[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 41, Number 31 (Monday, August 8, 2005)]
[Pages 1245-1253]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks to the American Legislative Exchange Council in Grapevine, Texas

August 3, 2005

    Thank you all. Thank you all. Please be seated. Earl, thanks for the 
warm introduction. Thanks for the invitation, and thanks for the award. 
And I appreciate your leadership of ALEC. Good leaders make good 
decisions. You made a good decision bringing this convention to Texas. 
[Laughter]
    I'm pleased to be with the members of ALEC, and I want to thank you 
for serving. And I want to thank your families for standing by you as 
you serve. I appreciate you putting your community and your State and 
your Nation ahead of your self-interest. I also appreciate the 
philosophy you espouse, philosophy rooted in free enterprise, 
accountability for local officials at all levels, and your focus on 
results. I used to work with some ALEC members when I was Governor of 
the great State of Texas. I see a couple of them sitting around here. I 
appreciate you all coming. The thing I found about ALEC members is 
they're always willing to challenge the status quo, to espouse what I 
call a compassionate conservative philosophy, a philosophy that says, 
``Government if necessary but not necessarily Government.''
    And so, thanks for having me. Thanks for serving, and thanks for the 
invitation. Laura sends her best. She is the--she's down there in 
Crawford, and she is--I got to tell you, she's a great First Lady, is 
what she is, and a great wife.
    I see the speaker and Nadine Craddick from Midland, Texas. I think 
one of the reasons why Laura is admired is because she has never forgot 
where she came from or how she was raised. She's proud of Midland, 
Texas. She's carrying those Midland, Texas, values to Washington, DC. 
And she's a great mom, great wife, and a great First Lady. I want to 
thank--thank you, Tommy Craddick, who is the speaker of the house--of 
the Texas house is with us. And Speaker, you're

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doing a great job. Proud of your accomplishments, proud to be with you 
today.
    I want to thank Duane Parde, the executive director. I want to thank 
the members of the Texas host committee.
    I want to thank the Congress folks who are here today. I see a 
couple of you out there, a couple of Texas Congressmen, Feeney from 
Florida, and Culberson is here. Thank you all for coming. I want to 
thank former Senator John Breaux from Louisiana for joining us. John, 
thanks for being here.
    I asked Breaux to help out on simplifying the Tax Code. It needs to 
be simplified, and--looking forward to seeing your report. [Laughter] 
But thanks for serving.
    In Washington, we're working on two great goals, one, strengthening 
our economy, so people can realize their dreams; and defending this 
country. And we're making good progress on both. This economy of ours is 
strong. It is getting stronger, and the amazing thing is to remember 
where we have come from. We went through a recession and a stock market 
correction and a terrorist attack and corporate scandals and war. And in 
spite of that, this economy is growing at some of the highest levels 
ever.
    In 2003, growth was at the highest levels in nearly 20 years. Our 
economy today is growing faster than any other major industrialized 
nation in the world. We've added 2 million new jobs in the last 12 
months. More people work today than ever before in our Nation's history. 
Employment is up in 48 of the 50 States. Unemployment is down to 5 
percent. That's below the average rate of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. 
The entrepreneurial spirit is strong. More people own a home today than 
ever before in our Nation's history. Our tax relief plan is working.
    This week's report shows that both personal income and consumer 
spending grew rapidly in June. Real disposable personal income has grown 
by about 12 percent since the end of 2000. You know, some have 
questioned in Washington whether or not you can cut taxes and increase 
revenues for the Treasury. Well, I don't know if you saw the report that 
came out--recently came out. It showed that the Federal deficit is 
projected to be $94 billion less than previously expected. And that's 
because revenues are catching up. And the reason revenues are catching 
up is because the tax cuts stimulated economic vitality and growth all 
across the country. I laid out a goal for the Congress to work with the 
administration to cut the deficit in half by 2009, and we're ahead of 
pace to realize that goal.
    At the State level, there's some good news. You've seen the effects 
of the growing economy on your revenue. State revenues in the first 
quarter of 2005 increased 11.7 percent from the prior year; 42 States 
have received more in revenue than expected, which tells me that we need 
to work together to make sure we're wise about how we spend that money.
    Part of making sure that our economy continues to grow is to pass 
budget resolutions that are fiscally sound. And that's what we did in 
Washington, DC. I submitted the first budget to propose a cut in 
nonsecurity discretionary spending since Ronald Reagan was the 
President. And I appreciate the action in the United States House of 
Representatives and the United States Senate to pass a budget resolution 
that adhered to those principles. And now the appropriators must follow 
the guidelines of the budget. To keep this economy growing, we must not 
overspend at the Federal level.
    I set out some priorities this winter, priorities to adhere to our 
principle that the role of Government is not to create wealth; the role 
of Government is to create an environment in which the entrepreneurial 
spirit can flourish, in which dreamers can be--realize big dreams. And 
as they do, they'll employ more of our fellow citizens.
    I'm proud to report to you that we're making headway when it comes 
to legal reform. We've got too many junk lawsuits that make it hard for 
people to create jobs in America. We passed class-action reform. We 
passed bankruptcy reform--hope we can get asbestos reform done. I tell 
you one other thing we need to get done in Washington, DC, this fall. 
For the sake of good health care, to make sure health care is available 
and affordable, Congress needs to pass medical liability reform and get 
it on my desk.
    I told the United States Congress this country needs to develop an 
energy strategy. We should have done that 10 years ago. We

