[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 43, Number 14 (Monday, April 9, 2007)]
[Pages 417-421]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks to Military Personnel and Their Families at Fort Irwin, 
California

April 4, 2007

    The President. Thank you, all. I've been waiting all day to say, 
``Hooah!''
    Audience members. Hooah!
    The President. Thank you for greeting me. General Cone, thanks. I 
appreciate your service to our country, and thanks for leading these men 
and women. I'm honored also to be with Jill. Thank you for joining us 
today for lunch. Command Sergeant Kim Boyink has been a generous host. 
Sarge, I appreciate being with you. Thank you for your service. Thanks 
for setting such a good example for the enlisted folks.
    I often tell people that the backbone of the Army is the sergeant.
    Audience members. Hooah!
    The President. And I appreciate you sergeants who have joined us 
here, and I appreciate you serving.

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    I want to thank two Members of the United States Congress who have 
traveled with me today, men who have concerns about Fort Irwin and have 
reflected those concerns in different appropriations measures in the 
United States Congress. In other words, they understand the importance 
of this mission, and they understand the importance of making sure the 
folks who are stationed here have the best possible housing and food--
could work a little bit on it, but--[laughter]. But I do want to 
introduce to you the Congressmen from this district, Congressman Buck 
McKeon--where are you, Buck? There he is. Thanks, Buck--and Congressman 
Jerry Lewis, ranking member of the Appropriations Committee.
    I'm proud to be here with Mayor Dale of the city of Barstow. I 
appreciate you coming, Mr. Mayor. It's nice of you to be here. Thanks 
for being here.
    I appreciate not only those who wear the uniform who are here today; 
I want to thank your families, too, for coming. It means a lot to me to 
be with our military families. I'll say a word about our military 
families here in a minute.
    I do want to thank those who have just returned from Afghanistan, 
the 699th Maintenance Company.
    Audience members. Hooah!
    The President. I guess the best words I can say are, welcome--I 
mean, thanks, and welcome back. We're glad you're here.
    I appreciate those of you who are about to deploy in an important 
theater in this war against radicals and extremists, this war on terror: 
the ``Red Devils'' of the 58th Engineers, the ``Renegades'' of the 557th 
Maintenance Company, the ``Super HET'' of the 2nd Transportation 
Company. I appreciate your--[applause].
    Ours is a remarkable country when people volunteer to serve our 
country in a time of war. The amazing thing about our United States 
military is, thousands and thousands have signed up knowing full well 
that we're a nation at war. The government didn't say, you have to do 
this; you choose--you chose to do it on your own. You decided to put 
your country ahead of self in many ways. I'm proud to be the Commander 
in Chief of such decent people, such honorable people, and such noble 
people. And I'm proud to be in your presence today.
    I also want to thank the families. I understand how difficult this 
war is on America's military families. I understand the rotations are 
difficult for the moms and husbands and sons and daughters. I understand 
that when a loved one is deployed, it creates anxiety. I also understand 
our military families are very supportive of those who wear the uniform. 
And so on behalf of a grateful nation, I say thanks to the families who 
are here and all across the United States of America. You're an integral 
part of making sure this volunteer army is as successful as it is today.
    This country's life changed on September the 11th, 2001, and my 
attitude about the world changed that day too. I decided that I--that 
our most important task in Washington was to protect you, protect the 
American people. And I decided that I would use all the resources at our 
disposal to do that. Like many Americans, we struggle with understanding 
with what this attack meant. But if you think about the lead-up to the 
attack, you think about the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center 
in 1993 or the extremist attack on our troops in Lebanon or the 
Embassies in Africa, Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia, or the USS Cole.
    In other words, the attack on September the 11th wasn't the first 
move by the extremists. As a matter of fact, they conducted their acts 
of murder believing that there wouldn't be a response. They became 
convinced that free nations were weak, and they grew bolder believing 
that history was on their side.
    After the attacks of September the 11th, I vowed to our country that 
we wouldn't tire, that we would use whatever it took to protect us. And 
so we changed our strategy. The strategy is to defeat the enemy overseas 
so we don't have to face them here at home. The strategy is to find 
those who would kill Americans and bring them to justice. So for those 
of you in--who have been in Afghanistan, you're helping this young 
democracy recover from a period of time in which brutal extremists 
provided safe haven to an enemy which attacked the United States. Part 
of our doctrine is, if you harbor a terrorist, you're equally as guilty 
as the terrorists.

