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Skriven 2006-01-04 23:33:02 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (060104) for Wed, 2006 Jan 4
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President Discusses War on Terror Following Pentagon Briefing
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For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
January 4, 2006

President Discusses War on Terror Following Pentagon Briefing
The Pentagon


˙˙˙˙˙In Focus: National Security
˙˙˙˙˙In Focus: Defense

11:24 A.M. EST

THE PRESIDENT: Today our nation mourns those who lost their lives in the
mining accident in West Virginia. We send our prayers and heartfelt
condolences to the loved ones whose hearts are broken. We ask that the good
Lord comfort them in their time of need.

I want to thank the Governor of West Virginia for showing such compassion,
and I want to thank those who risked their lives to save those miners for
showing such courage. May God bless the good people of West Virginia.

I just finished an important meeting, a briefing with members of my
national security team, a briefing hosted by Secretary Don Rumsfeld and
General Pete Pace. We spent time talking about this war on terror, the
global war on terror. And to make sure that my team understood the progress
we've made and the challenges ahead, the Secretary asked three of our
commanders to join in the briefing: Generals Abizaid, Casey and General
Dempsey.

I want to tell the American people that I am most impressed by the caliber
of these generals. They are smart, they are capable, they are visionary and
they're working hard to win this global war. We also were able to speak to
one of our fine ambassadors, Ambassador Khalilzad, from Baghdad, as well.

During our briefing we talked about the areas of concern in this global war
on terror, recognizing that the enemy, which has an ideology of hate and a
desire to kill, lurks in parts around the world. I assured the generals
that this administration would do everything in our power to bring these
enemies to justice.

We also spent time talking about the two major fronts in this war on
terror, and that would be Iraq and Afghanistan. In Iraq, 2005 was a year of
progress toward meeting our goal of victory. If you really think about it,
there was three important elections that took place, and in an atmosphere
that some predicted wouldn't yield democracy. We had the January elections,
we had the constitution elections, we had elections last December when
nearly 11 million people defied the terrorists to vote. The turnout in that
country was 70 percent. Part of our strategy for defeating the enemy in
Iraq is for there to be a viable political process. And when 70 percent of
the people show up to vote, that's a good sign. See, people are saying, I
want to participate in the democratic process. The Iraqis showed great
courage.

Now, we look forward to the process, obviously, moving on. The formation of
a unity government is going to be important to the stability of the future
of Iraq. Before that happens, obviously you've got to finish counting the
votes. And that's going to happen over the next couple of weeks. And then
the government -- they're beginning to form the government under their new
constitution. It takes a two-third vote of the parliament for certain top
officials to assume office. And to form this inclusive government, the
Iraqi leaders must compromise and negotiate and build consensus, and this
is going to take some time.

What the American people will see during the weeks ahead is a political
process unfold; that people will be making decisions not based upon who has
got the biggest gun, but who has got the capacity to rally the will of the
people. And that's positive. Democracies are an important part of our
winning the war on terror. Democracies yield an ideology that is based on
an ideology that says, people are free -- free to choose. The ideology of
the enemy says, a few people will choose, and if you don't like what we
tell you to believe in, we'll kill you, or -- or treat you harshly.

And I want the American people to remember what life was like for the poor
people in Afghanistan under the Taliban. The Taliban had no hopeful vision.
They're vision was, if you don't agree with us, we'll take you in the
public square and whip you. They're vision was, women don't have rights.
They're vision was a dark and dim vision, which stands in stark contrast to
the vision based upon freedom and democracy.

The second part of our strategy is to -- in Iraq, a strategy for victory,
is to train the Iraqis so they can take the fight against the few who would
stop the progress of many. And during this election, we were briefed about
the security forces during the election. The commanders talked about more
than 215,000 Iraqi soldiers and police that secured the country. That was
an increase, by the way, of 85,000 since January of 2005. General Casey
labeled the performance of the troops as superb.

Before the elections there was a number of joint operations to lay the
groundwork for a peaceful election. The Iraqis were in the lead on election
day. In other words, they were responsible for the security of the
elections. We were in a position to help them, but they were responsible
for securing the voting booths. And they did a fine job. The number of
attacks during the election were down dramatically. They performed. And
that's part of our calibrating whether or not the Iraqi troops are becoming
more capable. Numbers are one thing, but the ability to perform is another.
And during these elections, the Iraqi troops showed our commanders on the
ground and showed the American people that they're becoming more and more
capable of performing their duty to provide security to the Iraqi people.

Now, you've got to understand that just because the elections went forward
that doesn't mean these Saddamists, Zarqawi types are going to lay down
their arms. They're not. There will still be violence. And there will still
be some who believe that they can affect the political outcome of Iraq
through violent means. We understand that. And we're going to stay on the
offense against these - "we" being coalition forces, as well as the Iraqi
forces. But the recent elections have served as a real defeat for the
rejectionists, and the Saddamists and al Qaeda types. Sunni Arabs who had
boycotted the process, joined the process. And as they did so, those who
want to stop the progress of freedom are becoming more and more
marginalized inside of Iraq.

So in 2006, the mission is to continue to hand over more and more territory
and more and more responsibility to Iraqi forces. A year ago there was only
a handful of Iraqi army and police battalions ready for combat, ready to
take the lead; today, there are more than 125 Iraqi combat battalions
fighting the enemy, and 50 of those are in the lead. That's progress. And
it's important progress, and it's an important part of our strategy to win
in Iraq. And as these forces become more battle-hardened and take the lead,
we're going to see continued confidence in the Iraqi people of the Iraqis
being able to defend themselves, and that's important. And as we see more
of these Iraqi forces in the lead, we'll be able to continue with our
desire, our stated strategy that says as Iraqis stand up, we'll stand down.

