[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 43, Number 16 (Monday, April 23, 2007)]
[Pages 454-457]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks to Members of Armed Forces Service Organizations

April 16, 2007

    Thank you all. Please be seated. Welcome to the White House. You 
know, I get to welcome a lot of guests here. I don't think there's a 
more important guest than a veteran or the family of a service man or 
woman or the families of those whose loved one has given their life to 
the country. And so I welcome an incredibly important group of guests. 
And thank you for coming, and thank you for your time.
    I appreciate very much to be in the presence of moms and dads, 
husbands and wives, sons and daughters of some of the finest citizens 
our Nation has ever produced. I want to thank the leaders of 
organizations that support our military families. I appreciate your 
tireless work to send a clear signal that many in the United States of 
America support our troops. Each of you knows what is stake--what is at 
stake in this war on terror. And I appreciate your efforts to rally our 
Nation to support our troops and to support the mission for which they 
have risked and, in some cases, have given their lives. I thank you for 
coming. Thanks for your service to the United States of America.
    Many of the families here today have relatives serving in harm's 
way. Others have lost loved ones in the struggle. They have come here to 
Washington with a message for their elected leaders in our Nation's 
Capital: Our troops need the resources, equipment, and weapons to fight 
our enemies. Congress needs to pass an emergency war spending bill, 
without strings and without further delay.
    On Wednesday, I will meet with congressional leaders from both 
parties right here at the White House. I'm going to pass on your message 
to them.
    I appreciate members of the Families United for Our Troops and Their 
Mission. Thanks for doing what you do. I want to thank the members of 
the Armed Forces Foundation and those who serve with our Veterans 
Service Organizations.
    A time of war is a time of sacrifice for our Nation, but especially 
for our military families. Being left behind when a loved one goes to 
war is one of the hardest jobs in our military. The families here today 
inspire our Nation--inspire them with their sense of duty and with their 
deep devotion to our country.
    The families gathered here understand that we are a nation at war. 
Like me, they wish we weren't at war--but we are. They know that the 
enemies who attacked us on September the 11th, 2001, want to bring 
further destruction to our country. They know that the only way to stop 
them is to stay on

[[Page 455]]

the offense, to fight the extremists and radicals where they live so we 
don't have to face them where we live.
    The families gathered here understand that our troops want to finish 
the job. Today, because of e-mail and instant messaging and other modern 
technologies, our military families are able to stay in contact with 
their loved ones overseas. I see some baby boomers out there and--who 
wore our uniform. You never would have imagined e-mailing a loved one in 
the midst of your time overseas, but that's what's happening today. 
Families here know what our troops are seeing and hearing on the ground; 
they get instant feedback from the--as a result of modern technologies. 
And they know better than anyone our troops' desire to succeed and their 
determination to prevail.
    Families gathered here understand that America is not going to be 
safe until the terrorist threat is defeated. If we do not defeat the 
terrorists and extremists in Iraq, they won't leave us alone; they will 
follow us to the United States of America. That's what makes this battle 
in the war on terror so incredibly important. One of the lessons of 
September the 11th is, what happens overseas matters to the security of 
the United States of America, and we must not forget that lesson.
    The consequences of failure in Iraq would be death and destruction 
in the Middle East and here in America. To protect our citizens at home, 
we must defeat the terrorists. We defeat them by staying on the offense, 
and we defeat them by helping young democracies defeat their ideology of 
hate. And it's hard work, but it is necessary work, and thousands of men 
and women who wear our uniform understand the stakes.
    It's a remarkable country, isn't it, where people stand up and 
volunteer to serve the United States in uniform during a time of war. 
And yet that's who we honor here today.
    We must give our men and women in uniform the tools and resources 
they need to prevail. Providing these resources is the responsibility of 
the United States Congress. And that is why, 70 days ago, I sent 
Congress an emergency war spending bill that would provide the vital 
funds our troops urgently need. But instead of approving this funding, 
Democrats in Congress have spent the past 70 days pushing legislation 
that would undercut our troops.
    They passed bills in the House and the Senate that would impose 
restrictions on our military commanders. They set an arbitrary date for 
withdrawal from Iraq. And they spend billions of dollars on domestic 
projects that have nothing to do with the war. After passing these 
unacceptable bills, House and Senate leaders then chose to leave town 
for spring recess without resolving their differences or sending any 
legislation to my desk.
    As Congress delays, the clock is ticking for our troops. Last week, 
Secretary of Defense Gates wrote to Congress, laying out the 
consequences of their failure to pass emergency spending for our troops 
on the frontlines. He warned that because Congress has not acted, quote, 
``the Army will soon begin reducing quality of life initiatives, 
reducing the repair and maintenance of equipment necessary for 
deployment training, and curtailing the training of Army Guard and 
Reserve units within the United States, reducing their readiness 
levels.'' He continued that if emergency funding is not received by mid-
May, quote, ``the Army will have to consider further actions to include 
reducing the pace of equipment overhaul work at Army depots, curtailing 
training rotations for brigade combat teams currently scheduled for 
overseas deployment,'' a step that that the Secretary said, ``would 
likely require the further extension of currently deployed forces.'' In 
other words, there are consequences for Congress's delay in getting our 
troops the money that the Defense Department has requested.
    Congress's failure to fund our troops will mean that the readiness 
of our forces will suffer. This is unacceptable to me; it's unacceptable 
to you; and it's unacceptable to the vast majority of the American 
people.
    Listen, I understand Republicans and Democrats in Washington have 
differences over the best course in Iraq. That's healthy. That's normal. 
And we should debate those differences. But our troops should not be 
caught in the middle.
    Last week, the Senate returned to Washington, and this week, the 
House has returned as well. I've invited congressional

