[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 42, Number 36 (Monday, September 11, 2006)]
[Pages 1557-1565]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]
<R04>
Remarks to the Military Officers Association of America
September 5, 2006
Thank you all. Please be seated. General Hendrix, thank you for the
invitation to be here. Thanks for the kind introduction. I'm honored to
stand with the men and women of the Military Officers Association of
America. I appreciate the board of directors who are here and the
leaders who have given me this platform from which to speak. I'm proud
to be here with active members of the United States military. Thank you
for your service. I'm proud to be your Commander in Chief.
I want to--pleased also to stand with members of the diplomatic
corps, including many representing nations that have been attacked by Al
Qaida and its terrorist allies since September the 11th, 2001. Your
presence here reminds us that we're engaged in a global war against an
enemy that threatens all civilized nations. And today, the civilized
world stands together to defend our freedom; we stand together to defeat
the terrorists; and
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we're working to secure the peace for generations to come.
I appreciate my Attorney General joining us today, Al Gonzales.
Thank you for being here. The Secretary of Homeland Security, Michael
Chertoff, is with us. Three Members of the United States Senate--I might
say, three important Members of the United States Senate--Senate
President pro tem Ted Stevens of Alaska. Thank you for joining us,
Senator. Chairman of the Appropriations Committee, Senator Thad Cochran
of Mississippi. The chairman of the Armed Services Committee, John
Warner of Virginia.
I thank Norb Ryan, as well, for his leadership. I do appreciate all
the folks that are at Walter Reed who have joined us today. I'm going to
tell the parents of our troops, we provide great health care to those
who wear the uniform. I'm proud of those folks at Bethesda and Walter
Reed--are providing you the best possible care to help you recover from
your injuries. Thank you for your courage. Thank you for joining us here
today. May God bless you in your recovery.
Next week, America will mark the fifth anniversary of September the
11th, 2001, terrorist attacks. As this day approaches, it brings with it
a flood of painful memories. We remember the horror of watching planes
fly into the World Trade Center and seeing the towers collapse before
our eyes. We remember the sight of the Pentagon broken and in flames. We
remember the rescue workers who rushed into burning buildings to save
lives, knowing they might never emerge again. We remember the brave
passengers who charged the cockpit of their hijacked plane and stopped
the terrorists from reaching their target and killing more innocent
civilians. We remember the cold brutality of the enemy who inflicted
this harm on our country--an enemy whose leader, Usama bin Laden,
declared the massacre of nearly 3,000 people that day, I quote, ``an
unparalleled and magnificent feat of valor, unmatched by any in
humankind before them.''
In 5 years since our Nation was attacked, Al Qaida and terrorists it
has inspired have continued to attack across the world. They've killed
the innocent in Europe and Africa and the Middle East, in central Asia
and the Far East and beyond. Most recently, they attempted to strike
again in the most ambitious plot since the attacks of September the
11th--a plan to blow up passenger planes headed for America, over the
Atlantic Ocean.
Five years after our Nation was attacked, the terrorist danger
remains. We're a nation at war, and America and her allies are fighting
this war with relentless determination across the world. Together with
our coalition partners, we've removed terrorist sanctuaries, disrupted
their finances, killed and captured key operatives, broken up terrorist
cells in America and other nations, and stopped new attacks before
they're carried out. We're on the offense against the terrorists on
every battlefront, and we'll accept nothing less than complete victory.
In the 5 years since our Nation was attacked, we've also learned a
great deal about the enemy we face in this war. We've learned about them
through videos and audio recordings and letters and statements they've
posted on web sites. We've learned about them from captured enemy
documents that the terrorists have never meant for us to see. Together,
these documents and statements have given us clear insight into the mind
of our enemies--their ideology, their ambitions, and their strategy to
defeat us.
