[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 39, Number 37 (Monday, September 15, 2003)]
[Pages 1163-1166]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Address to the Nation on the
War on Terror

September 7, 2003

    Good evening. I have asked for this time to keep you informed of 
America's actions in the war on terror.
    Nearly 2 years ago, following deadly attacks on our country, we 
began a systematic campaign against terrorism. These months have been a 
time of new responsibilities and sacrifice and national resolve and 
great progress.
    America and a broad coalition acted first in Afghanistan, by 
destroying the training camps of terror and removing the regime that 
harbored Al Qaida. In a series of raids and actions around the world, 
nearly two-thirds of Al Qaida's known leaders have been captured or 
killed, and we continue on Al Qaida's trail. We have exposed terrorist 
front groups, seized terrorist accounts, taken new measures to protect 
our homeland, and uncovered sleeper cells inside the United States. And 
we acted in Iraq, where the former regime sponsored terror, possessed 
and used weapons of mass destruction, and for 12 years defied the clear 
demands of the United Nations Security Council. Our coalition enforced 
these international demands in one of the swiftest and most humane 
military campaigns in history.
    For a generation leading up to September the 11th, 2001, terrorists 
and their radical allies attacked innocent people in the Middle East and 
beyond without facing a sustained and serious response. The terrorists 
became convinced that free nations were decadent and weak. And they grew 
bolder, believing that history was on their side. Since America put out 
the fires of September the 11th and mourned our dead and went to war, 
history has taken a different turn. We have carried the fight to the 
enemy. We are rolling back the terrorist threat to civilization, not on 
the fringes of its influence but at the heart of its power.
    This work continues. In Iraq, we are helping the long-suffering 
people of that country to build a decent and democratic society at the 
center of the Middle East. Together we are transforming a place of 
torture chambers and mass graves into a nation of laws and free 
institutions. This undertaking is difficult and costly, yet worthy of 
our country and critical to our security.
    The Middle East will either become a place of progress and peace, or 
it will be an exporter of violence and terror that takes more lives in 
America and in other free nations. The triumph of democracy and 
tolerance in Iraq, in Afghanistan, and beyond would be a grave setback 
for international terrorism. The terrorists thrive on the support of 
tyrants and the resentments of oppressed peoples. When tyrants fall and 
resentment gives way to hope, men and women in every culture reject the 
ideologies of terror and turn to the pursuits of peace. Everywhere that 
freedom takes hold, terror will retreat.

[[Page 1164]]