[[Page 456]]

leaders of both parties to meet me at the White House 2 days from today. 
That's what we're supposed to do; we're supposed to talk out our 
differences. I'm looking forward to the meetings. I hope the Democratic 
leadership will drop their unreasonable demands for a precipitous 
withdrawal. We've only committed about a little over half of our troops 
into a decision I made to help secure the Iraqi capital, and yet there 
are some saying, we ought to leave before we get there.
    I think it is wrong for Congress to restrict our military 
commanders. I can understand having a difference of opinion about Iraq, 
but our commanders need the flexibility necessary to meet the mission. 
We should not be substituting political judgment for the judgment of 
those in our military. And the idea of putting, you know, peanut 
storage--which may be necessary at some point in time; I don't know; I 
haven't analyzed the peanut storage issue--[laughter]--but I do know it 
doesn't have much to do with--about making sure your loved ones gets 
what's needed to do their job.
    I am willing to discuss any way forward that does not hamstring our 
troops, set an artificial timetable for withdrawal, and spend billions 
on projects not related to the war. The American people expect the 
leaders in Washington to find common ground, but they also expect the 
Congress and the White House to work together to make sure our troops 
get funded quickly. We should not legislate defeat in this vital war.
    We owe it to our men and women in uniform to give them the full 
support. It's important as people debate this issue to think about 
somebody like Merrilee Carlson, with us today. She's a Gold Star Mom. 
Two years ago, Merrilee's son, Michael, gave his life in Iraq when his 
platoon was on a night mission to take out two terrorist bomb-making 
factories. As they approached their target, they passed over a culvert 
that gave way, and their Bradley fighting vehicle plunged into the 
water, and Michael and four others in the vehicle died that day.
    Michael penned a high school essay before he joined the Army. This 
is what he wrote: ``I want my life to account for something. Everyone 
eventually loses their life. I have only so much time. I want to fight 
for something, be a part of something greater than myself. I want to be 
a soldier or something of that caliber.'' He became a soldier; he gave 
his life for something greater than himself. And now his mom and dad 
have just one demand, and that is to make sure Michael's sacrifice is 
not in vain.
    We owe it to the Carlson family, we owe it to other Gold Star 
families here today to complete the mission for which their loved ones 
gave their lives. We owe it to a future generation of Americans to help 
secure peace. We owe it to the American people to make this Nation 
safer. The most solemn obligation of the government and Washington is to 
provide security for the American people and to protect them from harm.
    We owe it to the brave Iraqis. I just spoke to the Prime Minister; I 
told him I was coming to see you. He said, ``Please thank the people in 
the White House for their sacrifices.''
    And we will continue to work hard to be an ally in this war on 
terror. We'll continue to do the hard work necessary to help change the 
conditions that caused 19 young men to get on airplanes to come and kill 
thousands of our citizens on September the 11th.
    We owe it to every sailor, soldier, airman, marine in harm's way to 
give them the tools they need to prevail. That's what we owe them.
    As we saw with last week's brutal attack on the Iraqi Parliament, 
our troops face depraved and determined enemies--enemies that could just 
as easily come here to kill us. And therefore, we must give our men and 
women in uniform the best equipment, the best training, and the 
unqualified support of our Nation.
    Congress needs to put partisanship on hold. It needs to get rid of 
all the politics right now and send me an emergency war spending bill 
that I can sign that gets our troops the support they need and gives our 
commanders the flexibility they need to complete this mission.
    I appreciate you coming. God bless.

Note: The President spoke at 11 a.m. in the East Room at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki of 
Iraq.

[[Page 457]]