We know what the terrorists intend to do because they've told us--
and we need to take their words seriously. So today I'm going to
describe, in the terrorists' own words, what they believe, what they
hope to accomplish, and how they intend to accomplish it. I'll discuss
how the enemy has adapted in the wake of our sustained offensive against
them and the threat posed by different strains of violent Islamic
radicalism. I'll explain the strategy we're pursuing to protect America
by defeating the terrorists on the battlefield and defeating their
hateful ideology in the battle of ideas.
The terrorists who attacked us on September the 11th, 2001, are men
without conscience--but they're not madmen. They kill in the name of a
clear and focused ideology, a set of beliefs that are evil but not
insane. These Al Qaida terrorists, and those who share their ideology,
are violent Sunni extremists. They're driven by a radical and perverted
vision of Islam that rejects tolerance,
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crushes all dissent, and justifies the murder of innocent men, women,
and children in the pursuit of political power. They hope to establish a
violent political utopia across the Middle East, which they call a
``caliphate,'' where all would be ruled according to their hateful
ideology. Usama bin Laden has called the 9/11 attacks--in his words--``a
great step towards the unity of Muslims and establishing the righteous--
caliphate.''
This caliphate would be a totalitarian Islamic empire encompassing
all current and former Muslim lands, stretching from Europe to north
Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. We know this because Al
Qaida has told us. About 2 months ago, the terrorist Zawahiri--he's Al
Qaida's second in command--declared that Al Qaida intends to impose its
rule in ``every land that was a home for Islam, from Spain to Iraq.'' He
went on to say, ``The whole world is an open field for us.''
We know what this radical empire would look like in practice,
because we saw how the radicals imposed their ideology on the people of
Afghanistan. Under the rule of the Taliban and Al Qaida, Afghanistan was
a totalitarian nightmare--a land where women were imprisoned in their
homes; men were beaten for missing prayer meetings; girls could not go
to school; and children were forbidden the smallest pleasures, like
flying kites. Religious police roamed the streets, beating and detaining
civilians for perceived offenses. Women were publicly whipped. Summary
executions were held in Kabul's soccer stadium in front of cheering
mobs. And Afghanistan was turned into a launching pad for horrific
attacks against America and other parts of the civilized world,
including many Muslim nations.
The goal of these Sunni extremists is to remake the entire Muslim
world in their radical image. In pursuit of their imperial aims, these
extremists say there can be no compromise or dialog with those they call
infidels--a category that includes America, the world's free nations,
Jews, and all Muslims who reject their extreme vision of Islam. They
reject the possibility of peaceful coexistence with the free world.
Again, hear the words of Usama bin Laden earlier this year: ``Death is
better than living on this Earth with the unbelievers among us.''
These radicals have declared their uncompromising hostility to
freedom. It is foolish to think that you can negotiate with them. We see
the uncompromising nature of the enemy in many captured terrorist
documents. Here are just two examples: After the liberation of
Afghanistan, coalition forces searching through a terrorist safe house
in that country found a copy of the Al Qaida charter. This charter
states that ``there will be continuing enmity until everyone believes in
Allah. We will not meet the enemy halfway. There will be no room for
dialog with them.'' Another document was found in 2000 by British police
during an antiterrorist raid in London--a grisly Al Qaida manual that
includes chapters with titles such as ``Guidelines for Beating and
Killing Hostages.'' This manual declares that their vision of Islam
``does not make a truce with unbelief, but rather confronts it.'' The
confrontation calls for ``the dialog of bullets; the ideals of
assassination, bombing, and destruction; and the diplomacy of the cannon
and machine gun,'' end quote.
Still other captured documents show Al Qaida's strategy for
infiltrating Muslim nations, establishing terrorist enclaves,
overthrowing governments, and building their totalitarian empire. We see
this strategy laid out in a captured Al Qaida document found during a
recent raid in Iraq, which describes their plans to infiltrate and to
take over Iraq's western Anbar Province. The document lays out an
elaborate Al Qaida governing structure for the region that includes an
Education Department, a Social Services Department, a Justice
Department, and an Execution Unit responsible for ``Sorting out, Arrest,
Murder, and Destruction.''
