[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 43, Number 43 (Monday, October 29, 2007)]
[Pages 1398-1404]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at the National Defense University

October 23, 2007

    Thank you all. Please be seated. Thanks for the warm welcome. Madam 
President--[laughter]--thank you for that kind introduction. Thank you 
for welcoming me back to the National Defense University. I really enjoy 
coming here. After all, this is a great American institution that has 
educated our Nation's top military leaders and national security 
thinkers for more than a century.
    Today, you're training the next generation of leaders to prevail in 
the great ideological struggle of our time, the global war on terror. 
We're at war with a brutal enemy. We're at war with coldblooded killers 
who despise freedom, reject tolerance, and kill the innocent in pursuit 
of their political vision. Many of you have met this enemy on the 
battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq; you have served with valor in the 
defense of our country. Students here at NDU have earned 3 Purple Hearts 
and more than 90 Bronze Stars since the war on terror began. All of you 
who wear the uniform are helping to protect this country, and the United 
States of America is grateful for your service.
    In this war, we're on the offensive against the enemy, and that's 
the only way to be. We'll fight them in foreign lands so we don't have 
to face them here in America. We'll pursue the terrorists across the 
world. We'll take every lawful and effective measure to protect 
ourselves here at home.
    In an age when terrorist networks and terrorist states are seeking 
weapons of mass destruction, we must be ready to defend our Nation 
against every possible avenue of attack. I've come today to discuss the 
actions we're taking to keep our people safe and to update you on the 
progress of an initiative I announced on this very campus in 2001, and 
that is our efforts to defend America against a ballistic missile 
attack. My administration made a commitment to the American people then 
that we will defend you against all forms of terror, including the 
terror that

[[Page 1399]]

could arrive as a result of a missile. And we're keeping that 
commitment.
    Another topic of concern is the devastation caused by the wildfires 
in southern California. All of us across this Nation are concerned for 
the families who have lost their homes and the many families who have 
been evacuated from their homes. We send our prayers and thoughts with 
those who've been affected, and we send the help of the Federal 
Government as well.
    Last night I declared an emergency, which will open up the 
opportunity for us to send Federal assets to help the Governor and those 
who are fighting these fires. Today I have sent Secretary Chertoff and 
Director Paulison of the FEMA to go out to California to listen and to 
develop an inventory of supplies and help that we can provide.
    I appreciate very much the fact that the senior Senator from Alaska 
has joined us--no stronger supporter for the United States military than 
Ted Stevens. We're proud you're here, Senator. Thank you for coming. I 
appreciate--[applause]. I want to thank Congressman Todd Akin for 
joining us as well, from the State of Missouri. Proud you're here, 
Congressman. Appreciate both of you all taking your time.
    There's a lot of high-ranking officials here, but I do want to 
single out one, that would be your Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of 
Staff, United States marine James ``Hoss'' Cartwright. General, thank 
you for coming. Appreciate you being here. Thanks for letting me come 
by.
    The men and women of the National Defense University understand what 
is at stake in today's war. First of all, you understand we're in war. 
And secondly, you understand the stakes of this war. September the 11th, 
2001, terrorists struck us 5 miles from this very spot; they crashed a 
plane into the Pentagon and killed 184 men, women, and children. And 
from this campus, you could see the smoke billowing across the Potomac. 
You lost one of your own that day, Navy Captain Bob Dolan, class of 
1998, who was working in the Pentagon office when the plane hit it. With 
us today are four NDU students and one professor who helped with the 
rescue effort. These souls pulled victims from the wreckage; they 
provided emergency medical care; and they flew choppers to support 
recovery operations at the site of the attack. The attack that day was 
personal for people here at NDU. I took it personally as well.
    With the presence--with the passage of time, the memories of 
September the 11th have grown more distant. That's natural. That's what 
happens with time. And for some, there's the temptation to think that 
the threats to our country have grown distant as well. They have not. 
And our job, for those of us who have been called to protect America, is 
never to forget the threat and to implement strategies that will protect 
the homeland. On 9/11, we saw that oceans which separate us from other 
continents no longer separates us from danger. We saw the cruelty of the 
terrorists. We saw the future they intend for us. They intend to strike 
our country again. Oh, some dismiss that as empty chatter; I'm telling 
you, they intend to strike our country again. And the next time, they 
hope to cause destruction that will make 9/11 pale by comparison.
    This new kind of threat has required a new kind of war, and we're 
prosecuting that war on many fronts. Our Armed Forces have captured or 
killed thousands of extremists and radicals. We have removed terrorist 
regimes in Afghanistan and Iraq that had supported terrorists and 
threatened our citizens. In these two nations, we liberated 50 million 
people from unspeakable tyranny, and now we're helping them build stable 
democracies that can govern justly and protect their citizens and serves 
as allies in this war against extremists and radicals.
    And one of the real challenges we face is, will we have confidence 
in the liberty to be transformative? Will we lose faith in the 
universality of liberty? Will we ignore history and not realize that 
liberty has got the capacity to yield the peace we want? And so this 
administration, along with many in our military, will continue to spread 
the hope of liberty in order to defeat the ideology of darkness, the 
ideology of the terrorists, and work to secure a future of peace for 
generations to come. That's our call.
    In this new war, the enemy seeks to infiltrate operatives into our 
country and attack us from within. They can't beat our Army; they can't 
defeat our military. And so they