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should have developed a strategy that would help us diversify away from 
foreign sources of oil. And finally, after years of work, I'm proud to 
announce I'll be signing next week a comprehensive energy bill. And it's 
a good piece of legislation. It's a legislation that encourages domestic 
production. It's a piece of legislation that encourages conservation. 
It's also a piece of legislation that recognizes, over time, we must 
diversify away from our dependence on hydrocarbons. That's why we're now 
promoting nuclear energy. It makes sense for this country to use safe, 
clean nuclear power.
    We've got plenty of coal in America. We're now spending the money to 
make sure we burn it wisely so that we can protect our environment. In 
this bill, we've got good clean coal technology research and 
development. I believe that the best way to end our dependence on 
foreign sources of energy is to figure out how to use different kind of 
automobiles. And I believe hydrogen power is going to be the source of 
power that will allow us to diversify over time. And this bill is good 
about promoting research and development for hydrogen automobiles.
    Some of you from the Midwest may remember we had a problem with our 
electricity grid. This is a bill that modernizes the electricity grid 
and gets rid of old laws that prevent utilities from being able to raise 
money efficiently in the capital market. This is a good piece of 
legislation. It's a legislation that sets us on our way for independence 
from foreign sources of oil. I'm proud to sign it next week in New 
Mexico, and I want to thank the Members of the House and the Senate for 
getting it done.
    Congress recently passed the patient safety bill which improves 
health care by reducing medical errors. Congress passed the highway 
bill. We had a little problem getting that bill done over the last 
couple of years because we had a disagreement about the right number. I 
felt that the number ought to be fiscally--a fiscally responsible 
number. We worked hard with Members of the Senate and the House. I'll be 
proud to sign a fiscally responsible highway bill next Wednesday in the 
State of Illinois.
    Finally, I campaigned across this country telling people, I believe 
in free trade and fair trade. I hope we all understand the importance of 
opening up markets for U.S. products. If you're good at something, you 
ought to be selling those products, not only here at home but around the 
world. And we're really good at certain things. We're great at growing 
crops, for example. We're good at growing soybeans, and therefore, it 
seems to make sense that the administration ought to be working hard to 
opening up markets for our soybean growers and our manufacturers and our 
entrepreneurs and our high-tech folks.
    We had a problem in our hemisphere about trade. I don't know if you 
realize it or not, but most of the goods from Central America came into 
this country duty-free. Yet 80 percent of our goods were taxed through 
tariffs in Central American countries. That didn't seem to make sense to 
me. It certainly wasn't fair. All I say to people is, you treat us the 
way we treat you. If your goods can come into our markets duty-free, our 
goods ought to be able to go into your markets duty-free.
    And that's the spirit of the CAFTA legislation that I signed 
yesterday. It recognized that free trade must be fair trade. And the 
piece of legislation I signed is going to help people find jobs here in 
America. It's going to make it easier for us to sell our products to 44 
million consumers.
    But CAFTA was more than a trade bill. CAFTA was a statement about 
democracy in our own neighborhood. We entered into a pact, a long-term 
pact with new democracies, countries that not all that long ago were 
wrestling with civil strife and dictatorships. These young democracies 
turned to America, and said, ``We want to be allied with you through an 
economic trade pact.'' And by passing that bill, the United States of 
America made a clear statement to those young democracies that we stand 
with you. We will help you develop free markets and free societies. We 
will help you stand as you struggle to build your democracy. It's in our 
national interest that democracy prevail in our neighborhood.
    So we got some stuff done, and I want to thank you all for your 
support in this legislation. I also want to thank you for standing 
strong when it comes to insisting that there be high standards and 
accountability in our