According to their public statements, countries that have--they have
targeted stretch from the Middle East to Africa to Southeast Asia.
Through this strategy, Al Qaida and its allies intend to create
numerous, decentralized operating bases across the world, from which
they can plan new attacks and advance their vision of a unified,
totalitarian Islamic state that can confront and eventually destroy the
free world.
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These violent extremists know that to realize this vision, they must
first drive out the main obstacle that stands in their way--the United
States of America. According to Al Qaida, their strategy to defeat
America has two parts. First, they're waging a campaign of terror across
the world. They're targeting our forces abroad, hoping that the American
people will grow tired of casualties and give up the fight. And they're
targeting America's financial centers and economic infrastructure at
home, hoping to terrorize us and cause our economy to collapse.
Bin Laden calls this his ``bleed-until-bankruptcy plan,'' end quote.
And he cited the attacks of 9/11 as evidence that such a plan can
succeed. With the 9/11 attacks, Usama bin Laden says, ``Al Qaida spent
$500,000 on the event, while America lost--according to the lowest
estimate--$500 billion,'' meaning that every dollar of Al Qaida defeated
a million dollars of America. Bin Laden concludes from this experience
that ``America is definitely a great power, with unbelievable military
strength and a vibrant economy, but all these have been built on a very
weak and hollow foundation.'' He went on to say, ``Therefore, it is very
easy to target the flimsy base and concentrate on their weak points, and
even if we're able to target one-tenth of these weak points, we will be
able to crush and destroy them.''
Secondly, along with this campaign of terror, the enemy has a
propaganda strategy. Usama bin Laden laid out this strategy in a letter
to the Taliban leader, Mullah Omar, that coalition forces uncovered in
Afghanistan in 2002. In it, bin Laden says that Al Qaida intends to
launch, in his words, ``a media campaign to create a wedge between the
American people and their Government.'' This media campaign, bin Laden
says, will send the American people a number of messages, including
``that their Government will bring them more losses, in finances and
casualties.'' And he goes on to say that ``they are being sacrificed to
serve the big investors, especially the Jews.'' Bin Laden says that by
delivering these messages, Al Qaida ``aims at creating pressure from the
American people on the American Government to stop their campaign
against Afghanistan.''
Bin Laden and his allies are absolutely convinced they can succeed
in forcing America to retreat and causing our economic collapse. They
believe our Nation is weak and decadent and lacking in patience and
resolve. And they're wrong. Usama bin Laden has written that the
``defeat of American forces in Beirut in 1983 is proof America does not
have the stomach to stay in the fight.'' He's declared that ``in
Somalia, the United States pulled out, trailing disappointment, defeat,
and failure behind it.'' And last year, the terrorist Zawahiri declared
that Americans ``know better than others that there is no hope in
victory. The Vietnam specter is closing every outlet.''
These terrorists hope to drive America and our coalition out of
Afghanistan so they can restore the safe haven they lost when coalition
forces drove them out 5 years ago. But they've made clear that the most
important front in their struggle against America is Iraq--the nation
bin Laden has declared the ``capital of the caliphate.'' Hear the words
of bin Laden: ``I now address the whole Islamic nation: Listen and
understand. The most serious issue today for the whole world is this
third world war that is raging in Iraq.'' He calls it ``a war of destiny
between infidelity and Islam.'' He says, ``The whole world is watching
this war,'' and that it will end in ``victory and glory or misery and
humiliation.'' For Al Qaida, Iraq is not a distraction from their war on
America--it is the central battlefield where the outcome of this
struggle will be decided.
Here is what Al Qaida says they will do if they succeed in driving
us out of Iraq. The terrorist Zawahiri has said that Al Qaida will
proceed with ``several incremental goals. The first stage: Expel the
Americans from Iraq. The second stage: Establish an Islamic authority or
amirate, then develop it and support it until it achieves the level of
caliphate. The third stage: Extend the jihad wave to the secular
countries neighboring Iraq. And the fourth stage: The clash with
Israel.''