[[Page 1400]]

try to sneak folks in our country to kill the innocent, to achieve their 
objectives. And that's one of the reasons we passed the PATRIOT Act. And 
over the past 6 years, our law enforcement and intelligence officers 
have used the tools in this good law to break up terror cells and 
support networks in California, in New York, in Ohio, in Virginia, in 
Florida, and other States.
    In this new war, the enemy uses advanced technology to recruit 
operatives and to train suicide bombers and to plan and plot new attacks 
on our country. And so we passed the Protect America Act, which 
strengthened our ability to collect foreign intelligence on terrorists 
overseas. It closed a dangerous gap in our intelligence. Unfortunately, 
this law is set to expire on February the 1st, 101 days from now. Yet 
the threat from Al Qaida is not going to expire 101 days from now. So I 
call on Congress to make sure our intelligence professionals have the 
tools they need to keep us safe by strengthening the Protect America Act 
and making it the permanent law of the land.
    In this new war, the enemy conspires in secret, and often, the only 
source of information on what the terrorists are planning is the 
terrorists themselves. So we established a program at the Central 
Intelligence Agency to question key terrorist leaders and operatives 
captured in the war on terror. This program has produced critical 
intelligence that has helped us stop a number of attacks, including a 
plot to strike the U.S. Marine camp in Djibouti, a planned attack on the 
U.S. consulate in Karachi, a plot to hijack a passenger plane and fly it 
into Library Tower in Los Angeles, California, or a plot to fly 
passenger planes into Heathrow Airport and buildings into downtown 
London.
    Despite the record of success and despite the fact that our 
professionals use lawful techniques, the CIA program has come under 
renewed criticism in recent weeks. Those who oppose this vital tool in 
the war on terror need to answer a simple question: Which of the attacks 
I have just described would they prefer we had not stopped? Without this 
program, our intelligence community believes that Al Qaida and its 
allies would have succeeded in launching another attack against the 
American homeland. This CIA program has saved lives; it is vital to the 
security of the American people.
    In this new war, the enemy seeks weapons of mass destruction that 
would allow them to kill our people on an unprecedented scale. So we're 
working with friends and allies to stop our enemies from getting their 
hands on these weapons. We increased funding for a threat reduction 
program that is helping us to secure nuclear warheads and fissile 
materials in Russia. We launched the Global Threat Reduction Initiative 
that has removed enough material for more than 30 nuclear bombs from 
around the world. We launched the Container Security Initiative and 
other programs to detect and stop the movement of dangerous materials in 
foreign ports and intercept these materials before they are placed on 
vessels destined for the United States.
    With Russia, we launched the Global Initiative To Combat Nuclear 
Terrorism, a coalition of more than 60 nations that are using their own 
resources to stop the illicit spread of nuclear materials. We 
established the Proliferation Security Initiative, a coalition of more 
than 80 nations working to intercept shipments of weapons of mass 
destruction on land and at sea and in the air. With our allies, we're 
going after the proliferators and shutting down their financial 
networks. And through these and other efforts, the message should be 
clear to the enemy: We're not going to allow mass murderers to gain 
access to the tools of mass destruction.
    The war on terror will be won on the offense, and that's where I 
intend to keep it, on the offense. Yet protecting our citizens is--also 
requires defensive measures here at home. It's a new kind of war. It's a 
different conflict that you're studying here at NDU. It requires us to 
use all assets to keep the pressure on the enemy. There should be no day 
where they do not feel the pressure of the United States of America and 
our allies.
    But at home, we've got to put defensive measures in place, measures 
that we have never had to put in place before. Since 2001, we've taken 
unprecedented actions to protect our citizens. After all, it's our most 
solemn duty in Washington, DC, to protect the American people. We 
created the Department of Homeland Security. We established

