iraq. And like me, they believed deeply in the promise of a 
new Iraq.
    I spoke with Najda Egaily, a Sunni Muslim from Basra who moved to 
the United States 5 years ago. Najda learned the price of dissent in 
Iraq in 1988, when her brother-in-law was killed after laughing at a 
joke about Saddam Hussein in a house that was bugged.
    ``In Iraq,'' Najda says, ``we could never speak to anyone about 
Saddam Hussein. We had to make sure the windows were closed.'' The 
windows are now open in Iraq. Najda and her friends will never forget 
seeing the images of liberation in Baghdad. Here's what she said: ``We 
called each other, and we were shouting. We never believed that Saddam 
Hussein would be gone.''
    Audience member. He's gone.
    The President. Like Najda, a lot of Iraqis--a lot of Iraqis--feared 
the dictator, the tyrant, would never go away. You're right. He's gone.
    Audience members. U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!
    Audience member. [Inaudible]--back in the--[inaudible]----
    Audience member. Because of you, Mr. President, so can you.
    Audience member. [Inaudible].
    The President. We love free speech in America. [Laughter]
    I talked to Tarik Daoud, a Catholic from Basra who now lives in 
Bloomfield Hills. When the dictator regime fell, here's what Tarik said. 
He said, ``I am more hopeful today than I've ever been since 1958. We 
need to take the little children in Iraq and hold their hands and really 
teach them what freedom is all about.'' He says, ``The new generation 
could really make democracy work.''
    He's right to be optimistic. From the beginning of this conflict, we 
have seen brave Iraqi citizens taking part in their own liberation. 
Iraqis have warned our troops about landmines and enemy hideouts and 
military arsenals.
    Earlier this month, Iraqis helped marines locate the seven American 
prisoners of war who were then rescued in Northern Iraq. One courageous 
Iraqi man gave marines detailed layouts of a hospital in An Nasiriyah, 
which led to the rescue of American soldier Jessica Lynch.
    Iraqi citizens are now working closely with our troops to restore 
order to their cities and improve the life of their nation. In Basra, 
hundreds of police volunteers have joined with coalition forces to 
patrol the streets. In Baghdad, more than 1,000 citizens are doing

[[Page 495]]

joint patrols with coalition troops. And residents are also working with 
coalition troops to collect unexploded munitions from neighborhoods and 
repair the telephone system. People are working to improve the lives of 
the average citizens in Iraq.
    I want you to listen to what an Iraqi engineer said who was working 
with U.S. Army engineers to restore power to Baghdad. He said, ``We are 
very glad to work with the Americans to have power for the facilities. 
The Americans are working to help us.'' Iraqi Americans, including some 
from Michigan, are building bridges between our troops and Iraqi 
civilians. Members of the Free Iraqi Forces are serving as translators 
for our troops and are delivering humanitarian aid to the citizens.
    One of these volunteers, an Iraqi American who fled Saddam Hussein's 
regime in 1991, recently returned to his homeland with the 101st 
Airborne Division. A few weeks ago, when he first saw the cheering 
crowds of Iraqis welcome coalition troops in Hillah, he wept. He said 
people could hardly believe what was happening, and he told them, 
``Believe it. Liberation is coming.''
    Yes, there were some in our country who doubted the Iraqi people 
wanted freedom, or they just couldn't imagine they would be welcome--
welcoming to a liberating force. They were mistaken, and we know why. 
The desire for freedom is not the property of one culture; it is the 
universal hope of human beings in every culture.
    Whether you're Sunni or Shi'a or Kurd or Chaldean or Assyrian or 
Turkoman or Christian or Jew or Muslim--no matter what your faith, 
freedom is God's gift to every person in every nation. As freedom takes 
hold in Iraq, the Iraqi people will choose their own leaders and their 
own Government. America has no intention of imposing our form of 
government or our culture. Yet, we will ensure that all Iraqis have a 
voice in the new Government and all citizens have their rights 
protected.
    In the city of An Nasiriyah, where free Iraqis met recently to 
discuss the political future of their country, they issued a statement 
beginning with these words: Iraq must be democratic.
    Audience members. U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!
    The President. Thank you. That historic declaration expresses the 
commitment of the Iraqi people and their friends, the American people. 
The days of repression from any source are over. Iraq will be 
democratic.
    The work of building a new Iraq will take time. That nation is 
recovering not just from weeks of conflict but from decades of 
totalitarian rule.
    In a nation where the dictator treated himself to palaces with gold 
faucets and grand fountains, 4 out of 10 citizens did not even have 
clean water to drink. While a former regime exported milk and dates and 
corn and grain for its own profit, more than half a million Iraqi 
children were malnourished. As Saddam Hussein let more than $200 million 
worth of medicine and medical supplies sit in warehouses, one in eight 
Iraqi children were dying before the age of 5. And while the dictator 
spent billions on weapons, including gold-covered AK-47s, nearly a 
quarter of Iraqi children were born underweight. Saddam Hussein's regime 
impoverished the Iraqi people in every way.
    Today, Iraq has only about half as many hospitals as it had in 1990. 
Seventy percent of its schools are rundown and overcrowded. A quarter of 
the Iraqi children are not in school at all. Under Saddam's regime, the 
Iraqi people did not have a power system they could depend on. These 
problems plagued Iraq long before the recent conflict. We're helping the 
Iraqi people to address these challenges, and we will stand with them as 
they defeat the dictator's legacy.
    Right now, engineers are on the ground working with Iraqi experts to 
restore power and fix broken water pipes in Baghdad and other cities. 
We're working with the International Red Cross, the Red Crescent 
Societies, the International Medical Corps, and other aid agencies to 
help Iraqi hospitals get safe water and medical supplies and reliable 
electricity. Our coalition is cooperating with the United Nations to 
help restart the ration distribution system that provides food at 
thousands of sites in Iraq. And coalition medical facilities have 
treated Iraqis from everything from fractures and burns to symptoms of 
stroke.

