[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 44, Number 22 (Monday, June 9, 2008)]
[Pages 783-787]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at a Groundbreaking Ceremony for the United States Institute of 
Peace

June 5, 2008

    Thank you all. Please be seated. Mr. Secretary, thank you for your 
kind introduction. And thank you for inviting me to join you to break 
ground for the United States Institute of Peace's new home. I'm really 
pleased to be here. I appreciate what you do to resolve conflict and 
support new democracies and to build peace by promoting effective 
diplomacy. And speaking about effective diplomacy, it seems like you 
used some to get this special piece of land. I congratulate you on 
picking a wonderful site.
    I thank Robin West, the Chairman; Dick Solomon, the President. 
Members of the Board of Directors, thank you for being here. I'm so 
pleased to be with the Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, and some of 
her predecessors. Thank you for being here. I appreciate Admiral Mullen 
joining us. I want to thank members of my administration for coming. 
Madam Speaker, you grace us with your presence. Thank you for coming. I 
also want to pay homage to Ted Stevens for helping to secure the funding 
for this important site, as well as Members of the United States

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Senate who have joined him here and Members of the House. I appreciate 
Reverend Lovett, Father Hesburgh, members of the diplomatic corps, 
ladies and gentlemen.
    The Institute of Peace was founded in 1984. It was during the last 
great ideological struggle of the 20th century. This was the struggle 
against Soviet communism, a struggle that was eventually won by freedom 
because of peace through strength and because of the help of the 
Institute of Peace.
    We're in a different struggle today, but we're in an ideological 
struggle against violent extremism. The U.S. Institute of Peace is 
playing an important role, and I thank you for that. In Afghanistan, 
you're helping a young democracy establish the rule of law and 
strengthen public education and build a civil society. In Iraq, you're 
helping the nation overcome the legacy of decades of tyranny by 
strengthening government institutions and promoting peaceful engagement. 
And although the struggle against violent extremism is in its early 
years, there's no doubt in my mind, freedom will again prevail, and your 
help is going to be important.
    In this struggle, we're guided by a clear principle: Freedom is 
universal. We believe that freedom is the birthright of every man, 
woman, and child. Free societies are peaceful societies. Freedom helps 
supplant the conditions of hopelessness that extremists exploit to 
recruit terrorists and suicide bombers. People who live in liberty are 
less likely to turn to ideologies of hatred and fear. And that is why 
the United States is leading and must continue to lead the cause of 
freedom for the sake of peace.
    September the 11th, we saw how the lack of freedom in other lands 
can bring death and destruction to our own land. Our most solemn 
obligation is to protect the American people. That is why we're pursuing 
and bringing to justice terrorists. We're fighting them overseas so we 
don't have to face them here in the United States of America.
    But the effort requires more. It requires using the power of liberty 
to marginalize extremists. And the best way to do so is to use our 
national resources to strengthen the institutions of freedom. That's 
what I want to talk to you about today--briefly, you'll be pleased to 
hear.
    Institutions, of course, include a democratic system of government, 
a vibrant free press, independent judiciary, a free enterprise system, 
places of worship where people are free to practice their faith. These 
institutions include an education system that provides citizens a link 
to the world, health infrastructure that combats plagues like HIV/AIDS 
and malaria, and women's organizations that help societies take 
advantage of the skills and talents of half their population.
    We're helping nations across the world build these institutions, and 
we face three challenges as we do so. First of all, there are developing 
nations, many on the continent of Africa, that are facing extreme 
poverty and health epidemics and humanitarian catastrophes and are 
therefore vulnerable to extremists who take advantage of chaos and 
instability.
    Secondly, there are nations like Colombia and Lebanon and Pakistan 
that are facing transnational threats from drug cartels or terrorist 
networks that seek safe haven on their territory and threaten to 
overwhelm their institutions.
    And thirdly, there are nations like Afghanistan and Iraq, where we 
removed dangerous regimes that threatened our people and now have a 
special obligation to help them build free societies that their--that 
become allies in the fight against these extremists.
    It's in America's vital interest to help all these nations combat 
ideologies of hate. It's in our security interest to eliminate safe 
havens for terrorists and extremists. It's in our national interest to 
develop institutions that allow them to govern their territories 
effectively and improve their lives.
    We've been making transformations over the last 8 years to make 
these capabilities more real and more effective. We're transforming the 
United States military so we can deliver justice to the terrorists in a 
more effective way. We're transforming America's capabilities to help 
poor and struggling societies become healthy and prosperous.
    And we've seen those effective transformations through the Emergency 
Plan for AIDS or malaria initiative or the Millennium Challenge Account. 
The Millennium Challenge Account represents a different approach to 
development. It rewards nations

