[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 41, Number 40 (Monday, October 10, 2005)]
[Pages 1502-1509]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks to the National Endowment for Democracy

October 6, 2005

    Thank you all. Thank you all. Please be seated. Thank you for the 
warm welcome. I'm honored once again to be with the supporters of the 
National Endowment for Democracy. Since the day President Ronald Reagan 
set out the vision for this endowment, the world has seen the swiftest 
advance of democratic institutions in history. And Americans are proud 
to have played our role in this great story.
    Our Nation stood guard on tense borders. We spoke for the rights of 
dissidents and the hopes of exiles. We aided the rise of new democracies 
on the ruins of tyranny. And all the cost and sacrifice of that struggle 
has been worth it, because from Latin America to Europe to Asia, we've 
gained the peace that freedom brings.
    In this new century, freedom is once again assaulted by enemies 
determined to rollback generations of democratic progress. Once again, 
we're responding to a global campaign of fear with a global campaign of 
freedom. And once again, we will see freedom's victory.
    Vin, I want to thank you for inviting me back. And thank you for the 
short introduction. [Laughter] I appreciate Carl Gershman. I want to 
welcome former Congressman Dick Gephardt, who is a board member of the 
National Endowment for Democracy. It's good to see you, Dick. And I 
appreciate Chris Cox, who is the Chairman of the U.S. Securities and 
Exchange Commission and a board

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member for the National Endowment of Democracy, for being here as well. 
I want to thank all the other board members.
    I appreciate the Secretary of State, Condi Rice, who has joined us--
alongside her, Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld. Thank you all for 
being here. I'm proud as well that the newly sworn-in Chairman of the 
Joint Chiefs, the first Marine ever to hold that position, is with us 
today, General Peter Pace. I thank the members of the diplomatic corps 
who are here as well.
    Recently our country observed the fourth anniversary of a great evil 
and looked back on a great turning point in our history. We still 
remember a proud city covered in smoke and ashes, a fire across the 
Potomac, and passengers who spent their final moments on Earth fighting 
the enemy. We still remember the men who rejoice in every death and 
Americans in uniform rising to duty. And we remember the calling that 
came to us on that day and continues to this hour: We will confront this 
mortal danger to all humanity. We will not tire or rest until the war on 
terror is won.
    The images and experience of September the 11th are unique for 
Americans. Yet the evil of that morning has reappeared on other days, in 
other places, in Mombasa and Casablanca and Riyadh and Jakarta and 
Istanbul and Madrid and Beslan and Taba and Netanya and Baghdad and 
elsewhere. In the past few months, we've seen a new terror offensive 
with attacks on London, Sharm el-Sheikh, and a deadly bombing in Bali 
once again. All these separate images of destruction and suffering that 
we see on the news can seem like random and isolated acts of madness. 
Innocent men and women and children have died simply because they 
boarded the wrong train or worked in the wrong building or checked into 
the wrong hotel. Yet while the killers choose their victims 
indiscriminately, their attacks serve a clear and focused ideology, a 
set of beliefs and goals that are evil but not insane.
    Some call this evil Islamic radicalism; others, militant jihadism; 
still others, Islamofascism. Whatever it's called, this ideology is very 
different from the religion of Islam. This form of radicalism exploits 
Islam to serve a violent, political vision: the establishment, by 
terrorism and subversion and insurgency, of a totalitarian empire that 
denies all political and religious freedom. These extremists distort the 
idea of jihad into a call for terrorist murder against Christians and 
Jews and Hindus and also against Muslims from other traditions, who they 
regard as heretics.
    Many militants are part of global, borderless terrorist 
organizations like Al Qaida, which spreads propaganda and provides 
financing and technical assistance to local extremists and conducts 
dramatic and brutal operations like September the 11th. Other militants 
are found in regional groups, often associated with Al Qaida, 
paramilitary insurgencies and separatist movements in places like 
Somalia and the Philippines and Pakistan and Chechnya and Kashmir and 
Algeria. Still others spring up in local cells, inspired by Islamic 
radicalism but not centrally directed. Islamic radicalism is more like a 
loose network with many branches than an army under a single command. 
Yet these operatives, fighting on scattered battlefields, share a 
similar ideology and vision for our world.
    We know the vision of the radicals because they've openly stated it 
in videos and audiotapes and letters and declarations and web sites. 
First, these extremists want to end American and Western influence in 
the broader Middle East, because we stand for democracy and peace and 
stand in the way of their ambitions. Al Qaida's leader, Usama bin Laden, 
has called on Muslims to dedicate, quote, their ``resources, sons, and 
money to driving the infidels out of their lands.'' Their tactic to meet 
this goal has been consistent for a quarter-century: They hit us and 
expect us to run. They want us to repeat the sad history of Beirut in 
1983 and Mogadishu in 1993, only this time on a larger scale, with 
greater consequences.
    Second, the militant network wants to use the vacuum created by an 
American retreat to gain control of a country, a base from which to 
launch attacks and conduct their war against nonradical Muslim 
governments. Over the past few decades, radicals have specifically 
targeted Egypt and Saudi Arabia and Pakistan and Jordan for potential 
takeover.

