[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 44, Number 11 (Monday, March 24, 2008)]
[Pages 398-403]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on the War on Terror in Arlington, Virginia

March 19, 2008

    Thank you all. Deputy Secretary England, thanks for the 
introduction. One boss may not be here, but the other one is. [Laughter] 
I appreciate your kind words. I'm pleased to be back here with the men 
and women of the Defense Department.
    On this day in 2003, the United States began Operation Iraqi 
Freedom. As the campaign unfolded, tens and thousands of our troops 
poured across the Iraqi border to liberate the Iraqi people and remove a 
regime that threatened free nations.
    Five years into this battle, there is an understandable debate over 
whether the war was worth fighting; whether the fight is worth winning; 
and whether we can win it. The answers are clear to me: Removing Saddam 
Hussein from power was the right decision, and this is a fight America 
can and must win.
    The men and women who crossed into Iraq 5 years ago removed a 
tyrant, liberated a country, and rescued millions from unspeakable 
horrors. Some of those troops are with us today, and you need to know 
that the American people are proud of your accomplishment, and so is the 
Commander in Chief.
    I appreciate Admiral Mullen, the Joint Chiefs who are here. Thanks 
for coming. Secretary Donald Winter of the Navy; Deputy Secretary of 
State John Negroponte is with us. Admiral Thad Allen of the Coast Guard 
is with us. Ambassador from Iraq is with us; Mr. Ambassador, we're proud 
to have you here. Soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen, and coast men--
coast guard men, thanks for coming; thanks for wearing the uniform. Men 
and women of the Department of State are here as well.
    Operation Iraqi Freedom was a remarkable display of military 
effectiveness. Forces from the UK, Australia, Poland, and other allies 
joined our troops in the initial operations. As they advanced, our 
troops fought their way through sandstorms so intense that they 
blackened the daytime sky. Our troops engaged in pitched battles with 
Fedayeen Saddam, death squads acting on the orders of Saddam Hussein, 
that obeyed neither the

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conventions of war nor the dictates of conscience. These death squads 
hid in schools, and they hid in hospitals, hoping to draw fire against 
Iraqi civilians. They used women and children as human shields. They 
stopped at nothing in their efforts to prevent us from prevailing, but 
they couldn't stop the coalition advance.
    Aided by the most effective and precise air campaign in history, 
coalition forces raced across 350 miles of enemy territory, destroying 
Republican Guard divisions, pushing through the Karbala Gap, capturing 
Saddam International Airport, and liberating Baghdad in less than 1 
month.
    Along the way, our troops added new chapters to the story of 
American military heroism. During these first weeks of battle, Army 
Sergeant First Class Paul Ray Smith and his troops came under a surprise 
attack by about a hundred Republican Guard forces. Sergeant Smith 
rallied his men. He led a counterattack, killing as many as 50 enemy 
soldiers before being fatally wounded. His actions saved the lives of 
more than a hundred American troops and earned him the Medal of Honor.
    Today, in light of the challenges we have faced in Iraq, some look 
back at this period as the easy part of the war. Yet there was nothing 
easy about it. The liberation of Iraq took incredible skill and amazing 
courage. And the speed, precision, and brilliant execution of the 
campaign will be studied by military historians for years to come.
    What our troops found in Iraq following Saddam's removal was 
horrifying. They uncovered children's prisons and torture chambers and 
rape rooms where Iraqi women were violated in front of their families. 
They found videos showing regime thugs mutilating Iraqis deemed disloyal 
to Saddam. And across the Iraqi countryside, they uncovered mass graves 
of thousands executed by the regime.
    Because we acted, Saddam Hussein no longer fills fields with the 
remains of innocent men, women, and children. Because we acted, Saddam's 
torture chambers and rape rooms and children's prisons have been closed 
for good. Because we acted, Saddam's regime is no longer invading its 
neighbors or attacking them with chemical weapons and ballistic 
missiles. Because we acted, Saddam's regime is no longer paying the 
families of suicide bombers in the Holy Land. Because we acted, Saddam's 
regime is no longer shooting at American and British aircraft patrolling 
the no-fly zones and defying the will of the United Nations. Because we 
acted, the world is better and United States of America is safer.
    When the Iraqi regime was removed, it did not lay down its arms and 
surrender. Instead, former regime elements took off their uniforms and 
faded into the countryside to fight the emergence of a free Iraq. And 
then they were joined by foreign terrorists who were seeking to stop the 
advance of liberty in the Middle East and seeking to establish safe 
havens from which to plot new attacks across the world.
    The battle in Iraq has been longer and harder and more costly than 
we anticipated, but it is a fight we must win. So our troops have 
engaged these enemies with courage and determination. And as they've 
battled the terrorists and extremists in Iraq, they have helped the 
Iraqi people reclaim their nation and helped a young democracy rise from 
the rubble of Saddam Hussein's tyranny.
    Over the past 5 years, we have seen moments of triumph and moments 
of tragedy. We have watched in admiration as 12 million Iraqis defied 
the terrorists and went to the polls and chose their leaders in free 
elections. We watched in horror as Al Qaida beheaded innocent captives 
and sent suicide bombers to blow up mosques and markets. These actions 
show the brutal nature of the enemy in Iraq, and they serve as a grim 
reminder. The terrorists who murder the innocent in the streets of 
Baghdad want to murder the innocent in the streets of America. Defeating 
this enemy in Iraq will make it less likely that we will face the enemy 
here at home.
    A little over a year ago, the fight in Iraq was faltering. Extremist 
elements were succeeding in their efforts to plunge Iraq into chaos. 
They had established safe havens in many parts of the country. They were 
creating divisions among the Iraqis along sectarian lines. And their 
strategy of using violence in Iraq to cause divisions in America