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    Another part of the doctrine is, when you see a threat, we must take 
threats seriously, before they come here to hurt us. See, what changed 
on September the 11th is, oceans can no longer protect the people in the 
United States from harm. I saw a threat in Saddam Hussein. The world is 
better off without Saddam Hussein in power, and so are the citizens of 
Iraq.
    In the long term, we must remember that freedom is universal, and 
the best way to defeat an ideology--and make no mistake about it, these 
extremists believe things. For example, they don't believe you can 
worship freely; they don't believe you should speak your mind; they 
don't believe in dissent; they don't believe in human rights. We believe 
in the right for people to worship. We believe in the dignity of each 
human being. Our ideology is based on the universality of liberty. Their 
dark ideology is based upon hatred. And the way to defeat--ultimately 
defeat those who would do harm to America is, give people a chance to 
live in a free society. And that's the work we're doing, whether it be 
in Afghanistan or in Iraq. And I want to thank you for your sacrifice 
and service.
    Iraq, obviously, has got the attention of the United States, as it 
should. It's a tough war. The American people are weary of this war. 
They're wondering whether or not we can succeed. They're horrified by 
the suicide bombings they see.
    I analyzed all the situation here this fall. I listened to the 
advice from the military; I listened to the advice from the political 
people--all in reaction to the fact that Al Qaida and the extremists 
bombed a sacred place, which caused sectarian violence to begin to rage. 
And it looked like that if action wasn't taken, the capital of this 
young democracy would be overwhelmed by chaos.
    And I had a choice to make, and that is whether or not to pull back 
and hope that chaos wouldn't spread, or to do something about the 
sectarian violence that was taking place and to help the Iraqis bring 
order to their capital in order to give them breathing space, time to 
reconcile their differences after having lived under the thumb of a 
tyrant for years.
    In weighing the options, I thought about the consequences of a 
country that could sustain itself and defend itself and serve as an ally 
in the war on terror. And those consequences will have profound impact 
over the next years, over the decades, to know that in the midst of the 
Middle East, there can flourish free societies, societies where people 
can live together, societies where people can express their opinions, 
societies where people can live a free life. That's important because 
history has proven, has shown that free societies don't war with each 
other. But it's also important to have allies in this war against the 
extremists who would do us harm.
    I've also thought about the consequences of failure and what it 
would mean to the American people. If chaos were to reign in the capital 
of that country, it could spill out to the rest of the country. It could 
then spill out to the region, where you would have religious extremists 
fighting each other with one common enemy, the United States of 
America--or our ally, for example, like Israel.
    The enemy that had done us harm would be emboldened. They would have 
seen the mighty United States of America retreat before the job was 
done, which would enable them to better recruit. They have made it 
clear--``they'' being people like Usama bin Laden or Zawahiri--have made 
it clear they want to drive us from Iraq to establish safe haven in 
order to launch further attacks. In my judgment, defeat--leaving before 
the job was done, which I would call defeat--would make this United 
States of America at risk to further attack.
    In other words, this is a war in which, if we were to leave before 
the job is done, the enemy would follow us here. That's the lesson of 
September the 11th. It's an integral part of my thinking about how to 
secure this country--to do the most important job that the government 
must do, and that is to protect the American people.
    So I made a decision, in consultation with our military commanders, 
people of sound military judgment, people who have made a career about 
how to set strategies in place to achieve military victories. And the 
new strategy we developed was to, rather than retreat, reinforce; rather 
than pull back was to go in with additional troops to help this young 
democracy do the job that the 12 million people who voted in free 
elections want

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them to do, which is to provide security so a mother can raise her child 
the way we would want our mothers to be able to raise our children, to 
provide security so that the political reconciliation necessary can go 
forward in a more secure environment.
    As I made the decision to send in more troops, I also made the 
decision to send in a new commander, General David Petraeus. He's an 
expert on counterinsurgency. Right now about half of the reinforcements 
that are expected to go to Baghdad have arrived. American and Iraqi 
troops are, however, on the move. They're rounding up both Shi'a and 
Sunni extremists; they're rounding up those who would do harm to 
innocent people.
    We're after Al Qaida. After all, Al Qaida wants us to fail because 
they can't stand the thought of a free society in their midst. We're 
destroying car bomb factories, killing and capturing hundreds of 
insurgents, and neighborhoods are being reclaimed. There is progress, 
but the enemy sees that progress, and they're responding in a brutal 
way.
    I was amazed by the story of the extremists who put two children 
into a automobile so that they could make it into a crowded area. Then 
they got of the car and blew up the car with the children inside. It 
only hardens my resolve to help free Iraq from a society in which people 
can do that to children. And it makes me realize the nature of the enemy 
that we face, which hardens my resolve to protect the American people. 
The people who do that are not people--you know, it's not a civil war; 
it is pure evil. And I believe we have an obligation to protect 
ourselves from that evil. So while we're making progress, it also is 
tough. And so the way to deal with it is to stay on the offense, is to 
help these Iraqis.
    I had a meeting, a SVTS--what they call a SVTS, it's a real-time 
video conference--with Prime Minister Maliki. I urged him, of course, to 
continue making the actions necessary to reconcile in their society: 
pass an oil law, a de-Ba'athification law. It's interesting to watch a 
government emerge. It's interesting to watch this new democracy begin to 
take on responsibilities. And they are. They said they would commit 
additional troops into Baghdad; they have. They said they'd name a 
commander for the city of Baghdad; they did. They said they would man 
checkpoints; they are. They said they'd spend a significant amount of 
their own money for their reconstruction; they have--budgeted $10 
billion.
    And there's more work to be done, and I reminded the Prime Minister 
of that. And I reminded him that our patience is not unlimited. I also 
reminded him that we want him to succeed, that it's in the interest of 
the United States that this young democracy succeed. It's in the 
interest we gain a new ally in the war on terror in the midst of a part 
of the world that produced 19 kids that came and killed 3,000 of our 
citizens.
    Just as the strategy is starting to make inroads, a narrow majority 
in the Congress passed legislation they knew all along I would not 
accept. Their bills impose an artificial deadline for withdrawal from 
Iraq. Their bills substitute the judgment of Washington politicians for 
the judgment of our military commanders. Their bills add billions of 
dollars in porkbarrel spending, spending that is unrelated to the war 
that you're engaged in. Then, instead of sending an acceptable bill to 
my desk, they went on spring break.
    In the meantime, the clock is ticking for our military. The 
Secretary of Defense, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the 
Chief of Staff of the Army have warned that if Congress delays these 
funds past mid-April, we'll have significant consequences for our Armed 
Forces. Army Chief of Staff says this: ``Without approval of the 
supplemental funds in April, we will be forced to take increasingly 
draconian measures, which will impact Army readiness and impose hardship 
on our soldiers and their families.''
    For example, the Army says that without these funds, it will be 
forced to consider cutting back on training for Guard and Reserve units 
and, eventually, for active duty personnel. The folks at Fort Irwin know 
firsthand how important training is. Washington has a responsibility to 
ensure that you have the resources you need to keep this training going.
    Soon Congress will return from its break. I urge them to work on 
legislation to fund our troops but that does not tell our military how 
to conduct war and sets an artificial