[[Page 1248]]

public school systems. I was proud to sign the No Child Left Behind Act. 
It's what I call challenging the soft bigotry of low expectations. If 
you do not have high standards and if you do not measure, people just 
simply get shuffled through the system. That's not what we believe. And 
I told you earlier I was proud of ALEC because of your results-oriented 
nature. You believe in results.
    I believe in local control of schools, and that's inherent in the No 
Child Left Behind Act. It says, ``You measure. You court your--chart 
your course to excellence.'' But I also believe in results, and when we 
spend money at the Federal level, I expect people who are spending that 
money to show the taxpayers results. And that's why we're measuring. 
That's why we want to know whether a child can read and write and add 
and subtract. It's not too much to ask. You shouldn't be afraid to ask 
that question to your local educators and school boards. You ought to 
say, ``Listen, we trust you. We believe in you. We support you, but why 
don't you show us.'' See, you can't correct a problem until you diagnose 
a problem.
    Inherent in the No Child Left Behind Act is our belief that we've 
got to diagnose problems before you can solve problems. And by the way, 
it's working. There's an achievement gap in America. We've got too many 
young African American kids who aren't reading at the proper grade 
level, relative to Anglo kids. But because of the No Child Left Behind 
Act and because of good teachers and because of good leadership at the 
State level, that achievement gap is narrowing, and America is better 
off for it.
    I want to thank you for your support of the Faith-Based and 
Community Initiative. We understand that Government can't love. 
Government can pass law. Government can hand out money, but Government 
cannot put heart--hope in a person's heart or a sense of purpose in a 
person's life. That's done when a loving citizen puts their arm around 
somebody who hurts and says, ``How can I help you? What can I do to make 
your life better?'' The true strength of America lies in the hearts and 
souls of our fellow citizens. That's our strength. Our strength can be 
found in the armies of compassion which exist all across America.
    ALEC understands that the best way to bring hope into the dark 
corners of our country, the best way to bring optimism into people's 
lives is to stand squarely on--side by side with faith-based 
organizations and community-based organizations whose members have heard 
that call to love a neighbor just like you'd like to love--be loved 
yourself.
    At the Federal level, we'll continue to open up Federal money for 
grant purposes for faith-based programs. And at the same time, we will 
not allow bureaucracies to say to a faith-based program, ``You can't 
practice your faith.'' We're saving lives in America because we're 
unleashing the great compassion of America, the people of America, and 
the people whose hearts are right. I'm honored to be standing with good 
folks who understand that we can save America, one heart, one soul, and 
one conscience at a time. So I want to thank you for your support of the 
faith-based initiatives.
    I hope Congress gets a good rest because they got a lot of work to 
do when they get back. The Senate has got work to do, starting with the 
confirmation of a fine man, Judge John Roberts. John Roberts is highly 
qualified. He's one of the best appellate attorneys in the United 
States. He has argued 39 cases before the Supreme Court. I nominated him 
to the DC District Court, and he was approved by unanimous consent in 
the United States Senate. That means nobody objected. I spent time with 
John Roberts. He's a good family man. He has got a good way about him, a 
good modest fellow who is plenty bright. But most importantly, John 
Roberts is a man who will interpret the law--interpret the law based 
upon the United States Constitution, and he will not legislate from the 
bench.
    The Senate needs to conduct this hearing in a way that brings credit 
to the Senate. They need to have a good, honest debate about Judge 
Roberts. But I hope it's done in a way that brings dignity to the 
process. And they must be deliberate, but they also must hear this call: 
Roberts needs to get his hearing done and the confirmation completed so 
he can be seated before the Supreme Court reconvenes in early October.
    Congress needs to continue debating Social Security. Let me tell you 
about what I