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was working as pressures built here in Washington for withdrawal before 
the job was done.
    My administration understood that America could not retreat in the 
face of terror. And we knew that if we did not act, the violence that 
had been consuming Iraq would worsen and spread and could eventually 
reach genocidal levels. Baghdad could have disintegrated into a 
contagion of killing, and Iraq could have descended into full-blown 
sectarian warfare.
    So we reviewed the strategy and changed course in Iraq. We sent 
reinforcements into the country in a dramatic policy shift that is now 
known as the surge. General David Petraeus took command with a new 
mission: Work with Iraqi forces to protect the Iraqi people; pressure 
the enemy into strongholds; and deny the terrorists sanctuary anywhere 
in the country. And that is precisely what we have done.
    In Anbar, Sunni tribal leaders had grown tired of Al Qaida's 
brutality and started a popular uprising called the Anbar Awakening. To 
take advantage of this opportunity, we sent 4,000 additional marines to 
help these brave Iraqis drive Al Qaida from the Province. As this effort 
succeeded, it inspired other Iraqis to take up the fight. Soon similar 
uprisings began to spread across the country. Today, there are more than 
90,000 concerned local citizens who are protecting their communities 
from the terrorists and insurgents and the extremists. The Government in 
Baghdad has stepped forward with a surge of its own; they've added more 
than 100,000 new Iraqi soldiers and police during the past year. These 
Iraqi troops have fought bravely, and thousands have given their lives 
in this struggle.
    Together, these Americans and Iraqi forces have driven the 
terrorists from many of the sanctuaries they once held. Now the 
terrorists have gathered in and around the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, 
and Iraqi and American forces are relentlessly pursuing them. There will 
be tough fighting in Mosul and areas of northern Iraq in the weeks 
ahead. But there's no doubt in my mind, because of the courage of our 
troops and the bravery of the Iraqis, the Al Qaida terrorists in this 
region will suffer the same fate as Al Qaida suffered elsewhere in Iraq.
    As we have fought Al Qaida, coalition and Iraqi forces have also 
taken the fight to Shi'a extremist groups, many of them backed and 
financed and armed by Iran. A year ago, these groups were on the rise. 
Today, they are increasingly isolated, and Iraqis of all faiths are 
putting their lives on the line to stop these extremists from hijacking 
their young democracy.
    To ensure that military progress in Iraq is quickly followed up with 
real improvements in daily life, we have doubled the number of 
Provincial Reconstruction Teams in Iraq. These teams of civilian experts 
are serving all Iraqi--18 Iraqi Provinces, and they're helping to 
strengthen responsible leaders and build up local economies and bring 
Iraqis together, so that reconciliation can happen from the ground up. 
They're very effective. They're helping give ordinary Iraqis confidence 
that by rejecting the extremists and reconciling with one another, they 
can claim their place in a free Iraq and build better lives for their 
families.
    There's still hard work to be done in Iraq. The gains we have made 
are fragile and reversible. But on this anniversary, the American people 
should know that since the surge began, the level of violence is 
significantly down, civilian deaths are down, sectarian killings are 
down, attacks on American forces are down. We have captured or killed 
thousands of extremists in Iraq, including hundreds of key Al Qaida 
leaders and operatives. Our men and women in uniform are performing with 
characteristic honor and valor. The surge is working. And as a return on 
our success in Iraq, we've begun bringing some of our troops home.
    The surge has done more than turn the situation in Iraq around, it 
has opened the door to a major strategic victory in the broader war on 
terror. For the terrorists, Iraq was supposed to be the place where Al 
Qaida rallied Arab masses to drive America out. Instead, Iraq has become 
the place where Arabs joined with Americans to drive Al Qaida out. In 
Iraq, we are witnessing the first large-scale Arab uprising against 
Usama bin Laden, his grim ideology, and his murderous