These evil men know that a fundamental threat to their aspirations
is a democratic Iraq that can govern itself, sustain itself, and defend
itself. They know that given a choice, the Iraqi people will never
choose to live in the totalitarian state the extremists hope to
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establish. And that is why we must not and we will not give the enemy
victory in Iraq by deserting the Iraqi people.
Last year, the terrorist Zarqawi declared in a message posted on the
Internet that democracy ``is the essence of infidelity and deviation
from the right path.'' The Iraqi people disagree. Last December, nearly
12 million Iraqis from every ethnic and religious community turned out
to vote in their country's third free election in less than a year. Iraq
now has a unity government that represents Iraq's diverse population,
and Al Qaida's top commander in Iraq breathed his last breath.
Despite these strategic setbacks, the enemy will continue to fight
freedom's advance in Iraq, because they understand the stakes in this
war. Again, hear the words of bin Laden in a message to the American
people earlier this year. He says, ``The war is for you or for us to
win. If we win it, it means your defeat and disgrace forever.''
Now, I know some of our country hear the terrorists' words and hope
that they will not or cannot do what they say. History teaches that
underestimating the words of evil and ambitious men is a terrible
mistake. In the early 1900's, an exiled lawyer in Europe published a
pamphlet called ``What Is To Be Done?''--in which he laid out his plan
to launch a Communist revolution in Russia. The world did not heed
Lenin's words and paid a terrible price. The Soviet Empire he
established killed tens of millions and brought the world to the brink
of thermonuclear war. In the 1920's, a failed Austrian painter published
a book in which he explained his intention to build an Aryan super-state
in Germany and take revenge on Europe and eradicate the Jews. The world
ignored Hitler's words and paid a terrible price. His Nazi regime killed
millions in the gas chambers and set the world aflame in war before it
was finally defeated at a terrible cost in lives.
Bin Laden and his terrorist allies have made their intentions as
clear as Lenin and Hitler before them. The question is: Will we listen?
Will we pay attention to what these evil men say? America and our
coalition partners have made our choice. We're taking the words of the
enemy seriously. We're on the offensive; we will not rest; we will not
retreat; and we will not withdraw from the fight until this threat to
civilization has been removed.
Five years into this struggle, it's important to take stock of
what's been accomplished and the difficult work that remains. Al Qaida
has been weakened by our sustained offensive against them. And today, it
is harder for Al Qaida's leaders to operate freely, to move money, or to
communicate with their operatives and facilitators. Yet Al Qaida remains
dangerous and determined. Bin Laden and Zawahiri remain in hiding in
remote regions of this world. Al Qaida continues to adapt in the face of
our global campaign against them. Increasingly, Al Qaida is taking
advantage of the Internet to disseminate propaganda and to conduct
virtual recruitment and virtual training of new terrorists. Al Qaida's
leaders no longer need to meet face to face with their operatives. They
can find new suicide bombers and facilitate new terrorist attacks
without ever laying eyes on those they're training, financing, or
sending to strike us.
As Al Qaida changes, the broader terrorist movement is also
changing, becoming more dispersed and self-directed. More and more,
we're facing threats from locally established terrorist cells that are
inspired by Al Qaida's ideology and goals but do not necessarily have
direct links to Al Qaida, such as training and funding. Some of these
groups are made up of homegrown terrorists, militant extremists who were
born and educated in Western nations, were indoctrinated by radical
Islamists or attracted to their ideology, and joined the violent
extremist cause. These locally established cells appear to be
responsible for a number of attacks and plots, including those in Madrid
and Canada and other countries across the world.
As we continue to fight Al Qaida and these Sunni extremists inspired
by their radical ideology, we also face the threat posed by Shi'a
extremists who are learning from Al Qaida, increasing their
assertiveness, and stepping up their threats. Like the vast majority of
Sunnis, the vast majority of Shi'a across the world reject the vision of
extremists. And in Iraq, millions of Shi'a have defied terrorist threats
to vote in free elections and have shown their desire to live in
freedom. The Shi'a extremists want to deny them this right.