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think my job description is. I think my job is to confront problems, not 
pass them on to future Presidents and future Congresses. I know that's 
what the American people expect of their leaders, and I see a problem in 
Social Security. I'm part of the problem. I'm fixing to retire. 
[Laughter] Matter of fact, my retirement age is in 2008. That's when I'm 
eligible for Social Security. It's a convenient year. [Laughter] And I'm 
not the only one. There's a lot of us who are eligible to retire. We're 
called the baby boomers. There's about 40 million people today receiving 
Social Security. By the time the baby boomers like me get completely 
retired, there will be about 75 million. In other words, a lot--there's 
a lot of us. And we're living longer than previous generations. Matter 
of fact, I think I'm going to ride the old mountain bike this afternoon 
in Crawford to make sure I live longer--[laughter]--if I can survive the 
heat.
    We've been promised greater benefits than the previous generation. 
People went around the country saying, ``Vote for me. I'll increase your 
Social Security benefits.'' And sure enough, that's one of the promises 
that Congress kept. You've got a lot of people living longer, getting 
greater benefits, with fewer people paying in the system. In the early 
fifties, there was about 16 workers to every beneficiary. Today, there's 
3.3 workers for every beneficiary. Soon there's going to be two workers 
for every beneficiary. If you look at the cash flow analysis, you'll 
find that the system goes red in 2017.
    And by the way, it is a pay-as-you-go system. Some people think it's 
a trust fund. The trust fund concept means we take your money; we hold 
it; and we give it back to you. No, this isn't the way it is. It is a 
pay-as-you-go. You pay. We go ahead and spend. [Laughter] You pay. We 
pay--you pay your payroll taxes, and we go ahead and pay for the 
benefits. And with money left over, we fund Federal programs. And all 
that's left is a file cabinet full of IOUs. Somebody told me that, and I 
went to West Virginia to see it for myself, and sure enough, it's still 
there--paper, promises. No, the system in 2017, goes in the red. In 
2042, it's bankrupt.
    So my first question to Members of Congress is, how can you go back 
to your districts, when you look at the facts, and stand up in front of 
young workers and look them in the eye and say, ``Man, the future is 
bright for you,'' knowing full well somebody is going to be paying 
payroll taxes into the system that's going broke? I certainly can't do 
that. And that's why I stood up in front of the Congress and said, 
``We've got a problem. Let's work together to fix it,'' and have gone 
around the country describing to the people the nature of the problem. 
The system is going broke is what is the problem.
    Secondly, I've done something most Presidents haven't done and that 
is put out some solutions. First of all, if you were born prior to 1950, 
nothing is going to change for you, and that's important for those of 
you who are interested in the subject to remind your mothers and fathers 
or some of the elderly in your districts--nothing changes. I understand 
older people don't like change, and therefore, when they hear, Social 
Security reform, it makes them nervous. As a matter of fact, some folks 
who don't want to see any Social Security reform at all have used that 
leverage--they go into people's districts and say, ``George W. is going 
to take your check away.'' It's not going to happen. There's plenty of 
money for the senior citizens.
    It's the younger workers who are coming up who better be paying 
attention to this issue. It's the younger folks who are coming up who 
are going to have to pay for people like me who are going to live longer 
and get more benefits than the previous generation. And so I said, ``Why 
don't we go ahead and come up with a system that says you're going to 
get your benefits if you're a poor person based upon wage increases, and 
if you're a wealthy person, you get your benefits that increase based 
upon the cost of living increases, and you scale it in between?'' And 
that solution or that suggestion nearly solves all of the permanency 
problems in Social Security. Listen, if you're a younger--somebody told 
me about a survey about the younger folks said they're more likely to 
see a UFO than a Social Security check. [Laughter] Well, if you believe 
that, it seems like it makes sense to have a system that if you're doing 
all right, it increases your benefits based upon cost of living. That 
means you're

