Text 4177, 244 rader
Skriven 2007-03-05 23:31:24 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (0703051) for Mon, 2007 Mar 5
===================================================

===========================================================================
Vice President's Remarks to the VFW National Legislative Conference
===========================================================================

For Immediate Release Office of the Vice President March 5, 2007

Vice President's Remarks to the VFW National Legislative Conference Omni
Shoreham Hotel Washington, D.C.



10:56 A.M. EST

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Thank you all very much. Thank you for that very warm
welcome. And, Gary, thank you for the kind words. It's a pleasure, as
always, to be with the leaders and the rank-and-file members of the VFW,
and the Lady's Auxiliary, under the fine leadership of Linda Meader. This
superb organization has hosted me a number of times, as Vice President, as
Secretary of Defense, and I always appreciate the opportunity to meet with
you. Just a few minutes ago I finished our morning briefings at the White
House, and I bring good wishes to all of you from our Commander-in-Chief,
President George W. Bush. (Applause.)

As you may have heard, I've been away from Washington recently. Some, of
course, consider that a positive. (Laughter.) I returned home last
Wednesday after a trip around the world, covering about 25,000 miles. There
were a lot of meetings with foreign leaders, and also a number of
opportunities to visit with Americans serving abroad in our military. It
was my great privilege to meet with sailors on the USS Kitty Hawk in Tokyo
Bay, with airmen at Andersen Air Force Base on the island of Guam, and our
servicemen and women at Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan. Every time I
visit a military installation, I come away inspired and filled with respect
for the men and women who wear this country's uniform. They are doing a
superb job for the United States of America. (Applause.)

Today's service members uphold traditions of courage and loyalty that go
back to George Washington and the Continental Army, and they're a credit to
every generation that has ever served in our Armed Forces. For many
decades, some of our finest veterans have belonged to the VFW, so I cannot
let this occasion pass without noting the departure of one of your most
admired members, who was laid to rest in Oregon last Friday. He was Howard
Ramsey, and he liked to tell the story of how he tried to join the Army as
a young man. When Howard stepped on the scales they rejected him, saying he
didn't weigh enough to be a soldier. Instead of giving up, he simply tried
another strategy. He went home, stuffed himself with bananas and water, and
then came back and weighed in again. He got in the second time, and before
long he was serving in Europe. The year was 1918. After the war, he went on
to live an extraordinary life, and his granddaughter recently said he was
always proud to have served his country. Howard Ramsey was one of the
longest-living veterans in history, and he passed away at the age of 108.
The United States of America honors his memory. (Applause.)

Pride in service, and a willingness to give all in the defense of freedom,
are familiar concepts to the people in this room. You know what it means to
put the country's interest above all other considerations, and your service
did not end with your discharge. The VFW's mission -- to honor the dead by
helping the living -- is a daily commitment that this organization carries
out nobly and well. By your service to veterans and to your communities,
and by your support for a strong national defense, you're an example of
good citizenship and patriotism, and you've earned the respect of our
entire nation.

As always, you've got a full agenda during your time in Washington, and
you've heard from your fellow veteran, Secretary Jim Nicholson. Our
administration is committed to keeping every promise this nation has made
to its veterans. A few weeks ago, the President was pleased to sign into
law a $3.6 billion increase to fund the VA to the end of this fiscal year.
We hope the Congress, with your encouragement, will pass the President's
2008 VA budget request promptly and in full.

Closer to home, there's serious concern about conditions at Walter Reed
Army Medical Center here in Washington. Secretary Bob Gates and the Defense
Department have moved quickly to ensure that our injured soldiers are taken
care of. The Secretary has formed an independent review group to
investigate the situation and identify the necessary steps to make sure it
never happens again. President Bush has made our administration's priority
very clear to the Congress and to the country: There will be no excuses,
only action. And the federal bureaucracy will not slow that action down.
We're going to fix the problems at Walter Reed, period. (Applause.)

