[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 39, Number 47 (Monday, November 24, 2003)]
[Pages 1645-1650]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at Whitehall Palace in London, United Kingdom

November 19, 2003

    Thank you very much. Secretary Straw and Secretary Hoon, Admiral 
Cobbold and Dr. Chipman, distinguished guests: I want to thank you for 
your very kind welcome that you've given to me and to Laura. I also 
thank the groups hosting this event, the Royal United Services Institute 
and the International Institute for Strategic Studies. We're honored to 
be in the United Kingdom, and we bring the good wishes of the American 
people.
    It was pointed out to me that the last noted American to visit 
London stayed in a glass box dangling over the Thames. [Laughter] A few 
might have been happy to provide similar arrangements for me. [Laughter] 
I thank Her Majesty the Queen for interceding. [Laughter] We're honored 
to be staying at her house.
    Americans traveling to England always observe more similarities to 
our country than differences. I've been here only a short time, but I've 
noticed that the tradition of free speech, exercised with enthusiasm--
[laughter]--is alive and well here in London. We have that at home too. 
They now have that right in Baghdad as well.
    The people of Great Britain also might see some familiar traits in 
Americans. We're sometimes faulted for a naive faith that liberty can 
change the world. If that's an error, it began with reading too much 
John Locke and Adam Smith. Americans have, on occasion, been called 
moralists who often speak in terms of right and wrong. That zeal has 
been inspired by examples on this island, by the tireless compassion of 
Lord Shaftesbury, the righteous courage of Wilberforce, and the firm 
determination of the Royal Navy over the decades to fight and end the 
trade in slaves.
    It's rightly said that Americans are a religious people. That's in 
part because the ``Good News'' was translated by Tyndale, preached by 
Wesley, lived out in the example of William Booth. At times, Americans 
are even said to have a puritan streak. And where might that have come 
from? [Laughter] Well, we can start with the Puritans.
    To this fine heritage, Americans have added a few traits of our own, 
the good influence of our immigrants, the spirit of the frontier. Yet, 
there remains a bit of England in every American. So much of our 
national character comes from you, and we're glad for it.
    The fellowship of generations is the cause of common beliefs. We 
believe in open societies ordered by moral conviction. We believe in 
private markets humanized by compassionate government. We believe in 
economies that reward effort, communities that protect the weak, and the 
duty of nations to respect the dignity and the rights of all. And 
whether one learns these ideals in County Durham or in west Texas, they 
instill mutual respect, and they inspire common purpose.
    More than an alliance of security and commerce, the British and 
American peoples have an alliance of values. And today, this old and 
tested alliance is very strong.
    The deepest beliefs of our nations set the direction of our foreign 
policy. We value our own civil rights, so we stand for the human

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rights of others. We affirm the God-given dignity of every person, so we 
are moved to action by poverty and oppression and famine and disease. 
The United States and Great Britain share a mission in the world beyond 
the balance of power or the simple pursuit of interest. We seek the 
advance of freedom and the peace that freedom brings. Together, our 
nations are standing and sacrificing for this high goal in a distant 
land at this very hour, and America honors the idealism and the bravery 
of the sons and daughters of Britain.
    The last President to stay at Buckingham Palace was an idealist, 
without question. At a dinner hosted by King George V in 1918, Woodrow 
Wilson made a pledge. With typical American understatement--[laughter]--
he vowed that right and justice would become the predominant and 
controlling force in the world.
    President Wilson had come to Europe with his Fourteen Points for 
peace. Many complimented him on his vision, yet some were dubious. Take, 
for example, the Prime Minister of France. He complained that God 
himself had only Ten Commandments. [Laughter] Sounds familiar. 
[Laughter]
    At Wilson's high point of idealism, however, Europe was one short 
generation from Munich and Auschwitz and the Blitz. Looking back, we see 
the reasons why. The League of Nations, lacking both credibility and 
will, collapsed at the first challenge of the dictators. Free nations 
failed to recognize, much less confront, the aggressive evil in plain 
sight. And so dictators went about their business, feeding resentments 
and anti-Semitism, bringing death to innocent people in this city and 
across the world, and filling the last century with violence and 
genocide.
