[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 44, Number 49 (Monday, December 15, 2008)]
[Pages 1503-1508]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at the United States Military Academy at West Point in West 
Point, New York

December 9, 2008

    Thank you. Please be seated. Thank you, General, for your warm 
welcome. Thank you for inviting me here to West Point. I now know why 
you're so happy I'm here--[laughter]--all classes were canceled.
    I had the honor of sitting next to the General and Judy during the 
game over the weekend. I am disappointed I could not bring the Commander 
in Chief's Trophy with me. However, you just get the Commander in Chief.
    This is my last visit to a military academy as President, so I 
thought I would exercise

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a certain prerogative of office one last time: I hereby absolve all 
cadets who are on restriction for minor conduct offenses. As always, I 
always--I leave it to General Hagenbeck to determine what ``minor'' 
means. [Laughter]
    I really am proud to be with you today. I appreciate General Mike 
Linnington and his wife Brenda for meeting me. It turns out Brenda was 
a--is a 1981 West Point graduate.
    I appreciate being here with General Pat Finnegan and Joan. Today on 
Air Force One, Congressman John Shimkus, 1980 West Point graduate, and 
Congressman Geoff Davis, 1981 West Point graduate, flew down with me. 
It's my honor to let them fly on the big bird. [Laughter]
    There are many honors that come with the Presidency, but none higher 
than serving as Commander in Chief in the greatest Armed Forces on 
Earth. Every one of you is a volunteer. You came to this academy in a 
time of war, knowing all the risks that come with military service. I 
want to thank you for making the noble and selfless decision to serve 
our country. And I will always be grateful to the men and women who wear 
the uniform of the United States military.
    As West Point cadets, you're part of a generation that has witnessed 
extraordinary change in the world. Two decades ago, the cold war was 
nearing its end, and the Soviet Union was about to collapse. You were 
just beginning your lives. About the same time, another threat was 
quietly gathering. In hidden corners of the world, violent religious 
extremists were plotting ways to advance their radical aims and their 
grim ideology. We saw the results in a series of horrifying blows: the 
truck bombing of the World Trade Center, the attack of Khobar Towers, 
the bombing of our Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, and the strike on 
the USS Cole.
    For many years, America treated these attacks as isolated incidents 
and responded with limited measures. And then came September the 11th, 
2001. In the space of a single morning, we realized that we were facing 
a worldwide movement of fanatics pledged to our destruction. We saw that 
conditions of repression and despair on the other side of the world 
could bring suffering and death to our own streets.
    As a result, America reshaped our approach to national security. 
Here at home, we hardened our defenses and created the Department of 
Homeland Security. We gave our national security professionals vital new 
tools, like the PATRIOT Act, and the ability to monitor terrorist 
communications. We reorganized our intelligence community to better meet 
the needs of war against these terrorists, including increasing the 
number of intelligence officers. We deployed aggressive financial 
measures to freeze their assets and to cut off their money. We launched 
diplomatic initiatives to pressure our adversaries and attract new 
partners to our cause.
    We also made dramatic changes to both our military strategy and 
our--the military itself. We resolved that we would not wait to be 
attacked again, and so we went on the offense against the terrorists 
overseas so we never had to face them here at home. We recognized that 
we needed strong partners at our side, so we helped strengthen the 
counterterrorism capabilities of our allies. We understood, as I said 
here at West Point in 2002, ``If we wait for threats to fully 
materialize, we will have waited too long.'' So we made clear that 
hostile regimes sponsoring terror or pursuing weapons of mass 
destruction would be held to account.
    We concluded that we are engaged in an ideological struggle, so we 
launched an effort to discredit the hateful vision of the extremists and 
advance the hopeful alternative of freedom. We saw the urgency of 
staying a step ahead of our enemies, so we transformed our military both 
to prevail on the battlefields of today and to meet the threats of 
tomorrow.
    These changes will have a direct impact on your military careers. 
This morning I'm going to give you a report on where we stand in each of 
these areas and the challenges that lie ahead.
    First, within weeks of September the 11th, our Armed Forces began 
taking the fight to the terrorists around the world, and we have not 
stopped. From the Horn of Africa to the islands of Southeast Asia to 
wherever these thugs hide, we and our allies applied the full range of 
military and intelligence assets to

