[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 44, Number 10 (Monday, March 17, 2008)]
[Page 354]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on Arrival in Nashville, Tennessee

March 11, 2008

    The President. This is Dr. Christian, Dr. Karla Christian, who 
really symbolizes the best of America. She and a team of hers have 
performed a surgery on a little Iraqi girl who was discovered by United 
States marines. People in Nashville raised the money for the family; 
they were supported by the marines there in Iraq. Some of the marines 
raised money, and they sent this little girl, whose heart was ailing, to 
America, right here to Nashville. And Karla and her team healed the 
little girl, and she's back in Iraq.
    And the contrast couldn't be more vivid. We got people in Iraq who 
murder the innocent to achieve their political objectives, and we've got 
Americans who heal the broken hearts of little Iraqi girls. Ours is a 
compassionate nation that believes in the universality of freedom. And 
ours is a nation full of loving souls that when they find a stranger in 
need will lend their God-given talents to help that stranger. And that's 
precisely what happened.
    Karla G. Christian. Thank you.
    The President. I want you to thank your team there for all the good 
work you've done.
    Dr. Christian. Thank you for all you've done.
    The President. God bless.

Note: The President spoke at 10:29 a.m. at Nashville International 
Airport. In his remarks, he referred to Karla G. Christian, associate 
chief of pediatric cardiac surgery and director of pediatric cardiac 
surgical education, Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt, 
and her patient, Amina Al'a Thabit.