    Through World War and cold war, we learned that idealism, if it is 
to do any good in this world, requires common purpose and national 
strength, moral courage, and patience in difficult tasks. And now our 
generation has need of these qualities.
    On September the 11th, 2001, terrorists left their mark of murder on 
my country and took the lives of 67 British citizens. With the passing 
of months and years, it is the natural human desire to resume a quiet 
life and to put that day behind us, as if waking from a dark dream. The 
hope that danger has passed is comforting, is understanding, and it is 
false. The attacks that followed on Bali, Jakarta, Casablanca, Bombay, 
Mombasa, Najaf, Jerusalem, Riyadh, Baghdad, and Istanbul were not 
dreams. They're part of a global campaign by terrorist networks to 
intimidate and demoralize all who oppose them.
    These terrorists target the innocent, and they kill by the 
thousands. And they would, if they gain the weapons they seek, kill by 
the millions and not be finished. The greatest threat of our age is 
nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons in the hands of terrorists and 
the dictators who aid them. The evil is in plain sight. The danger only 
increases with denial. Great responsibilities fall once again to the 
great democracies. We will face these threats with open eyes, and we 
will defeat them.
    The peace and security of free nations now rests on three pillars. 
First, international organizations must be equal to the challenges 
facing our world, from lifting up failing states to opposing 
proliferation. Like 11 Presidents before me, I believe in the 
international institutions and alliances that America helped to form and 
helps to lead. The United States and Great Britain have labored hard to 
help make the United Nations what it is supposed to be, an effective 
instrument of our collective security. In recent months, we've sought 
and gained three additional resolutions on Iraq, Resolutions 1441, 1483, 
and 1511, precisely because the global danger of terror demands a global 
response. The United Nations has no more compelling advocate than your 
Prime Minister, who at every turn has championed its ideals and appealed 
to its authority. He understands as well that the credibility of the 
U.N. depends on a willingness to keep its word and to act when action is 
required.
    America and Great Britain have done and will do all in their power 
to prevent the United Nations from solemnly choosing its own irrelevance 
and inviting the fate of the League of Nations. It's not enough to meet 
the dangers of the world with resolutions. We must meet those dangers 
with resolve.
    In this century, as in the last, nations can accomplish more 
together than apart. For 54

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years, America has stood with our partners in NATO, the most effective 
multilateral institution in history. We're committed to this great 
democratic Alliance, and we believe it must have the will and the 
capacity to act beyond Europe where threats emerge. My Nation welcomes 
the growing unity of Europe, and the world needs America and the 
European Union to work in common purpose for the advance of security and 
justice. America is cooperating with four other nations to meet the 
dangers posed by North Korea. America believes the IAEA must be true to 
its purpose and hold Iran to its obligations.
    Our first choice and our constant practice is to work with other 
responsible governments. We understand as well that the success of 
multilateralism is not measured by adherence to forms alone, the 
tidiness of the process, but by the results we achieve to keep our 
nations secure.
    The second pillar of peace and security in our world is the 
willingness of free nations, when the last resort arrives, to restrain * 
aggression and evil by force. There are principled objections to the use 
of force in every generation, and I credit the good motives behind these 
views. Those in authority, however, are not judged only by good 
motivations. The people have given us the duty to defend them, and that 
duty sometimes requires the violent restraint of violent men. In some 
cases, the measured use of force is all that protects us from a chaotic 
world ruled by force.
    * White House correction.
    Most in the peaceful West have no living memory of that kind of 
world. Yet in some countries, the memories are recent. The victims of 
ethnic cleansing in the Balkans, those who survived the rapists and the 
death squads, have few qualms when NATO applied force to help end those 
crimes. The women of Afghanistan, imprisoned in their homes and beaten 
in the streets and executed in public spectacles, did not reproach us 
for routing the Taliban. The inhabitants of Iraq's Ba'athist hell, with 
its lavish palaces and its torture chambers, with its massive statues 
and its mass graves, do not miss their fugitive dictator. They rejoiced 
at his fall.