[[Page 1401]]

a new Northern Command at the Department of Defense. We established new 
programs to protect our cities against biological and radiological 
attacks. We beefed up airport and seaport security at home. We've 
instituted better visa screening for those entering our country. Since 
September of 2001, my administration has provided more than $23 billion 
to America's State and local first-responders for equipment and training 
and other vital needs.
    One of the most important defensive measures we have taken is the 
deployment of new capabilities to defend America against ballistic 
missile attack. On 9/11, we saw the damage our enemies could do by 
hijacking planes loaded with jet fuel and turning them into missiles and 
using them to kill the innocent. Today, dangerous regimes are pursuing 
far more powerful capabilities and building ballistic missiles that 
could allow them to deliver these weapons to American cities.
    The ballistic missile threat to America has been growing for 
decades. In 1972, just nine countries had ballistic missiles. Today, 
that number has grown to 27, and it includes hostile regimes with ties 
to terrorists. When I took office, our Nation had no capability to 
defend the American people against long-range ballistic missile attacks. 
Our research, development, and testing program was hampered by a lack of 
funding. Our efforts to develop and deploy missile defense were 
constrained by the ABM Treaty, a 30-year-old agreement negotiated with a 
Soviet Union that no longer existed.
    So one of my administration's first national security initiatives 
was to reinvigorate our country's efforts to defend against ballistic 
missile attack. Here at the National Defense University, I announced 
America's intention to move beyond the ABM Treaty and deploy missile 
defenses to protect our people, our forces abroad, and our allies around 
the world against limited attacks. I also pledged that as we build these 
defenses, America would undertake significant reductions in nuclear 
weapons, and that we would establish a new approach to deterrence that 
would leave behind the adversarial legacy of the cold war and allow us 
to prepare for the threats of the 21st century. Over the past years, we 
have delivered on those pledges.
    The first step we took was to withdraw from the ABM Treaty. At the 
time, critics warned of a disaster, with some declaring that our--my 
decision could ``give rise to a dangerous new arms race with Russia.'' 
Russia did not agree with my decision to withdraw. Yet President Putin 
declared that the decision at the time ``does not pose a threat to 
Russia.'' And far from a new arms race, he announced that Russia would 
join the United States in making historic reductions in our deployed 
offensive nuclear arsenals.
    The second step we took was to make missile defense operational, 
while continuing our research and development efforts. Instead of 
spending decades trying to develop a perfect shield, we decided to begin 
deploying missile defense capabilities as soon as the technology was 
proven ready and then build on that foundation by adding new 
capabilities as they matured. By the end of 2004, we had a rudimentary 
capability in place to defend against limited missile attacks by rogue 
states or an accidental launch. As new technologies come on line, we 
continue to add to this system, making it increasingly capable and 
moving us closer to the day when we can intercept ballistic missiles of 
all ranges, in every stage of flight, from boost to mid-course and 
terminal.
    The third step we took was to reach out to the world and involve 
other nations in the missile defense effort. Since 2001, we've worked 
closely with countries such as Israel and Italy and Germany and Japan 
and the Netherlands and Britain and others on missile defense. Together 
with our friends and allies, we're deploying early warning radars and 
missile interceptors and ballistic missile defense ships. We're working 
to jointly develop new missile defense capabilities. As a result of this 
collaboration, missile defense has gone from an American innovation to a 
truly international effort to help defend free nations against the true 
threats of the 21st century.
    Our decision to make missile defense operational was validated in 
July of last year, when North Korea launched a series of destabilizing 
ballistic missile tests, including testing a system our intelligence 
community believes is capable of reaching the United States. Had these 
tests taken place just a few