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timetable for withdrawal. The enemy does not measure the conflict in 
Iraq in terms of timetables. They plan to fight us, and we've got to 
fight them, alongside the Iraqis. A strategy that encourages this enemy 
to wait us out is dangerous. It's dangerous for our troops; it's 
dangerous for our country's security. And it's not going to become the 
law.
    There are fine, fine people debating this issue in Washington, DC. 
They're patriotic. They're people who have got passionate points of view 
about this war, and I understand that. Yet we cannot allow honest 
differences in Washington to harm our troops in battle or their families 
here at home. Members of Congress have sent their message. Now they need 
to send me a war spending measure that I can sign into law, so we can 
provide our troops and their families with the funds and support they 
deserve and they need.
    I spent some time with the soldiers out in the field, and I want to 
share with you what I told them. The work that you have volunteered to 
do will have a lasting impact on the world in which we live. When we 
succeed in helping this Iraqi Government become a country that can 
sustain itself, defend itself, govern itself, and serve as an ally in 
the war on terror, we will have delivered a significant blow to those 
who have designs on harming the American people, because they can't 
stand the thought of free societies in their midst. They can't stand the 
thought of people being able to have a government of, by, and for the 
people. It is the opposite of what they view.
    But we have done this kind of work before. The United States of 
America has done the kind of work that spread liberty in parts of the 
world where people never thought liberty could take hold. For example, 
after World War II, after we had a brutal war with the Japanese and Nazi 
Germany, our troops stayed behind and helped these societies recover and 
grow and prosper. And now we're reaping the benefits of helping our 
former enemies realize the blessings of liberty. Europe is free and at 
peace.
    You know, after the Korean war, if you had asked somebody, ``Can you 
imagine an American President being able to stand up in front of some 
troops and say, `The Far East is peaceful; a part of the world where we 
lost thousands of our troops in World War II and Korea is now a 
relatively peaceful part of the world.' '' They would have said, ``What 
a hopeless idealist that person is.'' And yet I can report to you that. 
And I believe it is because our troops not only helped in Korea and 
helped rebuild Japan, but I believe it's because the presence of the 
United States gave breathing space to people to realize the blessings of 
liberty.
    I believe liberty is universal. I don't believe it is just for the 
United States of America alone. I believe there is an Almighty, and I 
believe the Almighty's gift to people worldwide is the desire to be 
free. And I think, if given a chance, people will seize that moment. And 
that's the work you're doing.
    And so that's why I report to our citizens that the hard work we're 
doing today is laying the foundation of peace for generations to come. 
And it gives me great confidence to know that standing with the 
President of the United States is a fantastic military, well-trained, 
courageous, and dedicated to protecting this country.
    I'm proud to be your Commander in Chief. May God bless you all.

Note: The President spoke at 1:19 p.m. In his remarks, he referred to 
Brig. Gen. Robert W. Cone, USA, commanding general, U.S. Army National 
Training Center and Fort Irwin, and his wife, Jill; Command Sgt. Maj. 
Kim D. Boyink, USA, U.S. Army National Training Center and Fort Irwin; 
Usama bin Laden, leader of the Al Qaida terrorist organization; Ayman 
Al-Zawahiri, founder of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and senior Al Qaida 
associate; Lt. Gen. David H. Petraeus, USA, commanding general, Multi-
National Force--Iraq; Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki of Iraq; Lt. Gen. 
Abboud Gambar, Iraqi commander of Baghdad, Iraqi Army; and Secretary of 
Defense Robert M. Gates.