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They achieved their goal, for a time, in Afghanistan. Now they've set 
their sights on Iraq. Bin Laden has stated: ``The whole world is 
watching this war and the two adversaries. It's either victory and glory 
or misery and humiliation.'' The terrorists regard Iraq as the central 
front in their war against humanity, and we must recognize Iraq as the 
central front in our war on terror.
    Third, the militants believe that controlling one country will rally 
the Muslim masses, enabling them to overthrow all moderate governments 
in the region and establish a radical Islamic empire that spans from 
Spain to Indonesia. With greater economic and military and political 
power, the terrorists would be able to advance their stated agenda, to 
develop weapons of mass destruction, to destroy Israel, to intimidate 
Europe, to assault the American people, and to blackmail our Government 
into isolation.
    Some might be tempted to dismiss these goals as fanatical or 
extreme. Well, they are fanatical and extreme, and they should not be 
dismissed. Our enemy is utterly committed. As Zarqawi has vowed, ``We 
will either achieve victory over the human race or we will pass to the 
eternal life.'' And the civilized world knows very well that other 
fanatics in history, from Hitler to Stalin to Pol Pot, consumed whole 
nations in war and genocide before leaving the stage of history. Evil 
men, obsessed with ambition and unburdened by conscience, must be taken 
very seriously, and we must stop them before their crimes can multiply.
    Defeating the militant network is difficult, because it thrives like 
a parasite on the suffering and frustration of others. The radicals 
exploit local conflicts to build a culture of victimization in which 
someone else is always to blame and violence is always the solution. 
They exploit resentful and disillusioned young men and women, recruiting 
them through radical mosques as the pawns of terror. And they exploit 
modern technology to multiply their destructive power. Instead of 
attending faraway training camps, recruits can now access online 
training libraries to learn how to build a roadside bomb or fire a 
rocket-propelled grenade, and this further spreads the threat of 
violence, even within peaceful democratic societies.
    The influence of Islamic radicalism is also magnified by helpers and 
enablers. They have been sheltered by authoritarian regimes, allies of 
convenience like Syria and Iran, that share the goal of hurting America 
and moderate Muslim governments and use terrorist propaganda to blame 
their own failures on the West and America and on the Jews. The radicals 
depend on front operations, such as corrupted charities, which direct 
money to terrorist activity. They're strengthened by those who 
aggressively fund the spread of radical, intolerant versions of Islam in 
unstable parts of the world. The militants are aided as well by elements 
of the Arab news media that incite hatred and anti-Semitism, that feed 
conspiracy theories and speak of a so-called American ``war on Islam,'' 
with seldom a word about American action to protect Muslims in 
Afghanistan and Bosnia, Somalia, Kosovo, Kuwait, and Iraq.
    Some have also argued that extremism has been strengthened by the 
actions of our coalition in Iraq, claiming that our presence in that 
country has somehow caused or triggered the rage of radicals. I would 
remind them that we were not in Iraq on September the 11th, 2001, and Al 
Qaida attacked us anyway. The hatred of the radicals existed before Iraq 
was an issue, and it will exist after Iraq is no longer an excuse. The 
Government of Russia did not support Operation Iraqi Freedom, and yet 
militants killed more than 180 Russian schoolchildren in Beslan.
    Over the years, these extremists have used a litany of excuses for 
violence, the Israeli presence on the West Bank or the U.S. military 
presence in Saudi Arabia or the defeat of the Taliban or the Crusades of 
a thousand years ago. In fact, we're not facing a set of grievances that 
can be soothed and addressed. We're facing a radical ideology with 
inalterable objectives, to enslave whole nations and intimidate the 
world. No act of ours invited the rage of the killers, and no 
concession, bribe, or act of appeasement would change or limit their 
plans for murder. On the contrary, they target nations whose behavior 
they believe they can change through violence. Against such an enemy, 
there is only one effective response: We will never back down, never 
give in, and never accept anything less than complete victory.