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going to get a check, and it's going to be at least increasing at the 
rate of cost of living.
    We've got a lot of politics in Washington these days, though. People 
don't want to discuss the idea. It's kind of zero-sum up there when it 
comes to big issues. By the way, as we're talking about how to make the 
system permanently fixed, seems like to me now is the time to make sure 
it turns out to be a better deal for younger workers too. I strongly 
believe that younger workers ought to be allowed to take some of their 
own money and put it in a personal savings account, so they can watch 
their money grow at a rate greater than that which the Government can 
grow their money, a personal account they call their own, a personal 
account the Government cannot spend, a personal account they can pass on 
to whomever they want.
    We believe in ownership. We understand that the more people that own 
their home or own their own business or own and manage their own health 
care account or own and manage their own retirement account, the more 
people that do that, the better off America is. If you own something, 
you have a vital stake in the future of this country. Now is the time to 
permanently fix Social Security, and now is the time to trust people 
with their own money, to give people a chance to build an asset base 
they call their own.
    I told you about old Johnny Breaux and his tax reform. When Congress 
gets back, I think they ought to do two things. One, I think they ought 
to make the tax cuts we passed permanent. And that includes getting rid 
of the death tax forever. And as I mentioned, I'm looking forward to the 
tax simplification ideas. It's not going to be easy, but it's necessary. 
And John is a good man, and he'll work with his fellow citizens on that 
panel, both Republicans and Democrats, to propose some interesting ideas 
for the administration and Congress to look at. It's important. It's a 
big idea, and it's a necessary idea.
    I'll tell you another big idea. We've got to do something about our 
immigration laws. Our obligation is to secure the borders. We've got to 
make sure that we have the resources and technologies available for our 
Border Patrol agents. We've got to make sure we have a focused strategy 
to prevent people, goods, drugs, whatever, being smuggled into this 
country. That's one of our duties. And I meet with Chertoff quite 
frequently. He's the head of the Homeland Security. We do talk about how 
best to modernize the border security. One way to protect this border is 
to recognize that people are sneaking in here to work. And I believe 
that if you are a willing employer--in other words, if you have somebody 
looking for work and you can't find an American, there ought to be a 
legal way, not an illegal way, a legal way for you to be able to employ 
that person.
    Listen, we'd rather have people coming in with a card that said, 
``I'm a legal worker,'' than trying to sneak across the border. And 
we've got people being smuggled across--there is a whole smuggling 
network and a network of forgers and document falsifiers that are trying 
to beat the system. It seems rational to me that says there ought to be 
a way to let somebody come and do jobs Americans won't do, on a 
temporary basis.
    I've heard all kinds of talk about amnesty. I'm against amnesty. I 
think amnesty would be a mistake. But I do think it would be good to 
make sure our employers who are looking for workers are able to find 
people who are willing to do the jobs they have in a legal way. I'd 
rather our Border Patrol agents be looking for terrorists and drugs and 
guns being smuggled across our border, and people here--coming here to 
work have a legal way to do so on a temporary basis.
    So immigration reform is going to be an interesting subject when we 
get back to Washington, DC. I'm looking forward to the topic. I also 
want to talk to you about national security. Make no mistake about it, 
we are at war. We're at war with an enemy that attacked us on September 
the 11th, 2001. We're at war against an enemy that, since that day, has 
continued to kill. They have killed in Madrid and Istanbul and Jakarta 
and Casablanca and Riyadh and Bali and London and elsewhere.
    These are ideologs. These people have an ideology. It's really 
different from ours. We believe in human rights and human dignity and 
minority rights and rights for women and rights to worship freely. 
That's what we believe. We believe in a lot of rights for people. These 
killers don't. They have a narrow view