    In all these cases, military action was preceded by diplomatic 
initiatives and negotiations and ultimatums and final chances until the 
final moment. In Iraq, year after year, the dictator was given the 
chance to account for his weapons programs and end the nightmare for his 
people. Now the resolutions he defied have been enforced.
    And who will say that Iraq was better off when Saddam Hussein was 
strutting and killing or that the world was safer when he held power? 
Who doubts that Afghanistan is a more just society and less dangerous 
without Mullah Omar playing host to terrorists from around the world? 
And Europe too is plainly better off with Milosevic answering for his 
crimes instead of committing more.
    It's been said that those who live near a police station find it 
hard to believe in the triumph of violence. In the same way, free 
peoples might be tempted to take for granted the orderly societies we 
have come to know. Europe's peaceful unity is one of the great 
achievements of the last half-century. And because European countries 
now resolve differences through negotiation and consensus, there's 
sometimes an assumption that the entire world functions in the same way. 
But let us never forget how Europe's unity was achieved: by Allied 
armies of liberation and NATO armies of defense. And let us never 
forget, beyond Europe's borders, in a world where oppression and 
violence are very real, liberation is still a moral goal, and freedom 
and security still need defenders.
    The third pillar of security is our commitment to the global 
expansion of democracy and the hope and progress it brings as the 
alternative to instability and hatred and terror. We cannot rely 
exclusively on military power to assure our long-term security. Lasting 
peace is gained as justice and democracy advance.
    In democratic and successful societies, men and women do not swear 
allegiance to malcontents and murderers; they turn their hearts and 
labor to building better lives. And democratic governments do not 
shelter terrorist camps or attack their peaceful neighbors; they honor 
the aspirations and dignity

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of their own people. In our conflict with terror and tyranny, we have an 
unmatched advantage, a power that cannot be resisted, and that is the 
appeal of freedom to all mankind.
    As global powers, both our nations serve the cause of freedom in 
many ways, in many places. By promoting development and fighting famine 
and AIDS and other diseases, we're fulfilling our moral duties as well 
as encouraging stability and building a firmer basis for democratic 
institutions. By working for justice in Burma, in the Sudan, and in 
Zimbabwe, we give hope to suffering people and improve the chances for 
stability and progress. By extending the reach of trade, we foster 
prosperity and the habits of liberty. And by advancing freedom in the 
greater Middle East, we help end a cycle of dictatorship and radicalism 
that brings millions of people to misery and brings danger to our own 
people.
    The stakes in that region could not be higher. If the Middle East 
remains a place where freedom does not flourish, it will remain a place 
of stagnation and anger and violence for export. And as we saw in the 
ruins of two towers, no distance on the map will protect our lives and 
way of life. If the greater Middle East joins the democratic revolution 
that has reached much of the world, the lives of millions in that region 
will be bettered, and a trend of conflict and fear will be ended at its 
source.
    The movement of history will not come about quickly. Because of our 
own democratic development--the fact that it was gradual and, at times, 
turbulent--we must be patient with others. And the Middle East countries 
have some distance to travel.
    Arab scholars speak of a freedom deficit that has separated whole 
nations from the progress of our time. The essentials of social and 
material progress--limited government, equal justice under law, 
religious and economic liberty, political participation, free press, and 
respect for the rights of women--have been scarce across the region. Yet 
that has begun to change. In an arc of reform from Morocco to Jordan to 
Qatar, we are seeing elections and new protections for women and the 
stirrings of political pluralism. Many governments are realizing that 
theocracy and dictatorship do not lead to national greatness; they end 
in national ruin. They are finding, as others will find, that national 
progress and dignity are achieved when governments are just and people 
are free.
    The democratic progress we've seen in the Middle East was not 
imposed from abroad, and neither will the greater progress we hope to 
see. Freedom, by definition, must be chosen and defended by those who 
choose it. Our part, as free nations, is to ally ourselves with reform, 
wherever it occurs.
    Perhaps the most helpful change we can make is to--change in our own 
thinking. In the West, there's been a certain skepticism about the 
capacity or even the desire of Middle Eastern peoples for self-
government. We're told that Islam is somehow inconsistent with a 
democratic culture. Yet more than half of the world's Muslims are today 
contributing citizens in democratic societies. It is suggested that the 
poor, in their daily struggles, care little for self-government. Yet the 
poor especially need the power of democracy to defend themselves against 
corrupt elites.
