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Ärende: Press Release (070416) for Mon, 2007 Apr 16
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President Bush Discusses the Iraq War Supplemental
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For Immediate Release Office of the Press Secretary April 16, 2007

President Bush Discusses the Iraq War Supplemental The East Room

˙ Video (Windows) ˙˙Presidential Remarks
˙˙Audio

˙˙˙˙˙ In Focus: Defense ˙˙˙˙˙ In Focus: Renewal in Iraq

11:00 A.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all. Please be seated. Welcome to the White House.
You know, I get to welcome a lot of guests here. I don't think there's a
more important guest than a veteran or the family of a serviceman or woman,
or the families of those whose loved one has given their life to the
country. And so I welcome an incredibly important group of guests. And
thank you for coming, and thank you for your time.

I appreciate very much to be in the presence of moms and dads, husbands and
wives, sons and daughters of some of the finest citizens our nation has
ever produced. I want to thank the leaders of organizations that support
our military families. I appreciate your tireless work to send a clear
signal that many in the United States of America support our troops. Each
of you knows what is stake -- what is at stake in this war on terror. And I
appreciate your efforts to rally our nation to support our troops, and to
support the mission for which they have risked and, in some cases, have
given their lives. I thank you for coming. Thanks for your service to the
United States of America.

Many of the families here today have relatives serving in harm's way.
Others have lost loved ones in the struggle. They have come here to
Washington with a message for their elected leaders in our nation's
capital: Our troops need the resources, equipment and weapons to fight our
enemies. Congress needs to pass an emergency war spending bill, without
strings and without further delay.

On Wednesday, I will meet with congressional leaders from both parties
right here at the White House. I'm going to pass on your message to them.

I appreciate members of the Families United for Our Troops and Their
Mission. Thanks for doing what you do. I want to thank the members of the
Armed Forces Foundation, and those who serve with our Veterans Service
Organizations.

A time of war is a time of sacrifice for our nation, but especially for our
military families. Being left behind when a loved one goes to war is one of
the hardest jobs in our military. The families here today inspire our
nation -- inspire them with their sense of duty and with their deep
devotion to our country.

The families gathered here understand that we are a nation at war. Like me,
they wish we weren't at war -- but we are. They know that the enemies who
attacked us on September the 11th, 2001 want to bring further destruction
to our country. They know that the only way to stop them is to stay on the
offense, to fight the extremists and radicals where they live, so we don't
have to face them where we live.

The families gathered here understand that our troops want to finish the
job. Today, because of email and instant messaging and other modern
technologies, our military families are able to stay in contact with their
loved ones overseas. I see some baby boomers out there; when they wore our
uniform you never would have imagined emailing a loved one in the midst of
your time overseas. But that's what's happening today. Families here know
what our troops are seeing and hearing on the ground, they get instant
feedback as a result of modern technologies. And they know better than
anyone our troops' desire to succeed and their determination to prevail.

Families gathered here understand that America is not going to be safe
until the terrorist threat has been defeated. If we do not defeat the
terrorists and extremists in Iraq, they won't leave us alone -- they will
follow us to the United States of America. That's what makes this battle in
the war on terror so incredibly important. One of the lessons of September
the 11th is what happens overseas matters to the security of the United
States of America, and we must not forget that lesson.

The consequences of failure in Iraq would be death and destruction in the
Middle East and here in America. To protect our citizens at home, we must
defeat the terrorists. We defeat them by staying on the offense and we
defeat them by helping young democracies defeat their ideology of hate. And
it's hard work. But it is necessary work, and thousands of men and women
who wear our uniform understand the stakes.

It's a remarkable country, isn't it, where people stand up and volunteer to
serve the United States in uniform during a time of war. And, yet, that's
who we honor here today.

We must give our men and women in uniform the tools and resources they need
to prevail. Providing these resources is the responsibility of the United
States Congress. And that is why, 70 days ago, I sent Congress an emergency
war spending bill that would provide the vital funds our troops urgently
need. But instead of approving this funding, Democrats in Congress have
spent the past 70 days pushing legislation that would undercut our troops.
They passed bills in the House and the Senate that would impose
restrictions on our military commanders. They set an arbitrary date for
withdrawal from Iraq. And they spend billions of dollars on domestic
projects that have nothing to do with the war. After passing these
unacceptable bills, House and Senate leaders then chose to leave town for
spring recess, without resolving their differences or sending any
legislation to my desk.

