[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 42, Number 1 (Monday, January 9, 2006)]
[Pages 5-8]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on the War on Terror in Arlington, Virginia

January 4, 2006

    Today our Nation mourns those who lost their lives in the mining 
accident in West Virginia. We send our prayers and heartfelt condolences 
to the loved ones whose hearts are broken. We ask that the good Lord 
comfort them in their time of need.
    I want to thank the Governor of West Virginia for showing such 
compassion, and I want to thank those who risked their lives to save 
those miners for showing such courage. May God bless the good people of 
West Virginia.
    I just finished an important meeting, a briefing with members of my 
national security team, a briefing hosted by Secretary Don Rumsfeld and 
General Pete Pace. We spent time talking about this war on terror, the 
global war on terror. And to make sure that my team understood the 
progress we've made and the challenges ahead, the Secretary asked three 
of our commanders to join in the briefing, Generals Abizaid, Casey, and 
General Dempsey.
    I want to tell the American people that I am most impressed by the 
caliber of these generals. They are smart. They are capable. They are 
visionary, and they're working hard to win this global war. We also were 
able to speak to one of our fine Ambassadors, Ambassador Khalilzad from 
Baghdad, as well.
    During our briefing, we talked about the areas of concern in this 
global war on terror, recognizing that the enemy, which has an ideology 
of hate and a desire to kill, lurks in parts around the world. I assured 
those generals that this administration would do everything in our power 
to bring these enemies to justice.
    We also spent time talking about the two major fronts in this war on 
terror, and that would be Iraq and Afghanistan. In Iraq, 2005 was a year 
of progress toward meeting our goal of victory. If you really think 
about it, there was three important elections that took place and in an 
atmosphere that some predicted wouldn't yield democracy. We had the 
January elections; we had the constitution elections; we had elections 
last December when nearly 11 million people defied the terrorists to 
vote. The turnout in that country was 70 percent. Part of our strategy 
for defeating the enemy in Iraq is for there to be a viable political 
process. And when 70 percent of the people show up to vote, that's a 
good sign. See, people are saying, ``I want to participate in the 
democratic process.'' The Iraqis showed great courage.
    Now, we look forward to the process, obviously, moving on. The 
formation of a unity government is going to be important to the 
stability of the future of Iraq. Before that happens, obviously you've 
got to finish counting the votes. And that's going to happen over the 
next couple of weeks. And then the Government--well, they're beginning 
to form the Government under their new Constitution. It takes a two-
third vote of the Parliament for certain top officials to assume office. 
And to form this inclusive government, the Iraqi leaders must compromise 
and negotiate and build consensus, and this is going to take some time.
    What the American people will see during the weeks ahead is a 
political process unfold, that people will be making decisions not based 
upon who's got the biggest gun but who's got the capacity to rally the 
will of the people. And that's positive. Democracies are an important 
part of our winning the war on terror. Democracies yield an ideology 
that is based on an ideology that says people are free--free to choose. 
The ideology of the enemy says a few people will choose, and if you 
don't like what we tell you to believe in, we'll kill you or treat you 
harshly.
    And I want the American people to remember what life was like for 
the poor people in Afghanistan under the Taliban. The Taliban had no 
hopeful vision. They're vision was, if you don't agree with us, we'll 
take you in the public square and whip you. They're vision was, women 
don't have rights. They're vision was a dark and dim vision, which 
stands in stark contrast to the vision based upon freedom and democracy.
    The second part of our strategy is to--in Iraq, a strategy for 
victory, is to train the Iraqis so they can take the fight against the 
few who would stop the progress of many. And during this election, we 
were briefed about the security forces during the election. The 
commanders talked about more than