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    The murderous ideology of the Islamic radicals is the great 
challenge of our new century. Yet, in many ways, this fight resembles 
the struggle against communism in the last century. Like the ideology of 
communism, Islamic radicalism is elitist, led by a self-appointed 
vanguard that presumes to speak for the Muslim masses. Bin Laden says 
his own role is to tell Muslims, quote, ``what is good for them and what 
is not.'' And what this man who grew up in wealth and privilege 
considers good for poor Muslims is that they become killers and suicide 
bombers. He assures them that his--that this is the road to paradise, 
though he never offers to go along for the ride.
    Like the ideology of communism, our new enemy teaches that innocent 
individuals can be sacrificed to serve a political vision. And this 
explains their cold-blooded contempt for human life. We've seen it in 
the murders of Daniel Pearl, Nicholas Berg, and Margaret Hassan, and 
many others. In a courtroom in the Netherlands, the killer of Theo van 
Gogh turned to the victim's grieving mother and said, ``I do not feel 
your pain, because I believe you are an infidel.'' And in spite of this 
veneer of religious rhetoric, most of the victims claimed by the 
militants are fellow Muslims.
    When 25 Iraqi children are killed in a bombing or Iraqi teachers are 
executed at their school or hospital workers are killed caring for the 
wounded, this is murder, pure and simple, the total rejection of justice 
and honor and morality and religion. These militants are not just the 
enemies of America or the enemies of Iraq; they are the enemies of Islam 
and the enemies of humanity. We have seen this kind of shameless cruelty 
before, in the heartless zealotry that led to the gulags and the 
Cultural Revolution and the Killing Fields.
    Like the ideology of communism, our new enemy pursues totalitarian 
aims. Its leaders pretend to be an aggrieved party, representing the 
powerless against imperial enemies. In truth they have endless ambitions 
of imperial domination, and they wish to make everyone powerless except 
themselves. Under their rule, they have banned books and desecrated 
historical monuments and brutalized women. They seek to end dissent in 
every form and to control every aspect of life and to rule the soul 
itself. While promising a future of justice and holiness, the terrorists 
are preparing for a future of oppression and misery.
    Like the ideology of communism, our new enemy is dismissive of free 
peoples, claiming that men and women who live in liberty are weak and 
decadent. Zarqawi has said that Americans are, quote, ``the most 
cowardly of God's creatures.'' But let's be clear: It is cowardice that 
seeks to kill children and the elderly with car bombs and cuts the 
throat of a bound captive and targets worshipers leaving a mosque. It is 
courage that liberated more than 50 million people. It is courage that 
keeps an untiring vigil against the enemies of a rising democracy. And 
it is courage in the cause of freedom that once again will destroy the 
enemies of freedom.
    And Islamic radicalism, like the ideology of communism, contains 
inherent contradictions that doom it to failure. By fearing freedom--by 
distrusting human creativity and punishing change and limiting the 
contributions of half the population, this ideology undermines the very 
qualities that make human progress possible and human societies 
successful. The only thing modern about the militants' vision is the 
weapons they want to use against us. The rest of their grim vision is 
defined by a warped image of the past, a declaration of war on the idea 
of progress itself. And whatever lies ahead in the war against this 
ideology, the outcome is not in doubt: Those who despise freedom and 
progress have condemned themselves to isolation, decline, and collapse. 
Because free peoples believe in the future, free peoples will own the 
future.
    We didn't ask for this global struggle, but we're answering 
history's call with confidence and a comprehensive strategy. Defeating a 
broad and adaptive network requires patience, constant pressure, and 
strong partners in Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, Asia, and 
beyond. Working with these partners, we're disrupting militant 
conspiracies, destroying their ability to make war, and working to give 
millions in a troubled region of the world a hopeful alternative to 
resentment and violence.

