[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 43, Number 39 (Monday, October 1, 2007)]
[Pages 1252-1253]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks Following Discussions With President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan 
in New York City

September 26, 2007

    President Bush. Mr. President, welcome back to the States. It just 
seemed like yesterday we were at Camp David.
    President Karzai. Yes.
    President Bush. We had a fruitful set of discussions there, and 
we've had some this morning.
    First of all, I thank you for your courage and your leadership. I 
appreciate your full understanding that a government that responds to 
its people is a government that is--provides hope and opportunities. I 
thank you for the progress report you've given me. This country has gone 
from a brutal tyranny, where women and girls were repressed, to a 
country where women and girls have hope. The Department has got strong 
women in the ranks. Young girls are going to school. Health care is now 
available in ways like never before.
    President Karzai. Child mortality.
    President Bush. Child mortality rates are down. And this is a 
tribute to you and your

[[Page 1253]]

Government, the people of Afghanistan's desire to live in peace. It's in 
the interest of the United States that we continue to help you. It's in 
our security interests that this democracy flourish because when freedom 
takes place in Afghanistan, it will set an example for what's possible 
in other parts of the broader Middle East. When people see that there's 
hope in a part of the world that had been ravaged by war, had been 
terrorized by brutal extremists, when people realize there's a different 
way of life, they'll demand the same things. And it's peace that we all 
want, and it's liberty that will help us keep that peace.
    So, Mr. President, you've got strong friends here. I appreciate your 
courage. As you know, every time we meet, I ask you, ``Are you making 
progress; are more children going to school; are more health care 
clinics operating; are the security forces more capable of dealing with 
the extremists?'' I expect progress, and you expect progress. And I 
appreciate the report that you have given me today. So thank you, and 
welcome.
    President Karzai. Thanks very much, Mr. President. And, as always, 
thank you for the great hospitality that you have always given to the 
Afghan people and to me personally, to my delegation. Camp David was a 
lovely place--I wish one could stay there longer sometime in the future. 
[Laughter]
    Afghanistan, indeed, has made progress, but, Mr. President, that 
should be a tribute to you, your leadership, and the American people for 
all that we have achieved there in Afghanistan, especially the thing 
that you mentioned, reduction in child mortality--from a country that 
was the worst in the world to a country that's coming up and saving 
85,000 lives, especially this year, of children under 5; and for a 
country that was self-sufficient 40 years ago in zero production to 
becoming again self-sufficient in the production of food after the years 
of drought, misery, and want, and the roads and education and the Afghan 
flag flying around the world. So there is an endless list for which we 
have to be grateful to you.
    And most important of all, Mr. President, something that we tend to 
forget from time to time, the liberation of Afghanistan, such an 
important thing for the Afghan people. I don't know if you feel it in 
the United States, but we feel it so immensely in Afghanistan that we 
are now, once again, a free country, liberated from the grips of 
terrorism and Al Qaida and their associates. And we love our flag flying 
around the world--I love to see it in this room, by the way.
    Thank you very much.
    President Bush. Good. Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 8:53 a.m. at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.