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215,000 Iraqi soldiers and police that secured the country. That was an 
increase, by the way, of 85,000 since January of 2005. General Casey 
labeled the performance of the troops as superb.
    Before the elections, there was a number of joint operations to lay 
the groundwork for a peaceful election. The Iraqis were in the lead on 
election day. In other words, they were responsible for the security of 
the elections. We were in a position to help them, but they were 
responsible for securing the voting booths. And they did a fine job. The 
number of attacks during the election were down dramatically. They 
performed, and that's part of our calibrating whether or not the Iraqi 
troops are becoming more capable. Numbers are one thing, but the ability 
to perform is another. And during these elections, the Iraqi troops 
showed our commanders on the ground and showed the American people that 
they're becoming more and more capable of performing their duty to 
provide security to the Iraqi people.
    Now, you've got to understand that just because the elections went 
forward that doesn't mean these Saddamists, Zarqawi types are going to 
lay down their arms. They're not. There will still be violence. And 
there will still be some who believe that they can affect the political 
outcome of Iraq through violent means. We understand that. And we're 
going to stay on the offense against these--``we'' being coalition 
forces as well as the Iraqi forces. But the recent elections have served 
as a real defeat for the rejectionists and the Saddamists and Al Qaida 
types. Sunni Arabs who had boycotted the process, joined the process. 
And as they did so, those who want to stop the progress of freedom are 
becoming more and more marginalized inside of Iraq.
    So in 2006, the mission is to continue to hand over more and more 
territory and more and more responsibility to Iraqi forces. A year ago, 
there was only a handful of Iraqi Army and police battalions ready for 
combat, ready to take the lead. Today, there are more than 125 Iraqi 
combat battalions fighting the enemy, and 50 of those are in the lead. 
That's progress. And it's important progress, and it's an important part 
of our strategy to win in Iraq. And as these forces become more battle-
hardened and take the lead, we're going to see continued confidence in 
the Iraqi people of the Iraqis being able to defend themselves, and 
that's important. And as we see more of these Iraqi forces in the lead, 
we'll be able to continue with our desire, our stated strategy that says 
as Iraqis stand up, we'll stand down.
    The commanders have recently determined that we can reduce our 
combat forces in Iraq from 17 to 15 brigades. And the reason they were 
able to do so is because the Iraqis are more capable. The adjustment is 
underway. This adjustment will result in a net decrease of several 
thousand troops below the pre-election baseline of 138,000 U.S. troops 
in Iraq. The decrease comes in addition to the reduction of about 20,000 
troops who were in Iraq to assist with security during the December 
elections.
    Later this year, if Iraqis continue to make progress on the security 
and political sides that we expect, we can discuss further possible 
adjustments with the leaders of a new Government in Iraq. But my 
decisions will be based upon conditions on the ground and the 
recommendation of our commanders, not based by false political 
timetables in Washington, DC. I'm not going to let politics get in the 
way of doing the right thing in Iraq, and the American people have got 
to understand that.
    We've also got the opportunity to change our composition of our 
forces inside Iraq. In 2006, we expect Iraqis will take more and more 
control of the battle space, and as they do so, we will need fewer U.S. 
troops to conduct combat operations around that country. More of our 
forces will be dedicated to training and supporting the Iraqi units. In 
the coming year, we will continue to focus on helping Iraqis improve 
their logistics and intelligence capabilities so more Iraqi units can 
take the fight and can sustain themselves in the fight.
    We're also going to spend a lot of time on police training. An 
important part of our strategy is not only to have a competent Iraqi 
Army but police forces that are capable of earning the confidence of the 
Iraqi citizens. To restore security, Iraq has got to have capable police 
forces. And the recent reports of abuses by some of the Iraqi police 
units are