[[Page 1402]]

years earlier, they would have underscored America's vulnerability to a 
ballistic missile attack. Instead, because of the decisions we took in 
2001 and because of the hard work of people in this room, our military 
had in place a capability to track the North Korean vehicle and engage 
it if it threatened our country. So a test North Korea intended to 
showcase its power became a demonstration that the pursuit of ballistic 
missiles will ultimately be fruitless, because America and our allies 
are building and deploying the means to defend against this threat.
    Last month, the Missile Defense Agency conducted its 30th successful 
``hit to kill'' test since 2001. We got a lot of smart people working on 
this project, and they're proving that our vision can work. With this 
most recent success, our military commanders believe we can now have a 
credible system in place that can provide the American people with a 
measure of protection against threats emanating from Northeast Asia. The 
next step is to take a system that has passed demanding tests in the 
Pacific theater and deploy elements of it to Europe so we can defend 
America and our NATO allies from attacks emanating from the Middle East.
    The need for missile defense in Europe is real, and I believe it's 
urgent. Iran is pursuing the technology that could be used to produce 
nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles of increasing range that could 
deliver them. Last November, Iran conducted military exercises in which 
it launched ballistic missiles capable of striking Israel and Turkey as 
well as American troops based in the Persian Gulf. Iranian officials 
have declared that they are developing missiles with a range of 1,200 
miles, which would give them the capability to strike many of our NATO 
allies, including Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, and possibly Poland, 
Hungary, and Slovakia. Our intelligence community assesses that with 
continued foreign assistance, Iran could develop an intercontinental 
ballistic missile capable of reaching the United States and all of 
Europe before 2015. If it chooses to do so and the international 
community does not take steps to prevent it, it is possible Iran could 
have this capability. And we need to take it seriously--now.
    Today, we have no way to defend Europe against the emerging Iranian 
threat, and so we must deploy a missile defense system there that can. 
This system will be limited in scope. It is not designed to defend 
against an attack from Russia. The missile defenses we can employ would 
be easily overwhelmed by Russia's nuclear arsenal. Russia has hundreds 
of missiles and thousands of warheads. We're planning to deploy 10 
interceptors in Europe. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to do the 
math. [Laughter]
    Moreover, the missile defenses we will deploy are intended to deter 
countries who would threaten us with ballistic missile attacks. We do 
not consider Russia such a country. The cold war is over. Russia is not 
our enemy. We're building a new security relationship, whose foundation 
does not rest on the prospect of mutual annihilation.
    As part of the new relationship, we're inviting Russia to join us in 
this cooperative effort to defend Russia, Europe, and the United States 
against an emerging threat that affects us all. For his part, President 
Putin has offered the use of radar facilities in Azerbaijan and southern 
Russia. We believe these sites could be included as part of a wider 
threat monitoring system that could lead to an unprecedented level of 
strategic cooperation between our two countries.
    For our part, we're planning to deploy a system made up of 10 
ground-based interceptors located in Poland and an X-band tracking radar 
located in the Czech Republic. Such a system would have the capacity to 
defend countries in Europe that would be at risk from a long-range 
attack from the Middle East. We're also working with NATO on developing 
capabilities to defend countries against short- and medium-range attacks 
from the Middle East. We want to work on such a system with Russia, 
including through the NATO-Russia Council, see. The danger of ballistic 
missile attacks is a threat we share, and we ought to respond to this 
threat together.
    The effort to develop ballistic missile defenses is part of a 
broader effort to move beyond the cold war and establish a new 
deterrence framework for the 21st century. In 1960, President Eisenhower 
spoke to the students at this campus. He told them, ``Our

[[Page 1403]]