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This Shi'a strain of Islamic radicalism is just as dangerous and just as
hostile to America and just as determined to establish its brand of
hegemony across the broader Middle East. The Shi'a extremists have
achieved something that Al Qaida has so far failed to do: In 1979, they
took control of a major power, the nation of Iran, subjugating its proud
people to a regime of tyranny and using that nation's resources to fund
the spread of terror and pursue their radical agenda.
Like Al Qaida and the Sunni extremists, the Iranian regime has clear
aims: They want to drive America out of the region, to destroy Israel,
and to dominate the broader Middle East. To achieve these aims, they are
funding and arming terrorist groups like Hizballah, which allow them to
attack Israel and America by proxy. Hizballah, the source of the current
instability in Lebanon, has killed more Americans than any terrorist
organization except Al Qaida. Unlike Al Qaida, they've not yet attacked
the American homeland. Yet they're directly responsible for the murder
of hundreds of Americans abroad. It was Hizballah that was behind the
1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut that killed 241
Americans. And Saudi Hizballah was behind the 1996 bombing of Khobar
Towers in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 Americans, an attack conducted by
terrorists who we believe were working with Iranian officials.
Just as we take the words of the Sunni extremists seriously, we must
take the words of the Shi'a extremists seriously. Listen to the words of
Hizballah's leader, the terrorist Nasrallah, who has declared his hatred
of America. He says, ``Let the entire world hear me. Our hostility to
the Great Satan, America, is absolute. Regardless of how the world has
changed after 11 September, death to America will remain our
reverberating and powerful slogan: Death to America.''
Iran's leaders, who back Hizballah, have also declared their
absolute hostility to America. Last October, Iran's President declared
in a speech that some people ask--in his words--``whether a world
without the United States and Zionism can be achieved. I say that this
goal is achievable.'' Less than 3 months ago, Iran's President declared
to America and other Western powers: ``Open your eyes and see the fate
of pharaoh. If you do not abandon the path of falsehood, your doomed
destiny will be annihilation.'' Less than 2 months ago, he warned, ``The
anger of Muslims may reach an explosion point soon. If such a day comes,
America and the West should know that the waves of the blast will not
remain within the boundaries of our region.'' He also delivered this
message to the American people: ``If you would like to have good
relations with the Iranian nation in the future, bow down before the
greatness of the Iranian nation and surrender. If you don't accept to do
this, the Iranian nation will force you to surrender and bow down.''
America will not bow down to tyrants.
The Iranian regime and its terrorist proxies have demonstrated their
willingness to kill Americans, and now the Iranian regime is pursuing
nuclear weapons. The world is working together to prevent Iran's regime
from acquiring the tools of mass murder. The international community has
made a reasonable proposal to Iran's leaders and given them the
opportunity to set their nation on a better course. So far, Iran's
leaders have rejected this offer. Their choice is increasingly isolating
the great Iranian nation from the international community and denying
the Iranian people an opportunity for greater economic prosperity. It's
time for Iran's leader to make a different choice. And we've made our
choice. We'll continue to work closely with our allies to find a
diplomatic solution. The world's free nations will not allow Iran to
develop a nuclear weapon.
The Shi'a and Sunni extremists represent different faces of the same
threat. They draw inspiration from different sources, but both seek to
impose a dark vision of violent Islamic radicalism across the Middle
East. They oppose the advance of freedom, and they want to gain control
of weapons of mass destruction. If they succeed in undermining fragile
democracies like Iraq and drive the forces of freedom out of the region,
they will have an open field to pursue their dangerous goals. Each
strain of violent Islamic radicalism would be emboldened in their
efforts to topple moderate governments and establish terrorist safe
havens.
Imagine a world in which they were able to control governments, a
world awash with
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oil, and they would use oil resources to punish industrialized nations.