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    First, we're determined to prevent the attacks of terrorist networks 
before they occur. We're reorganizing our Government to give this Nation 
a broad and coordinated homeland defense. We're reforming our 
intelligence agencies for the incredibly difficult task of tracking 
enemy activity, based on information that often comes in small fragments 
from widely scattered sources, here and abroad. We're acting, along with 
the governments from many countries, to destroy the terrorist networks 
and incapacitate their leaders. Together we've killed or captured nearly 
all of those directly responsible for the September the 11th attacks, as 
well as some of bin Laden's most senior deputies, Al Qaida managers and 
operatives in more than 24 countries: the mastermind of the U.S.S. Cole 
bombing, who was chief of Al Qaida operations in the Persian Gulf; the 
mastermind of the Jakarta and the first Bali bombings; a senior Zarqawi 
terrorist planner, who was planning attacks in Turkey; and many of Al 
Qaida's senior leaders in Saudi Arabia.
    Overall, the United States and our partners have disrupted at least 
10 serious Al Qaida terrorist plots since September the 11th, including 
3 Al Qaida plots to attack inside the United States. We've stopped at 
least five more Al Qaida efforts to case targets in the United States or 
infiltrate operatives into our country. Because of this steady progress, 
the enemy is wounded, but the enemy is still capable of global 
operations. Our commitment is clear: We will not relent until the 
organized international terror networks are exposed and broken, and 
their leaders held to account for their acts of murder.
    Second, we're determined to deny weapons of mass destruction to 
outlaw regimes, and to their terrorist allies who would use them without 
hesitation. The United States, working with Great Britain, Pakistan, and 
other nations, has exposed and disrupted a major black-market operation 
in nuclear technology led by A.Q. Khan. Libya has abandoned its chemical 
and nuclear weapons programs as well as long-range ballistic missiles. 
And in the last year, America and our partners in the Proliferation 
Security Initiative have stopped more than a dozen shipments of 
suspected weapons technology, including equipment for Iran's ballistic 
missile program.
    This progress has reduced the danger to free nations but has not 
removed it. Evil men who want to use horrendous weapons against us are 
working in deadly earnest to gain them. And we're working urgently to 
keep weapons of mass destruction out of their hands.
    Third, we're determined to deny radical groups the support and 
sanctuary of outlaw regimes. State sponsors like Syria and Iran have a 
long history of collaboration with terrorists, and they deserve no 
patience from the victims of terror. The United States makes no 
distinction between those who commit acts of terror and those who 
support and harbor them, because they're equally as guilty of murder. 
Any government that chooses to be an ally of terror has also chosen to 
be an enemy of civilization. And the civilized world must hold those 
regimes to account.
    Fourth, we're determined to deny the militants control of any 
nation, which they would use as a home base and a launching pad for 
terror. For this reason, we're fighting beside our Afghan partners 
against remnants of the Taliban and their Al Qaida allies. For this 
reason, we're working with President Musharraf to oppose and isolate the 
militants in Pakistan. And for this reason, we're fighting the regime 
remnants and terrorists in Iraq. The terrorist goal is to overthrow a 
rising democracy, claim a strategic country as a haven for terror, 
destabilize the Middle East, and strike America and other free nations 
with ever-increasing violence. Our goal is to defeat the terrorists and 
their allies at the heart of their power, and so we will defeat the 
enemy in Iraq.
    Our coalition, along with our Iraqi allies, is moving forward with a 
comprehensive, specific military plan. Area by area, city by city, we're 
conducting offensive operations to clear out enemy forces and leaving 
behind Iraqi units to prevent the enemy from returning. Within these 
areas, we're working for tangible improvements in the lives of Iraqi 
citizens. And we're aiding the rise of an elected government that unites 
the Iraqi people against extremism and violence. This work