    Our enemies understand this. They know that a free Iraq will be free 
of them--free of assassins and torturers and secret police. They know 
that as democracy rises in Iraq, all of their hateful ambitions will 
fall like the statues of the former dictator. And that is why, 5 months 
after we liberated Iraq, a collection of killers is desperately trying 
to undermine Iraq's progress and throw the country into chaos.
    Some of the attackers are members of the old Saddam regime who fled 
the battlefield and now fight in the shadows. Some of the attackers are 
foreign terrorists who have come to Iraq to pursue their war on America 
and other free nations. We cannot be certain to what extent these groups 
work together. We do know they have a common goal, reclaiming Iraq for 
tyranny.
    Most but not all of these killers operate in one area of the 
country. The attacks you have heard and read about in the last few weeks 
have occurred predominantly in the central region of Iraq, between 
Baghdad and Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's former stronghold. The north of 
Iraq is generally stable and is moving forward with reconstruction and 
self-government. The same trends are evident in the south, despite 
recent attacks by terrorist groups.
    Though their attacks are localized, the terrorists and Saddam 
loyalists have done great harm. They have ambushed American and British 
service members, who stand for freedom and order. They have killed 
civilian aid workers of the United Nations, who represent the compassion 
and generosity of the world. They have bombed the Jordanian Embassy, the 
symbol of a peaceful Arab country. And last week, they murdered a 
respected cleric and over a hundred Muslims at prayer, bombing a holy 
shrine and a symbol of Islam's peaceful teachings.
    This violence is directed not only against our coalition but against 
anyone in Iraq who stands for decency and freedom and progress. There is 
more at work in these attacks than blind rage. The terrorists have a 
strategic goal. They want us to leave Iraq before our work is done. They 
want to shake the will of the civilized world. In the past, the 
terrorists have cited the examples of Beirut and Somalia, claiming that 
if you inflict harm on Americans, we will run from a challenge. In this, 
they are mistaken.
    Two years ago, I told the Congress and the country that the war on 
terror would be a lengthy war, a different kind of war, fought on many 
fronts in many places. Iraq is now the central front. Enemies of freedom 
are making a desperate stand there, and there they must be defeated. 
This will take time and require sacrifice. Yet we will do what is 
necessary, we will spend what is necessary, to achieve this essential 
victory in the war on terror, to promote freedom, and to make our own 
Nation more secure.
    America has done this kind of work before. Following World War II, 
we lifted up the defeated nations of Japan and Germany and stood with 
them as they built representative governments. We committed years and 
resources to this cause. And that effort has been repaid many times over 
in three generations of friendship and peace. America today accepts the 
challenge of helping Iraq in the same spirit, for their sake and our 
own.
    Our strategy in Iraq has three objectives: destroying the 
terrorists; enlisting the support of other nations for a free Iraq; and 
helping Iraqis assume responsibility for their own defense and their own 
future.
    First, we are taking direct action against the terrorists in the 
Iraqi theater, which is the surest way to prevent future attacks on 
coalition forces and the Iraqi people. We are staying on the offensive 
with a series of precise strikes against enemy targets increasingly 
guided by intelligence given to us by Iraqi citizens. Since the end of 
major combat operations, we have conducted raids seizing many caches of 
enemy weapons and massive amounts of ammunition, and we have captured or 
killed hundreds of Saddam loyalists and terrorists. So far, of the 55 
most wanted former Iraqi leaders, 42 are dead or in custody. We are 
sending a clear message: Anyone who seeks to harm our soldiers can know 
that our soldiers are hunting for them.
    Second, we are committed to expanding international cooperation in 
the reconstruction and security of Iraq, just as we are in Afghanistan. 
Our military commanders in Iraq advise me that the current number of 
American troops, nearly 130,000, is appropriate to their mission. They 
are joined by

[[Page 1165]]