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keep unrelenting pressure on Al Qaida and its affiliates. We have 
severely weakened the terrorists. We've disrupted plots to attack our 
homeland. We have captured or killed hundreds of Al Qaida leaders and 
operatives in more than two dozen countries, including the man who 
mastermind the 9/11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
    The terrorists continue to pose serious challenges, as the world saw 
in the terrible attack in Mumbai last month. Al Qaida's top two leaders 
remain at large. Yet they are facing pressure so intense that the only 
way they can stay alive is to stay underground. The day will come, the 
day will come when they receive the justice they deserve.
    Second, we've helped key partners and allies strengthen their 
capabilities in the fight against the terrorists. We've increased 
intelligence sharing with friends and allies around the world. We've 
provided training and support to counterterrorism partners like the 
Philippines and Indonesia and Jordan and Saudi Arabia. These partners 
have made enormous contributions in the war on terror. For example, 
Indonesia has crippled the terrorist group JI. Saudi Arabia has killed 
or captured hundreds of Al Qaida terrorists. And in Europe, security 
services have broken up terrorist cells in Germany and Denmark, in 
Turkey and the United Kingdom.
    One of the most important challenges we will face, and you will 
face, in the years ahead is helping our partners assert control over 
ungoverned spaces. This problem is most pronounced in Pakistan, where 
areas along the Afghanistan border are home to Taliban and to Al Qaida 
fighters. The Pakistani Government and people understand the threat, 
because they have been victims of terror themselves. They're working to 
enforce the law and fight terror in the border areas. And our government 
is providing strong support for these efforts. And at the same time, we 
have made it clear to Pakistan, and to all our partners, that we will do 
what is necessary to protect American troops and the American people.
    Third, we have made clear that governments that sponsor terror are 
as guilty as the terrorists and will be held to account. After 9/11, we 
applied the doctrine to Afghanistan. We removed the Taliban from power. 
We shut down training camps where Al Qaida planned the attacks on our 
country. We liberated more than 25 million Afghans. Now America and our 
25 NATO allies and 17 partner nations are standing with the Afghan 
people as they defend their free society. The enemy is determined, the 
terrain is harsh, and the battle is difficult. But our coalition will 
stay in this fight. We will not let the Taliban or Al Qaida return to 
power. And Afghanistan will never again be a safe haven for terrorists.
    We also took a hard look at the danger posed by Iraq, a country that 
combined support for terror, the development and the use of weapons of 
mass destruction, violence against its own people, aggression against 
its neighbors, hostility to the United States, and systemic violation of 
United Nations resolutions. After seeing the destruction of September 
the 11th, we concluded that America could not afford to allow a regime 
with such a threatening and violent record to remain in the heart of the 
Middle East. So we offered Saddam Hussein a final chance to peacefully 
resolve the issue. And when he refused, we acted with a coalition of 
nations to protect our people and liberated 25 million Iraqis.
    The battle in Iraq has been longer and more difficult than expected. 
Foreign terrorists, former regime elements, and Iraqi insurgents--often 
with outside support--combined to drive up violence and bring the 
country to the verge of chaos. So we adopted a new strategy, and rather 
than retreating, sent more troops into Baghdad in Iraq. And when the 
surge met its objective, we began to bring our troops home under a 
policy of return on success. Last week, Iraq approved two agreements 
that formalize diplomatic and economic and security ties with America 
and set a framework for the drawdown of American forces as the fight in 
Iraq nears a successful end.
    Fourth, America recognized the only way to defeat the terrorists in 
the long run is to present an alternative to their hateful ideology. So 
when we overthrew the dictators in Afghanistan and Iraq, we refused to 
take the easy option and instill friendly strongmen in their place. 
Instead, we're doing the tough work of helping democratic societies 
emerge