    Peoples of the Middle East share a high civilization, a religion of 
personal responsibility, and a need for freedom as deep as our own. It 
is not realism to suppose that one-fifth of humanity is unsuited to 
liberty. It is pessimism and condescension, and we should have none of 
it.
    We must shake off decades of failed policy in the Middle East. Your 
nation and mine, in the past, have been willing to make a bargain, to 
tolerate oppression for the sake of stability. Longstanding ties often 
led us to overlook the faults of local elites. Yet this bargain did not 
bring stability or make us safe. It merely bought time while problems 
festered and ideologies of violence took hold.
    As recent history has shown, we cannot turn a blind eye to 
oppression just because the oppression is not in our own backyard. No 
longer should we think tyranny is benign because it is temporarily 
convenient. Tyranny is never benign to its victims, and our great 
democracies should oppose tyranny wherever it is found.
    Now we're pursuing a different course, a forward strategy of freedom 
in the Middle East. We will consistently challenge the enemies of reform 
and confront the allies of

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terror. We will expect a higher standard from our friends in the region, 
and we will meet our responsibilities in Afghanistan and in Iraq by 
finishing the work of democracy we have begun.
    There were good-faith disagreements in your country and mine over 
the course and timing of military action in Iraq. Whatever has come 
before, we now have only two options: to keep our word or to break our 
word. The failure of democracy in Iraq would throw its people back into 
misery and turn that country over to terrorists who wish to destroy us. 
Yet democracy will succeed in Iraq, because our will is firm, our word 
is good, and the Iraqi people will not surrender their freedom.
    Since the liberation of Iraq, we have seen changes that could hardly 
have been imagined a year ago. A new Iraqi police force protects the 
people instead of bullying them. More than 150 Iraqi newspapers are now 
in circulation, printing what they choose, not what they're ordered. 
Schools are open with textbooks free of propaganda. Hospitals are 
functioning and are well supplied. Iraq has a new currency, the first 
battalion of a new army, representative local governments, and a 
Governing Council with an aggressive timetable for national sovereignty. 
This is substantial progress, and much of it has proceeded faster than 
similar efforts in Germany and Japan after World War II.
    Yet the violence we are seeing in Iraq today is serious, and it 
comes from Ba'athist holdouts and jihadists from other countries and 
terrorists drawn to the prospect of innocent bloodshed. It is the nature 
of terrorism, in the cruelty of a few, to try to bring grief in the loss 
to many.
    The Armed Forces of both our countries have taken losses, felt 
deeply by our citizens. Some families now live with a burden of great 
sorrow. We cannot take the pain away, but these families can know they 
are not alone. We pray for their strength. We pray for their comfort, 
and we will never forget the courage of the ones they loved.
    The terrorists have a purpose, a strategy to their cruelty. They 
view the rise of democracy in Iraq as a powerful threat to their 
ambitions. In this, they are correct. They believe their acts of terror 
against our coalition, against international aid workers, and against 
innocent Iraqis will make us recoil and retreat. In this, they are 
mistaken.
    We did not charge hundreds of miles into the heart of Iraq and pay a 
bitter cost of casualties and liberate 25 million people only to retreat 
before a band of thugs and assassins. We will help the Iraqi people 
establish a peaceful and democratic country in the heart of the Middle 
East. And by doing so, we will defend our people from danger.
    The forward strategy of freedom must also apply to the Arab-Israeli 
conflict. It's a difficult period in a part of the world that has known 
many. Yet, our commitment remains firm. We seek justice and dignity. We 
seek a viable independent state for the Palestinian people, who have 
been betrayed by others for too long. We seek security and recognition 
for the state of Israel, which has lived in a shadow of random death for 
too long. These are worthy goals in themselves, and by reaching them we 
will also remove an occasion and excuse for hatred and violence in the 
broader Middle East.