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that govern responsibly and fight corruption and invest in the health 
and education of their people and use the power of free markets and free 
trade to lift the people out of poverty.
    One thing in common for all these programs is, we insist upon 
results, and we measure. And the results are coming in, and millions of 
people are benefiting from this foreign policy initiative. And they 
deserve to be fully supported by the United States Congress.
    We're also transforming America's capabilities to helping 
emergency--emerging democracies build free institutions while under fire 
from terrorists and under pressure from state sponsors of terror. And 
this is a new challenge that we face at the start of the 21st century. 
And as we've adopted to meet these new circumstances, there have been 
successes and setbacks, and we've learned some lessons.
    One lesson is that before nations under fire from terrorists can 
make political and economic progress, their populations need basic 
security. Sometimes local security institutions, with training and 
equipment and support from the outside, can handle the task. Take, for 
example, Colombia. Colombia and America launched an ambitious program 
that helped rescue that country from the brink of becoming a failed 
state. Plan Colombia, which started under my predecessor, made it clear 
that the United States would help the Colombian Government modernize its 
military and fight the FARC terrorists, expand education opportunity, 
provide Colombians with alternatives to a life of terror and 
narcotrafficking. Congress has an opportunity to strengthen these 
efforts, and I strongly urge them to send a clear and sound message to 
the people of Colombia and the region that we stand with them by passing 
the Colombia free trade agreement.
    In other situations, America is training international peacekeepers 
so they can deploy to provide security in troubled regions. We've 
started what's called the Global Peace Operations Initiative. The whole 
idea is to work to train international peacekeeping forces so they can 
do the work necessary to provide stability and security, so institutions 
can advance. So far, we've trained more than 40,000 peacekeepers, and 
the plan is to train 75,000 additional.
    These instances where America has removed regimes that threaten us, 
American troops may need to play a direct role in providing security. In 
Iraq, 2006, the country was descending into sectarian chaos. So we 
launched the surge--30,000 additional troops to work with Iraqi forces 
to protect the Iraqi people from terrorists, insurgents, and illegal 
militias. Today, because we acted, violence in Iraq is down to its 
lowest point since late March of 2004. Civilian deaths are down. 
Sectarian killings are down. Security has improved, as well as the 
economy. Political reconciliation is taking place at the grassroots and 
Federal level. And as the Iraqi security forces are becoming more 
capable, our troops are beginning to come home under a policy of return 
on success.
    A lesson we've learned is that civilian expertise is vital to 
strengthening the institutions of freedom. In Iraq and Afghanistan, 
we've developed an important tool to tap into civilian expertise called 
Provincial Reconstruction Teams. PRTs bring together civilian, 
diplomatic, and military personnel. They move into communities that our 
military has cleared of terrorists. They help ensure that security gains 
are followed with real improvements in daily life by helping local 
leaders create jobs and deliver basic services and build up local 
economies.
    PRTs are uniquely suited to situations like Afghanistan and Iraq. In 
the future, civilian expertise will be needed in other countries where 
we do not have ongoing military operations. At the moment, we lack the 
capability to rapidly deploy civilian experts with the right skills to 
trouble spots around the world. We launched what's called a Civilian 
Stabilization Initiative, which is being run out of the State Department 
in the Office of Reconstruction and Stabilization.
    One element of the new office is an Active Response Corps, made up 
of civilian experts from many Government Agencies who deploy full-time 
to at-risk countries. This corps will eventually include 250 personnel 
from the Departments of State and Justice, Agriculture, Commerce, AID, 
and other civilian agencies with relevant expertise.