And they would use those resources to fuel their radical agenda and
pursue and purchase weapons of mass murder. And armed with nuclear
weapons, they would blackmail the free world and spread their ideologies
of hate and raise a mortal threat to the American people. If we allow
them to do this, if we retreat from Iraq, if we don't uphold our duty to
support those who are desirous to live in liberty, 50 years from now,
history will look back on our time with unforgiving clarity and demand
to know why we did not act.
I'm not going to allow this to happen, and no future American
President can allow it either. America did not seek this global
struggle, but we're answering history's call with confidence and a clear
strategy. Today we're releasing a document called the ``National
Strategy for Combating Terrorism.'' This is an unclassified version of
the strategy we've been pursuing since September the 11th, 2001. This
strategy was first released in February 2003; it's been updated to take
into account the changing nature of this enemy. This strategy document
is posted on the White House web site, whitehouse.gov, and I urge all
Americans to read it.
Our strategy for combating terrorism has five basic elements. First,
we're determined to prevent terrorist attacks before they occur, so
we're taking the fight to the enemy. The best way to protect America is
to stay on the offense. Since 9/11, our coalition has captured or killed
Al Qaida managers and operatives and scores of other terrorists across
the world. The enemy is living under constant pressure, and we intend to
keep it that way--and this adds to our security. When terrorists spend
their days working to avoid death or capture, it's harder for them to
plan and execute new attacks.
We're also fighting the enemy here at home. We've given our law
enforcement and intelligence professionals the tools they need to stop
the terrorists in our midst. We passed the PATRIOT Act to break down the
wall that prevented law enforcement and intelligence from sharing vital
information. We created the terrorist surveillance program to monitor
the communications between Al Qaida commanders abroad and terrorist
operatives within our borders. If Al Qaida is calling somebody in
America, we need to know why in order to stop attacks.
I want to thank these three Senators for working with us to give our
law enforcement and intelligence officers the tools necessary to do
their jobs. And over the last 5 years, Federal, State, and local law
enforcement have used those tools to break up terrorist cells and to
prosecute terrorist operatives and supporters in New York and Oregon and
Virginia and Texas and New Jersey and Illinois, Ohio, and other States.
By taking the battle to the terrorists and their supporters on our own
soil and across the world, we've stopped a number of Al Qaida plots.
Second, we're determined to deny weapons of mass destruction to
outlaw regimes and terrorists who would use them without hesitation.
Working with Great Britain and Pakistan and other nations, the United
States shut down the world's most dangerous nuclear trading cartel, the
A.Q. Khan network. This network had supplied Iran and Libya and North
Korea with equipment and know-how that advanced their efforts to obtain
nuclear weapons. And we launched the Proliferation Security Initiative,
a coalition of more than 70 nations that is working together to stop
shipments related to weapons of mass destruction on land, at sea, and in
the air. The greatest threat this world faces is the danger of
extremists and terrorists armed with weapons of mass destruction, and
this is a threat America cannot defeat on her own. We applaud the
determined efforts of many nations around the world to stop the spread
of these dangerous weapons. Together, we pledge we'll continue to work
together to stop the world's most dangerous men from getting their hands
on the world's most dangerous weapons.
Third, we're determined to deny terrorists the support of outlaw
regimes. After September the 11th, I laid out a clear doctrine: America
makes no distinction between those who commit acts of terror and those
that harbor and support them, because they're equally guilty of murder.
Thanks to our efforts, there are now three fewer state sponsors of
terror in the world than there were on September the 11th, 2001.
Afghanistan and Iraq have been transformed from terrorist states
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into allies in the war on terror. And the nation of Libya has renounced
terrorism and given up its weapons of mass destruction programs and its
nuclear materials and equipment. Over the past 5 years, we've acted to
disrupt the flow of weapons and support from terrorist states to
terrorist networks. And we have made clear that any government that
chooses to be an ally of terror has also chosen to be an enemy of
civilization.