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as examples for people all across the Middle East. We're pressing 
nations around the world, including our friends, to trust their people 
with greater freedom of speech and worship and assembly. We're advancing 
a broader vision of reform that includes economic prosperity and quality 
health care and education and vibrant civil societies and women's 
rights.
    The results of these efforts are unfolding slowly and unevenly, but 
there are encouraging signs. From Iraq and Afghanistan to Lebanon and 
Pakistan, voters defied the terrorists to cast their ballots in free 
elections. In places like Iraq's Anbar Province, people have seen what 
life under the Taliban looks like, and they decided they want no part 
it--actually, it was life under Al Qaida looks like.
    You know, mothers don't want to raise their child in a neighborhood 
where thugs run and where thugs brutalize people. People want to live in 
peace. People want to live in freedom. Muslims from Jordan and Turkey to 
India and Indonesia have seen their brothers and sisters massacred and 
recoil from the terrorists. And even within the jihadist ranks, 
religious scholars have begun to criticize Al Qaida and its brutal 
tactics. In these ideological rejections, we see the beginning of Al 
Qaida's ultimate demise, because in the long run, the ideology of hatred 
and fear cannot possibly compete with the power of hope and freedom.
    Finally, we are transforming our military for a new kind of war that 
we're fighting now and for wars of tomorrow. This transformation was a 
top priority for the enterprising leader who served as my first 
Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld. Today, because of his leadership 
and the leadership of Secretary Bob Gates, we have made our military 
better trained, better equipped, and better prepared to meet the threats 
facing America today and tomorrow and long in the future.
    As part of our transformation effort, we are arming our troops with 
intelligence and weapons and training and support they need to face an 
enemy that wages asymmetric battle. See, this enemy hides among the 
civilian population, and they use terror tactics like roadside bombs to 
attack our forces, to demoralize local population, and to try to shake 
the will of the American people.
    To defeat this enemy, we have equipped our troops with real-time 
battlefield intelligence capabilities that would have been unimaginable 
just a few years ago. In Iraq and Afghanistan, troops in the field have 
used advanced technologies like global positioning systems to direct air 
strikes that take out the enemy while sparing innocent life. We've 
expanded America's arsenal of unmanned aerial vehicles from fewer than 
170 when I took office to more than 6,000 today. We're arming Predator 
drones. We're using them to stay on the hunt against the terrorists who 
would do us harm.
    We've expanded America's special operations forces. With more 
forces--more of these forces on the battlefield, we can respond more 
quickly to actionable intelligence on the terrorists who are in hiding. 
Over the past 8 years, we have more than doubled funding for special 
operators. We created the first-ever special operations command within 
the Marines. We have given Special Operations Command the lead role in 
the global war against the terrorists.
    In addition to these upgrades in our counterterrorism capabilities, 
we have placed a new focus on counterinsurgency. The Army has published 
a new counterinsurgency manual written by a distinguished graduate of 
this academy, General David Petraeus. The central objectives of this 
counterinsurgency strategy are to secure the population and gain support 
of the people and train local forces to take the responsibility on their 
own.
    One of the reasons we're meeting these objectives in Iraq is the 
ability to rapidly deploy brigade combat teams. These teams can join the 
battle on short notice as organized and cohesive units. With these teams 
in the fight, our Army is better able to carry out its counterinsurgency 
objectives and better equipped to defeat the enemies we'll face as the 
21st century unfolds.
    Our counterinsurgency strategy also stresses the importance of 
following up security gains with real benefits in people's daily lives. 
To better meet that objective, we created Provincial Reconstruction 
Teams or PRTs. These teams pair with military personnel civilian experts 
in areas like economics and agriculture and law enforcement and 
education. In both Iraq and Afghanistan,