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of life. They have taken a great religion and converted it to their own 
vision. They have goals. They want to drive us out of parts of the 
world. They want the free world to retreat so they can topple 
governments. They want to be able to do in parts of the world that which 
they did in Afghanistan, take over a government, impose their negative, 
dark vision on people.
    Remember what life was like in Afghanistan. It's hard for the 
Western mind to even comprehend what life was like for people in 
Afghanistan, but this is a society in which young girls couldn't go to 
school. And if you objected to their point of view, you were taken into 
the public square and whipped or sometimes assassinated. There was no 
freedom. The only people that were free were the tyrants and the 
dictators, those who imposed their view of the world. This is their 
vision, and they would like to see that vision spread. Make no mistake 
about it, this is a war against people who profess an ideology, and they 
use terror as a means to achieve their objectives.
    After September the 11th, I made a commitment to the American people 
that the United States of America will not wait to be attacked again. We 
will take the fight to the enemy, and we will defend our freedom.
    To win this war on terror, we will use all elements of national 
power. We will use our military. For those of you who have got loved 
ones in the military, I want to thank you--tell them to thank--you thank 
them for me, on behalf of a grateful nation.
    We'll use our diplomatic corps. In other words, we're working with 
friends and allies. Part of winning this war on terror is to remind 
others of what's at stake and to work diplomatically to get people to 
keep pressure on the enemy. We've got our Treasury Department working 
with our friends and allies to cut off money. One way to defeat the 
enemy is deny them access to money. And when we find money being spent 
illegally or funding these terrorist organizations that funnel money to 
these killers, we do something about it.
    We're beefing up our intelligence here in America. We want to make 
sure that FBI and CIA can share intelligence. We want to make sure that 
we not only get the best intelligence, we analyze it properly, and we 
share it with our friends and allies and vice versa.
    See, it's a different kind of war. In the old days, you'd have 
armies that were funded by States. You knew where they were. You could 
trace them. This war is against killers who hide, and then they show up 
and kill innocent life, and then they retreat. And so you've got to have 
good intelligence in order to defeat them. We're working hard to 
coordinate law enforcement around the world. In other words, we're using 
all assets of this great Nation in order to defeat this enemy.
    We're making progress in defending the homeland. We've more than 
tripled homeland--funding for the homeland security since 2001. I'm sure 
some of you, in your States and local communities, have seen some of 
that money come down to help our first-responders be trained and to be 
equipped. I'm proud to report that the House of Representatives and the 
Senate renewed parts of the PATRIOT Act, permanently, and a small part 
of the PATRIOT Act will be sunsetted.
    This is an important piece of legislation. It was passed 
overwhelmingly right after September the 11th, and it's been used 
effectively by our Government. You see, the PATRIOT Act did several 
things. One, it allowed law enforcement to share intelligence with the 
enforcement side of their operations. The FBI couldn't talk to each 
other before the PATRIOT Act. You couldn't have your intelligence 
division sharing information with your law enforcement division. It 
didn't make any sense, but that's the way it was. And the PATRIOT Act 
ended that. It tore down walls. It allows parts of our Government to 
share information with one another.
    The PATRIOT Act, in essence, gave our terror fighters the same tools 
that our Government has given our drug fighters. The PATRIOT Act enables 
us to more effectively defend the homeland, and it does not usurp your 
rights under the Constitution. Every tool we use has got the scrutiny 
within the guidelines of the Constitution. The PATRIOT Act is important. 
I'm looking forward to the House and the Senate to reconcile their 
differences and get a PATRIOT Act to

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my desk as soon as possible. Our law enforcement officials must have the 
tools to protect the United States of America.
    And we're making progress here at home. We've broken up terrorist 
cells in America. We've broken up networks, financing networks in 
America, in places like California, Oregon, Illinois, North Carolina, 
New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Florida, and other States. There are a 
lot of people working hard on our citizens' behalf to protect this 
homeland. The best way to protect the homeland, however, is to stay on 
the offense, is to bring the enemy to justice before they come to our 
shores. And that's precisely the second part of our strategy. We're 
fighting the enemy in Afghanistan. We're fighting them in Iraq. We're 
defeating them there so we do not have to face them here. And our troops 
are doing great work.
    Iraq is the latest battlefield in the war on terror. Foreign 
fighters are going into Iraq to fight coalition troops for a reason. 
They understand the stakes. A free Iraq in the heart of the Middle East 
will deal a serious blow to their hateful ideology. A democracy in the 
heart of the Middle East will be a major blow to their desire to spread 
an ideology that's hateful and dark and negative.
    The violence in recent days in Iraq is a grim reminder of the 
enemies we face. These terrorists and insurgents will use brutal tactics 
because they're trying to shake the will of the United States of 
America. That's what they are trying to do. They want us to retreat. 
They want us, in our compassion for the innocent--say, ``We're 
through.'' That's what they want. They will fail. They do not understand 
the character and the strength of the United States of America. They do 
not understand our desire to protect ourselves, to protect our friends, 
protect our allies, and to spread freedom around the world.
    Our men and women who have lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan 
and in this war on terror have died in a noble cause, in a selfless 
cause. Their families can know that American citizens pray for them. And 
the families can know that we will honor their loved one's sacrifice by 
completing the mission, by laying the foundations for peace for 
generations to come.
    We have a strategy for success in Iraq. On the one hand, we've got a 
military strategy, and we'll continue to hunt down the terrorists, as we 
train Iraqi forces so they can defend their own country. As Iraqis stand 
up, Americans and coalition forces will stand down. And we're making 
progress. More and more Iraqi units are more and more capable of 
defending themselves.
    You know, my--I hear all the time, ``Well, when are you bringing the 
troops home?'' And my answer to you is: Soon as possible, but not before 
the mission is complete. Why would a Commander in Chief--it makes no 
sense for the Commander in Chief to put out a timetable. We're at war. 
We're facing an enemy that is ruthless. And if we put out a timetable, 
the enemy would adjust their tactics.
    The timetable is this--and you can tell your Guard troops and 
reserve troops and mothers and dads of those serving--the timetable 
depends on our ability to train the Iraqis, to get the Iraqis ready to 
fight. And then our troops are coming home with the honor they have 
earned.
    At the same time, we're helping that country defend itself and 
training its troops, there's a political track. A democracy is beginning 
to grow. I don't know about you, but when those 8 million-plus Iraqis 
went to the polls, it was an amazing moment. You know, I believe this, 
and at the heart of much of my policy is this firm belief, that freedom 
is the gift of an Almighty to every person in this world. It doesn't 
matter who you are. Embedded in your soul is the deep desire to live in 
freedom. That's what I believe. And if you believe that, then you 
shouldn't be all that surprised when, if given a chance, 8 million-plus 
people, in defiance of car bombers and killers and terrorists, said loud 
and clear to the world, ``We want to be free. We want to live in a 
democracy. We want a government that listens to us and doesn't tell us 
what to do.''
    And it's that movement toward freedom that frightens the enemy. It's 
that movement toward a free society in which people of different 
religious persuasions can live in peace together. It scares--it's that 
movement that says, women have got equal rights with men that frightens 
these people.