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troubling, and that conduct is unacceptable. Our commanders understand 
that; the Secretary understands that; and I know that.
    To stop such abuses and increase the professionalism of the Iraqi 
police, General Dempsey, who's in charge of training, and others are 
working with the Iraqis to continue making adjustments in the way the 
forces are trained. First, we're going to work with the Iraqi Government 
to increase the training Iraqi police recruits receive in human rights 
and the rule of law, so they understand the role of the police in a 
democratic society.
    Second, we're training Iraqi police with a program that has been 
effective with the Iraqi Army. In other words, when we find something 
that works, we'll do it. And if we find something that's not working, we 
change--and that is to embed coalition transition teams inside Iraqi 
special police units. Embedding our folks inside Iraqi Army units has 
worked. One reason why these Iraqi units are better able to take the 
lead is because they've worked side by side with American specialists 
and experts, some of our best troops. And so, we're going to embed these 
type of soldiers with the Iraqi police forces as well.
    These transition teams will be made up of our officers, as well as 
noncommissioned officers. The coalition teams will go in the field with 
the police. They'll provide real-time advice and important assistance on 
patrol and during operations. And between operations, they're going to 
train the Iraqi officers; they're going to help them become increasingly 
capable and professional so they can serve and protect all the Iraqi 
people without discrimination.
    As we train not only the soldiers but the police, our special units 
will continue hunting down Al Qaida and their affiliates. See, Al Qaida 
thinks they can use Iraq as a safe haven from which to launch attacks. 
That's their stated objective. I'm not making this up. Nobody in the--
this is what Zawahiri and Zarqawi discussed. They said, ``Let's drive 
America out of Iraq so we can use Iraq as a safe haven.'' We're going to 
train Iraqis. We'll train their army and train their police, and at the 
same time, we've got some of the finest soldiers ever on the hunt to 
bring Zarqawi and his buddies to justice.
    The second front is in Afghanistan. The second major front in this 
global war against these terrorists is in Afghanistan, where we've made 
steady progress on the road to democracy. President Karzai got elected. 
There's a sitting Parliament. I mean, it's amazing how far Afghanistan 
has come from the days of the Taliban. General Abizaid told us in our 
briefing that new democracy is being increasingly defended by a capable 
Afghan Army and police. The Afghan National Army is now nearly 27,000 
soldiers who are trained and equipped. General Abizaid tells us these 
soldiers are tough in battle. They want to defend their homeland. There 
are some 55,000 Afghan police officers on the beat. They're taking the 
fight to the enemy. They're working side by side with coalition forces 
to protect this new democracy.
    They're receiving a lot of international support through the NATO 
Alliance. The NATO-led international security assistance force has now 
about 9,000 troops in the country that represents all 26 NATO Allies and 
10 non-NATO nations. In other words, the international community is 
stepping up. Like they have in Iraq, they're stepping up in Afghanistan 
as well. In 2006, the force levels will increase by up to another 6,000 
forces, to a total of approximately 15,000 personnel. In other words, 
you're going to see in 2006 an increase of international force inside of 
Afghanistan.
    As NATO takes on a larger role in Afghanistan and as the capability 
of Afghan forces continues to grow, the United States will reduce force 
levels in Afghanistan from 19,000 to 16,500 this year. In other words, 
our strategy has been to provide a strong commitment to provide 
stability so democracy can flourish. And then as others, including 
Afghan troops as well as NATO troops, step in, we step back. We're going 
to continue to conduct antiterrorist operations in Afghanistan as well. 
This is a part of a global war against the terrorist network.
    I said after September the 11th we would do everything in our power 
to bring justice to the enemy that attacked the American people, and I 
meant it. And part of chasing down the Taliban and Al Qaida is to find

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them where they hide. And just like in Iraq, we're going to have our 
special forces stay on the hunt. And we'll continue training at the same 
time.
    There's a lot of work to be done in this war on terror, but the 
American people can be--rest assured this administration understands the 
task and understands the challenges and understands our obligation to 
protect you, to protect the American people.
    During the past year, we lost some really good folks who wore the 
uniform of the United States of America. We pray for their loved ones. 
We pray for the comfort of those who had a sorrowful holiday season 
because a seat at the table was empty. And we vow to those that we will 
complete our mission: We will lay that foundation of peace for 
generations to come, that we'll do our duty to protect this country by 
not only bringing justice to an enemy that wants to do us harm but by 
spreading freedom and democracy.
    Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 11:24 a.m. at the Pentagon. In his remarks, 
he referred to Gov. Joe Manchin III of West Virginia; Gen. John P. 
Abizaid, USA, combatant commander, U.S. Central Command; Gen. George W. 
Casey, Jr., USA, commanding general, Multi-National Force--Iraq; Lt. 
Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, USA, commander, Multi-National Security 
Transition Command--Iraq and NATO Training Mission--Iraq; U.S. 
Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad; senior Al Qaida associate Abu Musab 
Al Zarqawi; Ayman Al-Zawahiri, founder of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and 
senior Al Qaida associate; and President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan. 
The Office of the Press Secretary also released a Spanish language 
transcript of these remarks.