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these teams are helping local communities create jobs and deliver basic 
services and keep the terrorists from coming back. PRTs bring diplomats, 
aid workers, and other experts from across the government into the 
fight, and we must expand them in the years to come.
    To better institutionalize all the changes we've made in recent 
years, we have transformed the education and training our troops 
receive. We're taking the lessons we've learned in Afghanistan and Iraq 
and teaching them at military academies and training centers across our 
country. For example, every branch of the military now receives the 
counterinsurgency training that was once reserved for special operations 
forces. Here at West Point, you've created a new Combating Terrorism 
Center that allows you to gain insights from the battles of today and 
apply them as you lead our military into the future.
    In addition to making these changes to help our troops prevail in 
the war on terror, we've been transforming our military since early 2001 
to confront other challenges that may emerge in the decades ahead. For 
example, we have begun the most sweeping transformation of America's 
global force posture since the end of World War II. We're shifting 
troops from cold war garrisons in Europe and Asia so they can surge more 
rapidly to troubled spots around the world. We've established new 
military commands to meet challenges unique to Africa and to support our 
homeland.
    We've invested more than a half a trillion dollars in research and 
development, so we can build even more advanced capabilities to protect 
America from the dangers of a new century. We're making our forces more 
joint and interoperable, so they can cooperate seamlessly across 
different services and with foreign partners. And to confront an 
emerging threat to our economy, our defense systems, and individual 
citizens, the Federal Government is cooperating closely with the private 
sector to improve security in cyberspace.
    One of the most serious dangers facing our people is the threat of a 
rogue regime armed with ballistic missiles. In 2001, I announced 
withdrawal from the ABM Treaty. I did so because it constrained our 
ability to develop the technologies needed to defend ourselves against 
the threat of blackmail by rogue states. With these constraints removed, 
we have developed and deployed new defenses capable of protecting 
American cities from ballistic missile attack.
    This system can now defend America against limited missile attacks 
from Northeast Asia. Concluded agreements with Poland and the Czech 
Republic to establish missile defense sites on their territories to help 
protect against ballistic missile attacks from the Middle East. Because 
we acted, America now has an initial capability to protect our people 
from a ballistic missile attack.
    As we built new defenses against a missile attack, we also worked 
with Russia to make historic reductions in offensive nuclear weapons. 
When these reductions are complete, the total U.S. nuclear stockpile 
will be at its lowest level since the Eisenhower administration. These 
reductions are part of a new approach to strategic deterrence that 
relies on both nuclear and conventional strike forces, as well as strong 
defenses. We're investing in new technologies that will ensure the long-
term safety and security and reliability and effectiveness of our 
nuclear deterrent. This approach sends a clear message to the world: 
We'll reduce our reliance on nuclear weapons while keeping America's 
strategic deterrent unchallenged.
    With all the actions we've taken these past 8 years, we've laid a 
solid foundation on which future Presidents and future military leaders 
can build. America's military today is stronger, more agile, and better 
prepared to confront threats to our people than it was 8 years ago. In 
the years ahead, our Nation must continue developing the capabilities to 
take the fight to our enemies across the world. We must stay on the 
offensive. We must be determined, and we must be relentless to do our 
duty to protect the American people from harm.
    We must stand by the friends and allies who are making tough 
decisions and taking risks to defeat the terrorists. We must keep up the 
pressure on regimes that sponsor terror and pursue weapons of mass 
destruction. We must continue to support dissidents and

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reformers who are speaking out against extremism and in favor of 
liberty. We must continue transforming our Armed Forces so that the next 
generation inherits a military that is capable of keeping the American 
people safe and advancing the cause of peace. And above all, we must 
always ensure that our troops have the funds and resources they need to 
do their jobs and that their families receive the full support they 
deserve.
    I have great confidence in the future because I have confidence in 
you all. Ultimately, the security of our Nation depends on the courage 
of those who wear the uniform. I see that courage in all of you. I thank 
you for your patriotism. I thank you for your devotion to duty. May God 
bless you in all your endeavors. May God bless your families, and may 
God continue to bless the United States of America.

Note: The President spoke at 11:25 a.m. in Eisenhower Hall. In his 
remarks, he referred to Lt. Gen. Franklin L. Hagenbeck, USA, 
superintendent, U.S. Military Academy at West Point, who introduced the 
President, and his wife Judy; Brig. Gen. Michael S. Linnington, USA, 
commandant, U.S. Military Academy at West Point; Brig. Gen. Patrick 
Finnegan, USA, dean, U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and his wife 
Joan; and Gen. David H. Petraeus, USA, commander, U.S. Central Command. 
The Office of the Press Secretary also released a Spanish language 
transcript of these remarks.