[[Page 1253]]

    But that movement is going forward. They're in the process now of 
arguing about a constitution. I don't know if you've read our American 
history much, about when we were writing our Constitution. You know, if 
there had been that much scrutiny when we were writing our Constitution 
as has been given to their--scrutiny when they're writing their 
constitution, a lot of people would have said it's never going to get 
written. It was not an easy deal for our Forefathers, our Founders to 
get consensus on our Constitution. But nevertheless, they worked hard 
and came up with a great Constitution.
    That's what the Iraqis are doing. They're coming up with a doctrine 
that will survive the years so that self-government and freedom prevail. 
And then they'll be voting on the document in October. And then they'll 
elect a permanent government in November. Democracy is moving forward, 
and that's part of laying the foundation for peace.
    We have done this type of work before in our Nation. We have fought 
evil before. We have been through ideological struggles. Your dads and 
granddads fought against the Nazis and fought against the Japanese. It 
was an ideological struggle against an enemy that was ruthless. And we 
prevailed. We prevailed in more ways than one. We prevailed militarily, 
but we also helped spread democracy. We laid that foundation for peace 
for the next generation coming up.
    Do you know that one of my best friends in the international 
community is the Prime Minister of Japan? Isn't that interesting? The 
Prime Minister of Japan, Prime Minister Koizumi, and I work together on 
North Korea and Iraq and Afghanistan. He's an ally. He's a good buddy. 
It wasn't all that long ago that my dad and your dads and granddads were 
at war with the Japanese, in a brutal war. They were the enemy. But 
something happened in between, something other than a military victory 
happened in between. And what happened was, was that Japan embraced a 
democracy. It wasn't an American democracy. It was a Japanese democracy, 
but it was a democracy.
    And it turns out, if you look at history, democracies are peaceful 
nations. The spread of democracy yields peace. What you're seeing on 
your TV screens today is the work of brave soldiers and diplomats and 
coalition partners, spreading democracy, defeating a hateful ideology 
with an ideology of hope, an ideology that has got a clear vision for a 
better tomorrow for all its citizens. We've seen this work before, and 
we have prevailed because we have been steadfast and true to our 
beliefs.
    And we'll prevail again. This Nation will be steadfast. This Nation 
will be strong. And this Nation, like other generations before us, will 
make sacrifices necessary to lay the foundation for peace for 
generations to come. We've got a big task in Washington, DC, and that's 
to remember the stakes of the war on terror and to do our duty and to be 
true to the principles of the greatest Nation on the face of the Earth.
    I want to thank you for letting me come here today. May God bless 
you all, and may God continue to bless America.

Note: The President spoke at 11:58 a.m. at the Gaylord Texan Resort and 
Convention Center. In his remarks, he referred to Earl Ehrhart, 
chairman, and Duane Parde, executive director, American Legislative 
Exchange Council; Tom Craddick, speaker, Texas House of Representatives, 
and his wife, Nadine Craddick; and Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi of 
Japan.