over 20,000 service members from 29 other countries. Two multinational 
divisions led by the British and the Poles are serving alongside our 
forces, and in order to share the burden more broadly, our commanders 
have requested a third multinational division to serve in Iraq.
    Some countries have requested an explicit authorization of the 
United Nations Security Council before committing troops to Iraq. I have 
directed Secretary of State Colin Powell to introduce a new Security 
Council resolution which would authorize the creation of a multinational 
force in Iraq, to be led by America. I recognize that not all of our 
friends agreed with our decision to enforce the Security Council 
resolutions and remove Saddam Hussein from power. Yet we cannot let past 
differences interfere with present duties. Terrorists in Iraq have 
attacked representatives of the civilized world, and opposing them must 
be the cause of the civilized world. Members of the United Nations now 
have an opportunity and the responsibility to assume a broader role in 
assuring that Iraq becomes a free and democratic nation.
    Third, we are encouraging the orderly transfer of sovereignty and 
authority to the Iraqi people. Our coalition came to Iraq as liberators, 
and we will depart as liberators. Right now, Iraq has its own Governing 
Council, comprised of 25 leaders representing Iraq's diverse people. The 
Governing Council recently appointed cabinet ministers to run Government 
departments. Already more than 90 percent of towns and cities have 
functioning local governments, which are restoring basic services. We're 
helping to train civil defense forces to keep order and an Iraqi police 
service to enforce the law, a facilities protection service, Iraqi 
border guards to help secure the borders, and a new Iraqi army. In all 
these roles, there are now some 60,000 Iraqi citizens under arms, 
defending the security of their own country, and we are accelerating the 
training of more.
    Iraq is ready to take the next steps toward self-government. The 
Security Council resolution we introduce will encourage Iraq's Governing 
Council to submit a plan and a timetable for the drafting of a 
constitution and for free elections. From the outset, I have expressed 
confidence in the ability of the Iraqi people to govern themselves. Now 
they must rise to the responsibilities of a free people and secure the 
blessings of their own liberty.
    Our strategy in Iraq will require new resources. We have conducted a 
thorough assessment of our military and reconstruction needs in Iraq and 
also in Afghanistan. I will soon submit to Congress a request for $87 
billion. The request will cover ongoing military and intelligence 
operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere, which we expect will 
cost $66 billion over the next year. This budget request will also 
support our commitment to helping the Iraqi and Afghan people rebuild 
their own nations after decades of oppression and mismanagement. We will 
provide funds to help them improve security, and we will help them to 
restore basic services such as electricity and water and to build new 
schools, roads, and medical clinics. This effort is essential to the 
stability of those nations and, therefore, to our own security. Now and 
in the future, we will support our troops, and we will keep our word to 
the more than 50 million people of Afghanistan and Iraq.
    Later this month, Secretary Powell will meet with representatives of 
many nations to discuss their financial contributions to the 
reconstruction of Afghanistan. Next month, he will hold a similar 
funding conference for the reconstruction of Iraq. Europe, Japan, and 
states in the Middle East all will benefit from the success of freedom 
in these two countries, and they should contribute to that success.
    The people of Iraq are emerging from a long trial. For them, there 
will be no going back to the days of the dictator, to the miseries of 
humiliation he inflicted on that good country. For the Middle East and 
the world, there will be no going back to the days of fear when a brutal 
and aggressive tyrant possessed terrible weapons. And for America, there 
will be no going back to the era before September the 11th, 2001, to 
false comfort in a dangerous world. We have learned that terrorist 
attacks are not caused by the use of strength. They are invited by the 
perception of weakness. And the surest way to avoid attacks on our own 
people is to engage the enemy where he lives and plans. We are

[[Page 1166]]

fighting that enemy in Iraq and Afghanistan today so that we do not meet 
him again on our own streets, in our own cities.
    The heaviest burdens in our war on terror fall, as always, on the 
men and women of our Armed Forces and our intelligence services. They 
have removed gathering threats to America and our friends, and this 
Nation takes great pride in their incredible achievements. We are 
grateful for their skill and courage and for their acts of decency, 
which have shown America's character to the world. We honor the 
sacrifice of their families. And we mourn every American who has died so 
bravely, so far from home.
    The Americans who assume great risk overseas understand the great 
cause they are in. Not long ago, I received a letter from a captain in 
the 3d Infantry Division in Baghdad. He wrote about his pride in serving 
a just cause and about the deep desire of Iraqis for liberty. ``I see 
it,'' he said, ``in the eyes of a hungry people every day here. They are 
starved for freedom and opportunity.'' And he concluded, ``I just 
thought you'd like a note from the frontlines of freedom.'' That Army 
captain and all of our men and women serving in the war on terror are on 
the frontlines of freedom. And I want each of them to know, your country 
thanks you, and your country supports you.
    Fellow citizens, we've been tested these past 24 months, and the 
dangers have not passed. Yet Americans are responding with courage and 
confidence. We accept the duties of our generation. We are active and 
resolute in our own defense. We are serving in freedom's cause, and that 
is the cause of all mankind.
    Thank you, and may God continue to bless America.

Note: The President spoke at 8:31 p.m. in the Cabinet Room at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to former President Saddam Hussein of 
Iraq; and Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, a Muslim cleric killed in a 
terrorist bombing in Najaf, Iraq, on August 29. The Office of the Press 
Secretary also released a Spanish language transcript of this address.