[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 39, Number 45 (Monday, November 10, 2003)]
[Pages 1513-1514]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
The President's Radio Address

November 1, 2003

    Good morning. This week, terrorists launched a series of attacks in 
Iraq. Their targets included police stations in Baghdad and Fallujah, 
the headquarters of the International Red Cross, and living quarters for 
the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad. The majority of their 
victims were Iraqis working to rebuild and restore order to their 
country and citizens of other nations engaged in purely humanitarian 
missions.
    Some of the killers behind these attacks are loyalists of the Saddam 
regime who seek to regain power and who resent Iraq's new freedoms. 
Others are foreigners who have traveled to Iraq to spread fear and chaos 
and prevent the emergence of a successful democracy in the heart of the 
Middle East. They may have different long-term goals, but they share a 
near-term strategy to intimidate Iraqis from building a free government 
and to cause America and our allies to flee our responsibilities. They 
know that a free Iraq will be free of them and free of the fear in which 
the ideologies of terror thrive.
    During the last few decades, the terrorists grew to believe that if 
they hit America hard, as in Lebanon and Somalia, America would retreat 
and back down. Five years ago, one of the terrorists said that an attack 
could make America run in less than 24 hours. They have learned the 
wrong lesson. The United States will complete our work in Iraq. Leaving 
Iraq prematurely would only embolden the terrorists and increase the 
danger to America. We are determined to stay, to fight, and to win.
    The terrorists and the Ba'athists loyal to the old regime will fail 
because America and our allies have a strategy, and our strategy is 
working. First, we are taking this fight to the enemy, mounting raids, 
seizing weapons and funds, and bringing killers to justice. One example 
is Operation Ivy Focus, a series of aggressive raids by the Army's 4th 
Infantry Division that in a little over a month has yielded the capture 
of more than 100 former regime members. In other operations, our 
soldiers have also seized hundreds of weapons, thousands of rounds of 
ammunition and explosives, and hundreds of thousands of dollars 
suspected of being used to finance terror operations.
    Second, we are training an ever-increasing number of Iraqis to 
defend their nation. Today, more than 90,000 Iraqis are serving as 
police officers, border guards, and civil defense personnel. These Iraqi 
forces are also supplying troops in the field with better intelligence, 
allowing for greater precision in targeting the enemies of freedom. And 
we are accelerating our efforts to train and field a new Iraqi army and 
more Iraqi civil defense forces.
    Third, we are implementing a specific plan to transfer sovereignty 
and authority to the Iraqi people. The Governing Council, made up of 
Iraqi citizens, has appointed ministers who are responsible for the day-
to-day operations of the Iraqi Government. The Council has also selected 
a committee that is developing a process through which Iraqis will draft 
a new constitution for their country. When a constitution has been 
ratified by the Iraqi people, Iraq will enjoy free and fair elections.
    All these efforts are closely linked. As security improves, life 
will increasingly return to normal in Iraq, and more and more Iraqis 
will step forward to play a direct role in the

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rebirth of their country. And as the political process moves forward and 
more and more Iraqis come to feel they have a stake in their country's 
future, they will help to secure a better life for themselves and their 
children.
    The terrorists and the Ba'athists hope to weaken our will. Our will 
cannot be shaken. We're being tested, and America and our allies will 
not fail. We will honor the sacrifice of the fallen by ensuring that the 
cause for which they fought and died is completed, and we will make 
America safer by helping to transform Iraq from an exporter of violence 
and terror into a center of progress and peace.
    Thank you for listening.

Note: The address was recorded at 9:37 a.m. on October 31 at the Bush 
Ranch in Crawford, TX, for broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on November 1. The 
transcript was made available by the Office of the Press Secretary on 
October 31 but was embargoed for release until the broadcast. In his 
remarks, the President referred to former President Saddam Hussein of 
Iraq. The Office of the Press Secretary also released a Spanish language 
transcript of this address.