    Achieving peace in the Holy Land is not just a matter of the shape 
of a border. As we work on the details of peace, we must look to the 
heart of the matter, which is the need for a viable Palestinian 
democracy. Peace will not be achieved by Palestinian rulers who 
intimidate opposition, who tolerate and profit from corruption, and 
maintain their ties to terrorist groups. These are the methods of the 
old elites, who time and again had put their own self-interest above the 
interest of the people they claim to serve. The long-suffering 
Palestinian people deserve better. They deserve true leaders capable of 
creating and governing a Palestinian state.
    Even after the setbacks and frustrations of recent months, good will 
and hard effort can bring about a Palestinian state and a secure Israel. 
Those who would lead a new Palestine should adopt peaceful means to 
achieve the rights of their people and create the reformed institutions 
of a stable democracy.
    Israel should freeze settlement construction, dismantle unauthorized 
outposts, end the daily humiliation of the Palestinian people, and not 
prejudice final negotiations with the placements of walls and fences.

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    Arab states should end incitement in their own media, cut off public 
and private funding for terrorism, and establish normal relations with 
Israel.
    Leaders in Europe should withdraw all favor and support from any 
Palestinian ruler who fails his people and betrays their cause. And 
Europe's leaders and all leaders should strongly oppose anti-Semitism, 
which poisons public debates over the future of the Middle East.
    Ladies and gentlemen, we have great objectives before us that make 
our Atlantic alliance as vital as it has ever been: We will encourage 
the strength and effectiveness of international institutions; we will 
use force when necessary in the defense of freedom; and we will raise up 
an ideal of democracy in every part of the world. On these three pillars 
we will build the peace and security of all free nations in a time of 
danger.
    So much good has come from our alliance of conviction and might. So 
much now depends on the strength of this alliance as we go forward. 
America has always found strong partners in London, leaders of good 
judgment and blunt counsel and backbone when times are tough. And I have 
found all those qualities in your current Prime Minister, who has my 
respect and my deepest thanks.
    The ties between our nations, however, are deeper than the 
relationship between leaders. These ties endure because they are formed 
by the experience and responsibilities and adversity we have shared. And 
in the memory of our peoples, there will always be one experience, one 
central event when the seal was fixed on the friendship between Britain 
and the United States. The arrival in Great Britain of more than 1.5 
million American soldiers and airmen in the 1940s was a turning point in 
the Second World War. For many Britons, it was a first close look at 
Americans, other than in the movies. Some of you here today may still 
remember the ``friendly invasion.''
    ``Our lads,'' they took some getting used to. There was even a 
saying about what many of them were up to--in addition to being 
``overpaid and over here.'' [Laughter] At a reunion in north London some 
years ago, an American pilot who had settled in England after his 
military service said, ``Well, I'm still over here and probably 
overpaid. So two out of three isn't bad.'' [Laughter]
    In that time of war, the English people did get used to the 
Americans. They welcomed soldiers and fliers into their villages and 
homes and took to calling them ``our boys.'' About 70,000 of those boys 
did their part to affirm our special relationship. They returned home 
with English brides.
    Americans gained a certain image of Britain as well. We saw an 
island threatened on every side, a leader who did not waver, and a 
country of the firmest character. And that has not changed. The British 
people are the sort of partners you want when serious work needs doing. 
The men and women of this Kingdom are kind and steadfast and generous 
and brave. And America is fortunate to call this country our closest 
friend in the world.
    May God bless you all.

Note: The President spoke at 1:24 p.m. in the Royal Banqueting House. In 
his remarks, he referred to Secretary of State for Foreign and 
Commonwealth Affairs Jack Straw, Secretary of State for Defense Geoffrey 
Hoon, Queen Elizabeth II, and Prime Minister Tony Blair of the United 
Kingdom; Rear Adm. Richard Cobbold, director, Royal United Services 
Institute for Defence and Security Studies; John Chipman, director, 
International Institute for Strategic Studies; American magician David 
Blaine, who spent 44 days in isolation suspended above the River Thames; 
former President Saddam Hussein of Iraq; Mullah Omar, head of the 
deposed Taliban regime in Afghanistan; and former President Slobodan 
Milosevic of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro). 
The Office of the Press Secretary also released a Spanish language 
transcript of these remarks.