first priority task is to develop and sustain a deterrent commanding the 
respect of any potential aggressor.'' And during those early years of 
the cold war, deterrence required building a nuclear force large enough 
to survive and retaliate after a Soviet first strike.
    Today, our adversaries have changed. We no longer worry about a 
massive Soviet first strike. We worry about terrorist states and 
terrorist networks that might not be deterred by our nuclear forces. To 
deal with such adversaries, we need a new approach to deterrence. This 
approach combines deep reductions in offensive nuclear forces with new, 
advanced conventional capabilities and defenses to protect free people 
from nuclear blackmail or attack.
    So in 2001, I directed the Department of Defense to achieve a 
credible deterrent--a credible deterrent--with the lowest number of 
nuclear weapons consistent with our national security needs, including 
our obligations to our allies. These reductions were eventually codified 
in the Moscow Treaty, which commits the United States and Russia to 
reduce our operationally deployed strategic nuclear warheads to between 
1,700 and 2,200 within 5 years from now.
    Since the Moscow Treaty took effect, the United States has retired 
all of our Peacekeeper ICBMs and reduced our operationally deployed 
strategic nuclear warheads from more than 6,000 when I took office to 
fewer than 3,800 today. When the rest of the reductions we have set in 
motion are completed, the total U.S. nuclear stockpile will be one-
quarter its size at the end of the cold war, the lowest level since the 
Eisenhower administration.
    As we reduce our nuclear arsenal, we're investing in advanced 
conventional capabilities. These include new unmanned aerial combat 
vehicles and next generation long-range precision weapons that allows us 
to strike enemies quickly, at great distances, without using nuclear 
weapons. We're investing in the next generation of missile defenses 
because these systems do more than defend our citizens; they also 
strengthen deterrence.
    Think of it this way: A terrorist regime that can strike America or 
our allies with a ballistic missile is likely to see this power as 
giving them free rein for acts of aggression and intimidation in their 
own neighborhoods. But with missile defenses in place, the calculus of 
deterrence changes in our favor. If this same terrorist regime does not 
have confidence their missile attack would be successful, it is less 
likely to engage in acts of aggression in the first place. We would also 
have more options for dealing with their aggression if deterrence fails.
    In addition to strengthening our deterrent, missile defense also 
strengthens our counterproliferation efforts. One reason for the 
dramatic proliferation of ballistic missile technology over the past 30 
years is that America and our allies had no defense against them. By 
deploying effective defenses, we reduce incentives to build ballistic 
missiles because rogue regimes are less likely to invest in weapons that 
cannot threaten free nations.
    Missile defense also helps us dissuade nations from developing 
nuclear weapons. Through our missile defense partnerships with nations 
in Asia and Europe and the Middle East, we can help friends and allies 
defend against missile attack. These defenses will build their 
confidence, and these defenses will make it less likely that they will 
feel the need to respond to the nuclear ambitions of Iran and North 
Korea by developing nuclear weapons of their own.
    Missile defense is a vital tool for our security. It's a vital tool 
for deterrence. And it's a vital tool for counterproliferation. Yet 
despite all these benefits, the United States Congress is cutting 
funding for missile defense.
    Congress has cut our request for missile defenses in Europe by $139 
million, which could delay deployment for a year or more and undermine 
our allies who are working with us to deploy such a system on their 
soil. Congress has eliminated $51 million from the Airborne Laser 
program, a critical effort that will allow us to intercept missiles in 
the boost stage of flight when they're still over the country that 
launched them. Congress has slashed $50 million from the Multiple Kill 
Vehicle program that will help us defeat both the incoming warhead and 
the decoys deployed to overcome our defenses. Congress has cut $50 
million from the Space Tracking and Surveillance System, a constellation 
of

[[Page 1404]]

space satellites that can help us more effectively detect and track 
ballistic missiles headed for our country. Each of these programs is 
vital to the security of America, and Congress needs to fully fund them.
    The greatest threat facing our Nation in the 21st century is the 
danger of terrorist networks or terrorist states armed with weapons of 
mass destruction. We're taking decisive action at home and abroad to 
defend our people from this danger. With bold investments today, we can 
ensure that the men and women in this hall have the tools you need to 
confront the threats of tomorrow. We will ensure that you have the tools 
necessary to do the solemn duty of protecting the American people from 
harm.
    I want to thank each of you for stepping forward to serve our 
country. You're courageous folks. Because of your willingness to 
volunteer in a time of war, there's no doubt in my mind we can prevail 
in this war. It requires determination, resolve, steadfast--
steadfastness in the face of a brutal enemy. And having served as the 
Commander in Chief for nearly 6\3/4\ years, there's no doubt in my mind 
that the United States military has that resolve and has that courage.
    God bless you.

Note: The President spoke at 10:08 a.m. In his remarks, he referred to 
Lt. Gen. Frances C. Wilson, USMC, president, National Defense 
University; Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California; and President 
Vladimir Putin of Russia.