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network. And the significance of this development cannot be overstated.
    The terrorist movement feeds on a sense of inevitability and claims 
to rise on the tide of history. The accomplishments of the surge in Iraq 
are exposing this myth and discrediting the extremists. When Iraqi and 
American forces finish the job, the effects will reverberate far beyond 
Iraq's borders. Usama bin Laden once said: ``When people see a strong 
horse and a weak horse, by nature they will like the strong horse.'' By 
defeating Al Qaida in Iraq, we will show the world that Al Qaida is the 
weak horse. We will show that men and women who love liberty can defeat 
the terrorists. And we will show that the future of the Middle East does 
not belong to terror. The future of the Middle East belongs to freedom.
    The challenge in this period ahead is to consolidate the gains we 
have made and seal the extremists' defeat. We have learned through hard 
experience what happens when we pull our forces back too fast; the 
terrorists and extremists step in, they fill vacuums, establish safe 
havens, and use them to spread chaos and carnage. General Petraeus has 
warned that too fast a drawdown could result in such an unraveling with 
Al Qaida and insurgents and militia extremists regaining lost ground and 
increasing violence.
    Men and women of the Armed Forces: Having come so far and achieved 
so much, we're not going to let this to happen.
    Next month, General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker will come to 
Washington to testify before Congress. I will await their 
recommendations before making decisions on our troop levels in Iraq. Any 
further drawdown will be based on conditions on the ground and the 
recommendations of our commanders. And they must not jeopardize the 
hard-fought gains our troops and civilians have made over the past year.
    Successes we are seeing in Iraq are undeniable, yet some in 
Washington still call for retreat. War critics can no longer credibly 
argue that we're losing in Iraq, so they now argue the war costs too 
much. In recent months, we've heard exaggerated amounts of the costs of 
this war. No one are--would argue that this war has not come at a high 
cost in lives and treasure; but those costs are necessary when we 
consider the cost of a strategic victory for our enemies in Iraq.
    If we were to allow our enemies to prevail in Iraq, the violence 
that is now declining would accelerate, and Iraq would descend into 
chaos. Al Qaida would regain its lost sanctuaries and establish new 
ones, fomenting violence and terror that could spread beyond Iraq's 
borders, with serious consequences for the world's economy.
    Out of such chaos in Iraq, the terrorist movement could emerge 
emboldened, with new recruits, new resources, and an even greater 
determination to dominate the region and harm America. An emboldened Al 
Qaida with access to Iraq's oil resources could pursue its ambitions to 
acquire weapons of mass destruction to attack America and other free 
nations. Iran would be emboldened as well, with a renewed determination 
to develop nuclear weapons and impose its brand of hegemony across the 
Middle East. Our enemies would see an America--an American failure in 
Iraq as evidence of weakness and a lack of resolve.
    To allow this to happen would be to ignore the lessons of September 
the 11th and make it more likely that America would suffer another 
attack like the one we experienced that day; a day in which 19 armed men 
with box cutters killed nearly 3,000 people in our--on our soil; a day 
after which, in the following of that attack, more than a million 
Americans lost work, lost their jobs. The terrorists intend even greater 
harm to our country. And we have no greater responsibility than to 
defeat our enemies across the world so that they cannot carry out such 
an attack.
    As our coalition fights the enemy in Iraq, we've stayed on the 
offensive on other fronts in the war on terror. You know, just a few 
weeks after commencing Operation Iraqi Freedom, U.S. forces captured 
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind behind the September the 11th 
terrorist attacks; we got him in Pakistan. About the same time as we 
launched Operation Iraqi Freedom, coalition forces thousands of--
hundreds of miles away launched an assault on the terrorists in the 
mountains of southern Afghanistan in an operation called Operation 
Valiant Strike.