Fourth, we're determined to deny terrorist networks control of any
nation or territory within a nation. So, along with our coalition and
the Iraqi Government, we'll stop the terrorists from taking control of
Iraq and establishing a new safe haven from which to attack America and
the free world. And we're working with friends and allies to deny the
terrorists the enclaves they seek to establish in ungoverned areas
across the world. By helping governments reclaim full sovereign control
over their territory, we make ourselves more secure.
Fifth, we're working to deny terrorists new recruits by defeating
their hateful ideology and spreading the hope of freedom--by spreading
the hope of freedom across the Middle East. For decades, American policy
sought to achieve peace in the Middle East by pursuing stability at the
expense of liberty. The lack of freedom in that region helped create
conditions where anger and resentment grew and radicalism thrived and
terrorists found willing recruits. And we saw the consequences on
September the 11th, when the terrorists brought death and destruction to
our country. The policy wasn't working.
The experience of September the 11th made clear, in the long run,
the only way to secure our Nation is to change the course of the Middle
East. And so America has committed its influence in the world to
advancing freedom and liberty and democracy as the great alternatives to
repression and radicalism. We're taking the side of democratic leaders
and moderates and reformers across the Middle East. We strongly support
the voices of tolerance and moderation in the Muslim world. We're
standing with Afghanistan's elected Government against Al Qaida and the
Taliban remnants that are trying to restore tyranny in that country.
We're standing with Lebanon's young democracy against the foreign forces
that are seeking to undermine the country's sovereignty and
independence. And we're standing with the leaders of Iraq's unity
Government as they work to defeat the enemies of freedom and chart a
more hopeful course for their people. This is why victory is so
important in Iraq. By helping freedom succeed in Iraq, we will help
America and the Middle East and the world become more secure.
During the last 5 years, we've learned a lot about this enemy. We've
learned that they're cunning and sophisticated. We've witnessed their
ability to change their methods and their tactics with deadly speed,
even as their murderous obsessions remain unchanging. We've seen that
it's the terrorists who have declared war on Muslims, slaughtering huge
numbers of innocent Muslim men and women around the world.
We know what the terrorists believe. We know what they have done,
and we know what they intend to do. And now the world's free nations
must summon the will to meet this great challenge. The road ahead is
going to be difficult, and it will require more sacrifice. Yet we can
have confidence in the outcome, because we've seen freedom conquer
tyranny and terror before. In the 20th century, free nations confronted
and defeated Nazi Germany. During the cold war, we confronted Soviet
communism, and today, Europe is whole, free, and at peace.
And now, freedom is once again contending with the forces of
darkness and tyranny. This time the battle is unfolding in a new
region--the broader Middle East. This time we're not waiting for our
enemies to gather in strength. This time we're confronting them before
they gain the capacity to inflict unspeakable damage on the world, and
we're confronting their hateful ideology before it fully takes root.
We see a day when people across the Middle East have governments
that honor their dignity and unleash their creativity and count their
votes. We see a day when, across this region, citizens are allowed to
express themselves freely; women have full rights; and children are
educated and given the tools necessary to succeed in life. And we see a
day when all the nations of the Middle East are allies in the cause of
peace.
[[Page 1565]]
We fight for this day, because the security of our own citizens
depends on it. This is the great ideological struggle of the 21st
century--and it is the calling of our generation. All civilized nations
are bound together in this struggle between moderation and extremism. By
coming together, we will roll back this grave threat to our way of life.
We will help the people of the Middle East claim their freedom, and we
will leave a safer and more hopeful world for our children and our
grandchildren.
God bless.
Note: The President spoke at 1:15 p.m. at the Capital Hilton Hotel. In
his remarks, he referred to Gen. John W. Hendrix, USA, (Ret.), chairman
of the board, and Vice Adm. Norbert R. Ryan, Jr., USN, (Ret.),
president, Military Officers Association of America; President Mahmud
Ahmadi-nejad of Iran; and A.Q. Khan, former head of Pakistan's nuclear
weapons program.