As we work to improve conditions at Walter Reed, we want to find out
whether similar problems have occurred at other military and VA hospitals.
The President has established a commission to conduct a comprehensive
review of the care that America is providing our wounded servicemen and
women -- from the time they leave the battlefield to their return to
civilian life. These brave men and women deserve the heartfelt thanks of
our country, and they deserve the very best medical care that our
government can possibly provide. (Applause.)

In these and other priorities, we need the clarity and the common sense of
the VFW. Today I want to underscore the important work yet to be done in
the defense of this country, and the need to keep our focus in the war that
we began fighting on September 11th, 2001.

The fact that we've defeated all attempts to strike the United States again
for the last five and a half years does not mean that we won't be hit in
the future. But the record is testimony not to good luck, but to urgent,
competent action by a lot of very skilled men and women. As the Director of
National Intelligence, Admiral Mike McConnell, said recently, "The time
needed to develop a terrorist plot, communicate it around the globe, and
put it into motion has been drastically reduced. The time line is no longer
a calendar, it is a watch." And so we've used every legitimate tool at our
disposal to counter the activities of the enemy that likely has cells
inside our own country. We've improved our security arrangements,
reorganized our intelligence capabilities, surveilled and interrupted and
interrogated the enemy, and worked closely with friends and allies across
the world.

Above all, we've stayed on the offensive -- going after terrorists and
terror-sponsoring states. We've confronted dictatorships that defied the
demands of the civilized world. We've helped liberate peoples to establish
free governments. And we've stood by those governments in their effort to
consolidate democratic gains, to achieve security, and improve the
long-term prospects for freedom and security in the broader Middle East.

The work goes on, because the set of challenges that arrived on 9/11 is
unlike any other this nation has ever faced. This war is not a matter of
finding an opposing army and defeating it, or finding a navy and sinking
it. The terrorist enemies are hidden and dispersed, and they view the
entire world as their battlefield. They are determined to commit
indiscriminate murder against innocent, unsuspecting men, women, and
children. They serve an ideology that rejects tolerance and demands total
obedience. It's an extreme and hateful ideology -- and it's what drove 19
men to get on airplanes and come kill 3,000 Americans on 9/11. Their
ambitions to establish a totalitarian empire, and to arm themselves with
weapons of mass destruction are well known and we have to take them
seriously. (Applause.) Their prime target is the American people. Al
Qaeda's leadership has said they have the right to "kill four million
Americans, two million of them children, and to exile twice as many and
wound and cripple thousands." That's their language.

They hate us, they hate our country, they hate the liberties for which we
stand. They want to destroy our way of life, so that freedom no longer has
a home and defender in the world. That leaves us only one option: to rise
to America's defense, to take the fight directly to the enemy, and to
accept no outcome but victory. (Applause.)

On the Afghanistan front, we'll continue the reconstruction and security
assistance we've promised, and this spring U.S. and NATO forces will lead
an offensive against Taliban and al Qaeda fighters.

And on the Iraq front, our goal remains a democratic nation that upholds
the rule of law, respects the rights of its people, provides for their
security, and is an ally in the war on terror. But for this to happen,
Baghdad must be secured. To that end, we're pursuing a new strategy that
brings in reinforcements to help Iraqi forces secure their capital. As we
meet today, Iraqi and coalition forces are at work in the nine sectors of
Baghdad, carrying out joint operations to track down the terrorists,
insurgents, criminals, and roaming death squads that have tormented the
people of that city. It is a tough job, and it's absolutely essential to
move the nation forward, turning the political process toward
reconciliation, and completing our mission in Iraq.

Recently, at General Petraeus's confirmation hearing, he was asked if he
could do his job without the troop reinforcements requested by the
President. General Petraeus said no. Yet some of the very senators who
voted to send him to the Iraqi theater tried to pass a resolution opposing
those reinforcements. And the House of Representatives did pass such a
resolution.