The commanders have recently determined that we can reduce our combat
forces in Iraq from 17 to 15 brigades. And the reason they were able to do
so is because the Iraqis are more capable. The adjustment is underway. This
adjustment will result in a net decrease of several thousand troops below
the pre-election baseline of 138,000 U.S. troops in Iraq. The decrease
comes in addition to a reduction of about 20,000 troops who were in Iraq to
assist with security during the December elections.

Later this year, if Iraqis continue to make progress on the security and
political sides that we expect, we can discuss further possible adjustments
with the leaders of a new government in Iraq. But my decisions will be
based upon conditions on the ground and the recommendation of our
commanders, not based by false political timetables in Washington, D.C. I'm
not going to let politics get in the way of doing the right thing in Iraq,
and the American people have got to understand that.

We've also got the opportunity to change our composition of our forces
inside Iraq. In 2006, we expect Iraqis will take more and more control of
the battle space, and as they do so, we will need fewer U.S. troops to
conduct combat operations around that country. More of our forces will be
dedicated to training and supporting the Iraqi units. In the coming year,
we will continue to focus on helping Iraqis improve their logistics and
intelligence capabilities so more Iraqi units can take the fight and can
sustain themselves in the fight.

We're also going to spend a lot of time on police training. An important
part of our strategy is not only to have a competent Iraqi army, but police
forces that are capable of earning the confidence of the Iraqi citizens. To
restore security, Iraq has got to have capable police forces. And the
recent reports of abuses by some of the Iraqi police units are troubling,
and that conduct is unacceptable. Our commanders understand that, the
Secretary understands that, and I know that.

To stop such abuses and increase the professionalism of the Iraqi police,
General Dempsey, who is in charge of training, and others are working with
the Iraqis to continue making adjustments in the way the forces are
trained. First, we're going to work with the Iraqi government to increase
the training Iraqi police recruits receive in human rights and the rule of
law, so they understand the role of the police in a democratic society.

Second, we're training Iraqi police with a program that has been effective
with the Iraqi army. In other words, when we find something that works,
we'll do it. And if we find something that's not working, we change -- and
that is to embed coalition transition teams inside Iraqi special police
units. Embedding our folks inside Iraqi army units has worked. One reason
why these Iraqi units are better able to take the lead is because they've
worked side-by-side with American specialists and experts, some of our best
troops. So we're going to embed these type of soldiers with the Iraqi
police forces, as well.

These transition teams will be made up of our officers, as well as
noncommissioned officers. The coalition teams will go in the field with the
police; they'll provide real-time advice and important assistance on patrol
and during operations. And between operations they're going to train the
Iraqi officers; they're going to help them become increasingly capable and
professional so they can serve and protect all the Iraqi people without
discrimination.

As we train not only the soldiers, but the police, our special units will
continue hunting down al Qaeda and their affiliates. See, al Qaeda thinks
they can use Iraq as a safe haven from which to launch attacks. That's
their stated objective. I'm not making this up. Nobody in -- this is what
Zawahiri and Zarqawi discussed. They said, let's drive America out of Iraq
so we can use Iraq as a safe haven. We're going to train Iraqis, we'll
train their army and train their police, and at the same time, we've got
some of the finest soldiers ever on the hunt to bring Zarqawi and his
buddies to justice.

The second front is in Afghanistan. The second major front in this global
war against these terrorists is in Afghanistan, where we've made steady
progress on the road to democracy. Karzai got elected; there's a sitting
parliament. It's amazing how far Afghanistan has come from the days of the
Taliban. General Abizaid told us in our briefing that new democracy is
being increasingly defended by a capable Afghan army and police. The Afghan
national army is now nearly 27,000 soldiers who are trained and equipped.
General Abizaid tells us these soldiers are tough in battle. They want to
defend their homeland. There are some 55,000 Afghan police officers on the
beat. They're taking the fight to the enemy. They're working side-by-side
with coalition forces to protect this new democracy.

They're receiving a lot of international support through the NATO Alliance.
The NATO-led international security assistance force has now about 9,000
troops in the country that represents all 26 NATO allies and 10 non-NATO
nations. In other words, the international community is stepping up. Like
they have in Iraq, they're stepping up in Afghanistan, as well. In 2006,
the force levels will increase by up to another 6,000 forces, to a total of
approximately 15,000 personnel. In other words, you're going to see in 2006
an increase of international force inside of Afghanistan.

As NATO takes on a larger role in Afghanistan and as the capability of
Afghan forces continues to grow, the United States will reduce force levels
in Afghanistan from 19,000 to 16,500 this year. In other words, our
strategy has been to provide a strong commitment to provide stability so
democracy can flourish. And then as others, including Afghan troops, as
well as NATO troops, step in, we step back. We're going to continue to
conduct anti-terrorist operations in Afghanistan, as well. This is a part
of a global war against the terrorist network.

I said after September the 11th we would do everything in our power to
bring justice to the enemy that attacked the American people, and I meant
it. And part of chasing down the Taliban and al Qaeda is to find them where
they hide. And just like in Iraq, we're going to have our special forces
stay on the hunt. And we'll continue training at the same time.

There's a lot of work to be done in this war on terror, but the American
people can be rest assured this administration understands the task, and
understands the challenges, and understands our obligation to protect you,
to protect the American people.

During the past year we lost some really good folks who wore the uniform of
the United States of America. We pray for their loved ones. We pray for the
comfort of those who had a sorrowful holiday season because a seat at the
table was empty. And we vow to those that we will complete our mission: We
will lay that foundation of peace for generations to come; that we'll do
our duty to protect this country by not only bringing justice to an enemy
that wants to do us harm, but by spreading freedom and democracy.

Thank you very much.

END 11:46 A.M. EST

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