As Congress delays, the clock is ticking for our troops. Last week,
Secretary of Defense Gates wrote to Congress, laying out the consequences
of their failure to pass emergency spending for our troops on the front
lines. He warned that because Congress has not acted, "The Army will soon
begin reducing quality of life initiatives, reducing the repair and
maintenance of equipment necessary for deployment training, and curtailing
the training of Army Guard and Reserve units within the United States,
reducing their readiness levels." He continued that if emergency funding is
not received by mid-May, "the Army will have to consider further actions,
to include reducing the pace of equipment overhaul work at Army depots,
curtailing training rotations for brigade combat teams currently scheduled
for overseas deployment," a step that that the Secretary said, "would
likely require the further extension of currently deployed forces." In
other words, there are consequences for Congress' delay in getting our
troops that the Defense Department has requested.

Congress' failure to fund our troops will mean that the readiness of our
forces will suffer. This is unacceptable to me; it's unacceptable to you,
and it's unacceptable to the vast majority of the American people.

Listen, I understand Republicans and Democrats in Washington have
differences over the best course in Iraq. That's healthy. That's normal.
And we should debate those differences. But our troops should not be caught
in the middle. Last week, the Senate returned to Washington, and this week
the House has returned, as well. I've invited congressional leaders of both
parties to meet me at the White House two days from today. That's what
we're supposed to do. We're supposed to talk out our differences. I'm
looking forward to the meeting. I hope the Democratic leadership will drop
their unreasonable demands for a precipitous withdrawal. We've only
committed about a little over half of our troops into a decision I made to
help secure the Iraqi capital -- and, yet, there are some saying we ought
to leave before we get there.

I think it is wrong for Congress to restrict our military commanders. I can
understand having a difference of opinion about Iraq, but our commanders
need the flexibility necessary to meet the mission. We should not be
substituting political judgment for the judgment of those in our military.
And the idea of putting, you know, peanut storage -- which may be necessary
at some point in time; I don't know, I haven't analyzed the peanut storage
issue, but I do know it doesn't have much to do with about making sure your
loved ones get what's needed to do their job.

I am willing to discuss any way forward that does not hamstring our troops,
set an artificial timetable for withdrawal, and spend billions on projects
not related to the war. The American people expect their leaders in
Washington to find common ground; but they also expect the Congress and the
White House to work together to make sure our troops get funded quickly. We
should not legislate defeat in this vital war.

We owe it to our men and women in uniform to give them the full support.
It's important as people debate this issue to think about somebody like
Merrilee Carlson, with us today. She's a Gold Star Mom. Two years ago,
Merrilee's son, Michael, gave his life in Iraq when his platoon was on a
night mission to take out two terrorist bomb-making factories. As they
approached their target, they passed over a culvert that gave way, and
their Bradley fighting vehicle plunged into the water and Michael and four
others in the vehicle died that day.

Michael penned a high school essay before he joined the Army. This is what
he wrote: "I want my life to account for something. Everyone eventually
loses their life. I have only so much time. I want to fight for something,
be a part of something greater than myself. I want to be a soldier or
something of that caliber." He became a soldier, he gave his life for
something greater than himself. And now his mom and dad have one just
demand, and that is to make sure that Michael's sacrifice is not in vain.

We owe it to the Carlson family, we owe it to other Gold Star families here
today, to complete the mission for which their loved ones gave their lives.
We owe it to a future generation of Americans to help secure peace. We owe
it to the American people to make this nation safer. The most solemn
obligation of the government and Washington is to provide security for the
American people and to protect them from harm.

We owe it to the brave Iraqis. I just spoke to the Prime Minister; I told
him I was coming to see you. He said, please thank the people in the White
House for their sacrifices and we will continue to work hard to be an ally
in this war on terror. We'll continue to do the hard work necessary to help
change the conditions that caused 19 young men to get on airplanes to come
and kill thousands of our citizens on September the 11th.

We owe it to every sailor, soldier, airman, Marine in harm's way to give
them the tools they need to prevail. That's what we owe them.

As we saw with last week's brutal attack on the Iraqi parliament, our
troops face depraved and determined enemies -- enemies that could just as
easily come here to kill us. And, therefore, we must give our men and women
in uniform the best equipment, the best training, and the unqualified
support of our nation.

Congress needs to put the partisanship on hold; it needs to get rid of all
the politics right now and send me an emergency war spending bill that I
can sign that gets our troops the support they need and gives our
commanders the flexibility they need to complete this mission.

I appreciate you coming. God bless. (Applause.)

END 11:13 A.M. EDT

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