The House resolution was nonbinding -- just a statement expressing the
views of the members. But the fact is that every statement we make has
multiple audiences. The American people listen. Our soldiers, sailors,
Marines, and airmen listen. The enemy listens, and so do the Iraqi people.
Friendly governments pay attention, and hostile governments take note as
well. And they all wonder about America's commitment to the cause.

A watching world needs to know that the United States is determined to
prevail because we're a nation that keeps its word -- and because we
understand the consequences of failure. If our coalition withdrew before
Iraqis could defend themselves, radical factions would battle for
dominance. The violence would likely spread throughout the country, and be
very difficult to contain. Having tasted victory in Iraq, jihadists would
look for new missions. Many would head for Afghanistan and fight alongside
the Taliban. Others would set out for capitals across the Middle East,
spreading more discord as they eliminate dissenters and work to undermine
friendly governments. Still others would find their targets and victims in
other countries on other continents. Such chaos and mounting danger does
not have to occur. It is, however, the enemy's objective.

In these circumstances it's worth reminding ourselves that, like it or not,
the enemy we face in the war on terror has made Iraq the primary front in
that war. The terrorists know they cannot beat us in a stand-up fight. They
never have. The only way they can win is if we lose our nerve and abandon
our mission. (Applause.) Osama bin Laden has continued to predict that the
people of the United States simply do not have the stomach to stay in the
fight against terror. He refers to Iraq as the "third world war," and he
knows the stakes as well as we do. He has said, "Success in Baghdad will be
success for the United States. Failure in Iraq is the failure of the United
States. Their defeat in Iraq will mean defeat in all their wars." That
makes one thing, above all, very clear: If you support the war on terror,
then it only makes sense to support it where the terrorists are fighting
us.

Very soon both houses of Congress will have to vote on a piece of
legislation that is binding -- a bill to provide emergency funding for the
troops. And I sincerely hope the discussion this time will be about winning
in Iraq, not about posturing on Capitol Hill. (Applause.) Anyone can say
they support the troops, and we should take them at their word. But the
proof will come when it's time to provide the money. We expect the House
and the Senate to meet those needs on time, and in full measure.

We don't know and we cannot predict every turn that lies ahead. As General
Petraeus has put it, "the way ahead will be neither quick nor easy, and
there will undoubtedly be some tough days. We face a determined, adaptable,
barbaric enemy. He will try to wait us out. In fact, any such endeavor is a
test of wills, and there are no guarantees."

The general has it exactly right. And I know he would agree that the single
most reliable fact of this war is the skill and courage of the men and
women fighting it. Two months ago at the White House, President Bush
awarded the Medal of Honor to Corporal Jason Dunham of the United States
Marines. While leading his rifle squad during an attack near the Syrian
border, Corporal Dunham found himself in hand-to-hand combat with an
insurgent. After being wrestled to the ground, the man rolled out a grenade
that he'd been concealing. Without hesitation, Corporal Dunham threw
himself on the grenade and used his helmet and body to absorb the blast. He
did not survive his wounds. But by his actions, Jason Dunham saved the
lives of his men. And he now ranks among the bravest citizens this nation
has ever produced. (Applause.)

Wartime is always a serious test of our nation's resolve, and it naturally
produces debate and discussion about the course and the strategies we ought
to pursue. Yet the purposes we serve as a nation are good ones. The United
States is a decent, honorable, and a generous country. The people who wear
its uniform reflect the best that is in us, whether they come from the
inner cities, the farms, the suburbs, or the small towns of America. As we
speak, ladies and gentlemen, members of the United States armed forces are
serving in nearly 80 different countries -- from the broader Middle East,
to Europe, to Southeast Asia, to Latin America, to Africa. It's a messy,
dangerous world, made better by the active, committed presence of the
United States. The cause we serve is freedom. That cause is right. And by
the valor of those who serve it, that cause will prevail.

Thank you very much.

END 11:14 A.M. EST

===========================================================================
Return to this article at:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/03/20070305-1.html

 * Origin: (1:3634/12)