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    Another element is the Standby Reserve [Response] * Corps, which is 
a reserve force of current and former Government employees who volunteer 
to be an on call supplemental force that can deploy for reconstruction 
and stabilization missions on short notice.
    * White House correction.
    And finally, this initiative will include a new Civilian Reserve 
Corps that will function much like our military reserve. It will be made 
up of American citizens with critical skills, such as police officers 
and judges and prosecutors and engineers and doctors and public 
administrators. The corps will give people across America who do not 
wear the uniform a chance to serve in the defining struggle of our time.
    Legislation authorizing the Civilian Reserve Corps has passed the 
House of Representatives. It's awaiting action in the Senate. And I 
strongly urge Congress to pass this bipartisan legislation as soon as 
possible.
    Another lesson is, is that in aiding the rise of strong and stable 
democracies requires that--the efforts of much more than Washington, DC. 
It requires the efforts of other governments and nonorganizational--
nongovernmental organizations and people around the world.
    The work of democratic development is the work of all free nations. 
This is precisely the message that Secretary Rice and I have been 
carrying around the world. We're rallying other nations to train 
peacekeepers to support Afghanistan and Iraq and to act boldly to 
alleviate hunger and poverty.
    I'm going to the G-8 in Japan in the month of July. The last G-8, 
our partners stood up and made strong commitments to help Africa deal 
with malaria and HIV/AIDS. They have yet to make good on their 
commitments. And I will remind them, it's one thing to make a promise; 
it's another thing to write the check. And the American Government 
expects our partners to live up to their obligations.
    The work of democratic development sometimes requires young 
democracies under siege to band together with partnerships to deal with 
common threats. And this is the approach we're taking in Central 
America. We've encouraged nations threatened by narcotraffickers to 
cooperate in protecting their people. The supplemental that's being 
debated in the Congress will help further this effort by linking Mexico 
and Central America with U.S. to have a joint strategy, protecting our 
hemisphere from narcotraffickers and the terrorists that they ultimately 
yield. I asked Congress to approve the request quickly in the 
supplemental without putting unreasonable conditions on the vital aid.
    One thing is for certain: That if we expect democracies to prevail, 
to marginalize the extremists, countries--it requires countries to have 
good, strong democratic leaders. And the best way to encourage that is 
to have them come to our colleges and universities. We've made good 
progress about changing the student visa regime after 9/11. We've 
increased the number of students coming here. And it's in our interest 
that we continue to increase the number of students coming to study in 
the United States.
    And finally, the work of democratic development is the work of 
nongovernmental organizations, like the U.S. Institute of Peace. 
Obviously, these organizations can go into countries where it's harder 
for governments to operate. So it's very important for this Government 
and future Governments to always be a strong and steady partner to 
nongovernmental organizations and groups like the U.S. Institute of 
Peace.
    The work of democratic development is the great cause of our time, 
and we shouldn't shy away from it. And we must be confident in our 
ability to help others realize the blessings of freedom. My big concern 
is that the United States becomes isolationist and nervous; we don't 
support those values that have stood the test of time. The Institute of 
Peace, I hope, will make sure that never happens.
    Our fellow citizens can help in many ways. They can join an 
organization like this one. They can join the civilian reserve. They can 
become--like thousands of other compassionate citizens--become soldiers 
in the armies of compassion by helping HIV/AIDS victims or help educate 
people around the world. Or they can make the noble choice that has 
sustained freedom for generations and join the United States military. 
However

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they choose to serve, advancing the cause of liberty is necessary to 
advance the cause of peace.
    I'm honored to be with you today. Looking forward to coming back 
someday to see this building when it's built. Thanks for your efforts. 
Thanks for your mission. May God bless you all.

Note: The President spoke at 10:49 a.m. at Navy Hill. In his remarks, he 
referred to former Secretary of State George P. Shultz, who introduced 
the President, and Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, cochairs, Building for 
Peace Campaign, U.S. Institute of Peace; J. Robinson West, Chairman of 
the Board of Directors, Richard H. Solomon, President, and Rev. Sidney 
Lovett (Ret.), former member of the Board of Directors, U.S. Institute 
of Peace; and Adm. Michael G. Mullen, USN, Chairman, Joint Chiefs of 
Staff. The Office of the Press Secretary also released a Spanish 
language transcript of these remarks.