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involves great risk for Iraqis and for Americans and coalition forces. 
Wars are not won without sacrifice, and this war will require more 
sacrifice, more time, and more resolve.
    The terrorists are as brutal an enemy as we've ever faced. They're 
unconstrained by any notion of our common humanity or by the rules of 
warfare. No one should underestimate the difficulties ahead, nor should 
they overlook the advantages we bring to this fight.
    Some observers look at the job ahead and adopt a self-defeating 
pessimism. It is not justified. With every random bombing and with every 
funeral of a child, it becomes more clear that the extremists are not 
patriots or resistance fighters. They are murderers at war with the 
Iraqi people themselves.
    In contrast, the elected leaders of Iraq are proving to be strong 
and steadfast. By any standard or precedent of history, Iraq has made 
incredible political progress, from tyranny to liberation to national 
elections to the writing of a constitution, in the space of 2\1/2\ 
years. With our help, the Iraqi military is gaining new capabilities and 
new confidence with every passing month. At the time of our Fallujah 
operations 11 months ago, there were only a few Iraqi army battalions in 
combat. Today there are more than 80 Iraqi army battalions fighting the 
insurgency alongside our forces. Progress isn't easy, but it is steady. 
And no fair-minded person should ignore, deny, or dismiss the 
achievements of the Iraqi people.
    Some observers question the durability of democracy in Iraq. They 
underestimate the power and appeal of freedom. We've heard it suggested 
that Iraq's democracy must be on shaky ground because Iraqis are arguing 
with each other. But that's the essence of democracy, making your case, 
debating with those who you disagree--who disagree, building consensus 
by persuasion, and answering to the will of the people. We've heard it 
said that the Shi'a, Sunnis, and Kurds of Iraq are too divided to form a 
lasting democracy. In fact, democratic federalism is the best hope for 
unifying a diverse population, because a Federal constitutional system 
respects the rights and religious traditions of all citizens while 
giving all minorities, including the Sunnis, a stake and a voice in the 
future of their country. It is true that the seeds of freedom have only 
recently been planted in Iraq, but democracy, when it grows, is not a 
fragile flower; it is a healthy, sturdy tree.
    As Americans, we believe that people everywhere--everywhere--prefer 
freedom to slavery and that liberty, once chosen, improves the lives of 
all. And so we're confident, as our coalition and the Iraqi people each 
do their part, Iraqi democracy will succeed.
    Some observers also claim that America would be better off by 
cutting our losses and leaving Iraq now. This is a dangerous illusion, 
refuted with a simple question: Would the United States and other free 
nations be more safe or less safe with Zarqawi and bin Laden in control 
of Iraq, its people, and its resources? Having removed a dictator who 
hated free peoples, we will not stand by as a new set of killers, 
dedicated to the destruction of our own country, seizes control of Iraq 
by violence.
    There's always a temptation, in the middle of a long struggle, to 
seek the quiet life, to escape the duties and problems of the world, and 
to hope the enemy grows weary of fanaticism and tired of murder. This 
would be a pleasant world, but it's not the world we live in. The enemy 
is never tired, never sated, never content with yesterday's brutality. 
This enemy considers every retreat of the civilized world as an 
invitation to greater violence. In Iraq, there is no peace without 
victory. We will keep our nerve, and we will win that victory.
    The fifth element of our strategy in the war on terror is to deny 
the militants future recruits by replacing hatred and resentment with 
democracy and hope across the broader Middle East. This is a difficult, 
long-term project, yet there's no alternative to it. Our future and the 
future of that region are linked. If the broader Middle East is left to 
grow in bitterness, if countries remain in misery, while radicals stir 
the resentments of millions, then that part of the world will be a 
source of endless conflict and mounting danger for our generation and 
the next. If the peoples of that region are permitted to choose their 
own destiny and advance by their own energy and by their participation

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as free men and women, then the extremists will be marginalized, and the 
flow of violent radicalism to the rest of the world will slow and 
eventually end. By standing for the hope and freedom of others, we make 
our own freedom more secure.