[[Page 496]]

    One Iraqi man who was given medical help with his wife and sister 
aboard the U.S. Navy ship Comfort said, ``They treat us like family. 
There are babies in Iraq who are not cared for by their mothers as well 
as the nurses have cared for us.''
    Already, we are seeing important progress in Iraq. It wasn't all 
that long ago that the statue fell, and now we're seeing progress.
    Rail lines are reopening, and fire stations are responding to calls. 
Oil--Iraqi oil owned by the Iraqi people--is flowing again to fuel 
Iraq's powerplants. In Hillah, more than 80 percent of the city has now 
running water. City residents can buy meats and grains and fruits and 
vegetables at local shops. The mayor's office, the city council have 
been reestablished.
    In Basra, where more than half of the water treatment facilities 
were not working before the conflict--more than half weren't 
functioning--water supplies are now reaching 90 percent of the city. The 
opulent Presidential palace in Basra will now serve a new and noble 
purpose. We've established a water purification unit there to make 
hundreds of thousands of liters of clean water available to the 
residents of the city of Basra.
    Day by day, hour by hour, life in Iraq is getting better for the 
citizens. Yet, much work remains to be done. I have directed Jay Garner 
and his team to help Iraq achieve specific long-term goals. And they're 
doing a superb job. Congress recently allocated 2.5--nearly $2.5 billion 
for Iraq's relief and reconstruction. With that money, we are renewing 
Iraq with the help of experts from inside our Government, from private 
industry, from the international community, and most importantly, from 
within Iraq.
    We are dispatching teams across Iraq to assess the critical needs of 
the Iraqi people. We're clearing landmines. We're working with Iraqis to 
recover artifacts, to find the hoodlums who ravished the National Museum 
of Antiquities in Baghdad. Like many of you here, we deplore the actions 
of the citizens who ravished that museum. And we will work with the 
Iraqi citizens to find out who they were and to bring them to justice.
    We're working toward an Iraq where, for the first time ever, 
electrical power is reliable and widely available. One of our goals is 
to make sure everybody in Iraq has electricity. Already, 17 major 
powerplants in Iraq are functioning. Our engineers are meeting with 
Iraqi engineers. We're visiting powerplants throughout the country and 
determining which ones need repair, which ones need to be modernized, 
and which ones are obsolete, powerplant by powerplant. More Iraqis are 
getting the electricity they need.
    We're working to make Iraq's drinking water clean and dependable. 
American and Iraqi water sanitation engineers are inspecting treatment 
plants across the country to make sure they have enough purification 
chemicals and power to produce safe water.
    We're working to give every Iraqi access to immunizations and 
emergency treatment and to give sick children and pregnant women the 
health care they need. Iraqi doctors and nurses and other medical 
personnel are now going back to work. Throughout the country, medical 
specialists from many countries are identifying the needs of Iraqi 
hospitals for everything from equipment and repairs to water to 
medicines.
    We're working to improve Iraqi schools by funding a back-to-school 
campaign that will help train and recruit Iraqi teachers, provide 
supplies and equipment, and bring children across Iraq back into clean 
and safe schools. And as we do that, we will make sure that the schools 
are no longer used as military arsenals and bunkers and that teachers 
promote reading, rather than regime propaganda.
    And because Iraq is now free, economic sanctions are pointless. It 
is time for the United Nations to lift the sanctions so the Iraqis can 
use some resources to build their own prosperity.
    Like so many generations of immigrants, Iraqi Americans have 
embraced and enriched this great country without ever forgetting the 
land of your birth. Liberation for Iraq has been a long time coming, but 
you never lost faith. You knew the great sorrow of Iraq. You also knew 
the great promise of Iraq, and you shared the hope of the Iraqi people.
    You and I both know that Iraq can realize those hopes. Iraq can be 
an example of peace and prosperity and freedom to the entire Middle 
East. It'll be a hard journey, but at

[[Page 497]]

every step of the way, Iraq will have a steady friend in the American 
people.
    May God continue to bless the United States of America, and long 
live a free Iraq.

Note: The President spoke at 1:46 p.m. in the theater at the Ford 
Community and Performing Arts Center. In his remarks, he referred to 
former President Saddam Hussein of Iraq; Mayor Michael A. Guido of 
Dearborn; G. Richard Wagoner, Jr., president and chief executive 
officer, General Motors Corp.; William Clay Ford, Jr., chairman of the 
board and chief executive officer, Ford Motor Co.; Dieter Zetsche, 
president and chief executive officer, Chrysler Group; and Lt. Gen. Jay 
Garner, USA (Ret.), Director, Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian 
Assistance for Post-war Iraq, Department of Defense. The Office of the 
Press Secretary also released a Spanish language transcript of these 
remarks.