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    Throughout the war on terror, we have brought the enemy--we have 
fought the enemy on every single battlefront. And so long as terrorist 
danger remains, the United States of America will continue to fight the 
enemy wherever it makes its stand.
    We will stay on the offense. But in the long run, defeating the 
terrorists requires an alternative to their murderous ideology. And 
there we have another advantage. We've got a singular advantage with our 
military when it comes to finding the terrorists and bringing them to 
justice. And we have another advantage in our strong belief in the 
transformative power of liberty.
    So we're helping the people of Iraq establish a democracy in the 
heart of the Middle East. A free Iraq will fight terrorists instead of 
harboring them. A free Iraq will be an example for others of the power 
of liberty to change the societies and to displace despair with hope. By 
spreading the hope of liberty in the Middle East, we will help free 
societies take root. And when they do, freedom will yield the peace that 
we all desire.
    Our troops on the frontlines understand what is at stake. They know 
that the mission in Iraq has been difficult and has been trying for our 
Nation, because they're the ones who've carried most of the burdens. 
They're all volunteers who have stepped forward to defend America in a 
time of danger. Some of them have gone out of their way to return to the 
fight.
    One of these brave Americans is a Marine Gunnery Sergeant named 
William ``Spanky'' Gibson. In May of 2006 in Ramadi, a terrorist 
sniper's bullet ripped through his left knee; doctors then amputated his 
leg. After months of difficult rehabilitation, Spanky was not only 
walking, he was training for triathlons.
    Last year, at the Escape from Alcatraz swim near San Francisco, he 
met Marine General James Mattis, who asked if there's anything he could 
do for him. Spanky had just one request: He asked to redeploy to Iraq. 
Today, he's serving in Fallujah, the first full-leg amputee to return to 
the frontlines. Here's what he says about his decision to return: ``The 
Iraqis where--are where we were 232 years ago as a nation. Now they're 
starting a new nation, and that's one of my big reasons for coming back 
here. I wanted to tell the people of this country that I'm back to help 
wherever I can.''
    When Americans like Spanky Gibson serve on our side, the enemy in 
Iraq doesn't got a chance. We're grateful to all the brave men and women 
of our military who have served the cause of freedom. You've done the 
hard work, far from home and far from your loved ones. We give thanks 
for all our military families who love you and have supported you in 
this mission.
    We appreciate the fine civilians from many Departments who serve 
alongside you. Many of you served in Iraq and Afghanistan, and some have 
been on these fronts several times. You will never forget the people who 
fought at your side. You will always remember the comrades who served 
with you in combat [but] * did not make the journey home. America 
remembers them as well. More than 4,400 men and women have given their 
lives in the war on terror. We'll pray for their families. We'll always 
honor their memory.
    * White House correction.
    The best way we can honor them is by making sure that their 
sacrifice was not in vain. Five years ago tonight, I promised the 
American people that in the struggle ahead, ``we will accept no outcome 
but victory.'' Today, standing before men and women who helped liberate 
a nation, I reaffirm the commitment. The battle in Iraq is noble; it is 
necessary; and it is just. And with your courage, the battle in Iraq 
will end in victory. God bless.

Note: The President spoke at 10:04 a.m. at the Pentagon. In his remarks, 
he referred to Iraq's Ambassador to the U.S. Samir Shakir al-Sumaydi; 
Gen. David H. Petraeus, USA, commanding general, Multi-National Force--
Iraq; Usama bin Laden, leader of the Al Qaida terrorist organization; 
and Gen. James N. Mattis, USMC, commander, U.S. Marine Corps Forces 
Central Command, and commanding general, I Marine Expeditionary Force. 
The Office of the Press Secretary also released a Spanish language 
transcript of these remarks.

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