    America is making this stand in practical ways. We're encouraging 
our friends in the Middle East, including Egypt and Saudi Arabia, to 
take the path of reform, to strengthen their own societies in the fight 
against terror by respecting the rights and choices of their own people. 
We're standing with dissidents and exiles against oppressive regimes, 
because we know that the dissidents of today will be the democratic 
leaders of tomorrow. We're making our case through public diplomacy, 
stating clearly and confidently our belief in self-determination and the 
rule of law and religious freedom and equal rights for women, beliefs 
that are right and true in every land and in every culture.

    As we do our part to confront radicalism, we know that the most 
vital work will be done within the Islamic world itself. And this work 
has begun. Many Muslim scholars have already publicly condemned 
terrorism, often citing Chapter 5, Verse 32 of the Koran, which states 
that killing an innocent human being is like killing all humanity and 
saving the life of one person is like saving all of humanity. After the 
attacks in London on July the 7th, an imam in the United Arab Emirates 
declared, ``Whoever does such a thing is not a Muslim nor a religious 
person.'' The time has come for all responsible Islamic leaders to join 
in denouncing an ideology that exploits Islam for political ends and 
defiles a noble faith.

    Many people of the Muslim faith are proving their commitment at 
great personal risk. Everywhere we have engaged the fight against 
extremism, Muslim allies have stood up and joined the fight, becoming 
partners in a vital cause. Afghan troops are in combat against Taliban 
remnants. Iraqi soldiers are sacrificing to defeat Al Qaida in their own 
country. These brave citizens know the stakes, the survival of their own 
liberty, the future of their own region, the justice and humanity of 
their own tradition, and the United States of America is proud to stand 
beside them.

    With the rise of a deadly enemy and the unfolding of a global 
ideological struggle, our time in history will be remembered for new 
challenges and unprecedented dangers. And yet the fight we have joined 
is also the current expression of an ancient struggle, between those who 
put their faith in dictators and those who put their faith in the 
people. Throughout history, tyrants and would-be tyrants have always 
claimed that murder is justified to serve their grand vision, and they 
end up alienating decent people across the globe. Tyrants and would-be 
tyrants have always claimed that regimented societies are strong and 
pure, until those societies collapse in corruption and decay. Tyrants 
and would-be tyrants have always claimed that free men and women are 
weak and decadent, until the day that free men and women defeat them.

    We don't know the course of our own struggle--the course our own 
struggle will take or the sacrifices that might lie ahead. We do know, 
however, that the defense of freedom is worth our sacrifice. We do know 
the love of freedom is the mightiest force of history. And we do know 
the cause of freedom will once again prevail.

    May God bless you.

Note: The President spoke at 10:07 a.m. at the Ronald Reagan Building 
and International Trade Center. In his remarks, he referred to Vin 
Weber, chairman, and Carl Gershman, president, National Endowment for 
Democracy; senior Al Qaida associate Abu Musab Al Zarqawi; Usama bin 
Laden, leader of the Al Qaida terrorist organization; Mohammed Bouyeri, 
who was convicted of the murder of Theo van Gogh; Anneke van Gogh, 
mother of Theo van Gogh; Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, Al Qaida's chief of 
operations for the Persian Gulf; Riduan Isamuddin (also known as 
Hambali), Al Qaida's chief operational planner in Southeast Asia; Abu 
Azzam, Al Qaida operative in Iraq; A.Q. Khan, former head of Pakistan's 
nuclear program; President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan; and former 
President Saddam Hussein of Iraq.

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