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Skriven 2007-08-22 23:30:54 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (0708223) for Wed, 2007 Aug 22
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President Bush Attends Veterans of Foreign Wars National Convention,
Discusses War on Terror
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For Immediate Release Office of the Press Secretary August 22, 2007

President Bush Attends Veterans of Foreign Wars National Convention,
Discusses War on Terror Kansas City Convention and Entertainment Center
Kansas City, Missouri

˙˙Presidential Remarks
˙˙Audio ˙˙Photos


9:46 A.M. CDT

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all. Please be seated. It's good to be with you
again. I understand you haven't had much of a problem attracting speakers.
(Laughter.) I thank you for inviting me. I can understand why people want
to come here. See, it's an honor to stand with the men and women of the
Veterans of Foreign Wars. (Applause.) The VFW is one of this nation's
finest organizations. You belong to an elite group of Americans.
(Applause.) You belong to a group of people who have defended America
overseas. You have fought in places from Normandy to Iwo Jima, to Pusan, to
Khe Sahn, to Kuwait, to Somalia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq. You brought
security to the American people; you brought hope to millions across the
world.

As members of this proud organization, you are advocates for the rights of
our military veterans, a model of community service, and a strong and
important voice for a strong national defense. I thank you for your
service. I thank you for what you've done for the United States of America.
(Applause.)

I stand before you as a wartime President. I wish I didn't have to say
that, but an enemy that attacked us on September the 11th, 2001, declared
war on the United States of America. And war is what we're engaged in. The
struggle has been called a clash of civilizations. In truth, it's a
struggle for civilization. We fight for a free way of life against a new
barbarism -- an ideology whose followers have killed thousands on American
soil, and seek to kill again on even a greater scale.

We fight for the possibility that decent men and women across the broader
Middle East can realize their destiny -- and raise up societies based on
freedom and justice and personal dignity. And as long as I'm
Commander-in-Chief we will fight to win. (Applause.) I'm confident that we
will prevail. I'm confident we'll prevail because we have the greatest
force for human liberation the world has ever known -- the men and women of
the United States Armed Forces. (Applause.)

For those of you who wear the uniform, nothing makes me more proud to say
that I am your Commander-in-Chief. Thank you for volunteering in the
service of the United States of America. (Applause.)

Now, I know some people doubt the universal appeal of liberty, or worry
that the Middle East isn't ready for it. Others believe that America's
presence is destabilizing, and that if the United States would just leave a
place like Iraq those who kill our troops or target civilians would no
longer threaten us. Today I'm going to address these arguments. I'm going
to describe why helping the young democracies of the Middle East stand up
to violent Islamic extremists is the only realistic path to a safer world
for the American people. I'm going to try to provide some historical
perspective to show there is a precedent for the hard and necessary work
we're doing, and why I have such confidence in the fact we'll be
successful.

Before I do so I want to thank the national Commander-in-Chief of the VFW
and his wife, Nancy. It's been a joy to work with Gary and the staff. Gary
said, we don't necessarily agree a hundred percent of the time. I remember
the old lieutenant governor of Texas -- a Democrat, and I was a Republican
governor. He said, "Governor, if we agreed 100 percent of the time, one of
us wouldn't be necessary." (Laughter.)

But here's what we do agree on: We agree our veterans deserve the full
support of the United States government. (Applause.) That's why in this
budget I submitted there's $87 billion for the veterans; it's the highest
level of support ever for the veterans in American history. (Applause.) We
agree that health care for our veterans is a top priority, and that's why
we've increased health care spending for our veterans by 83 percent since I
was sworn in as your President. (Applause.) We agree that a troop coming
out of Iraq or Afghanistan deserves the best health care not only as an
active duty citizen, but as a military guy, but also as a veteran -- and
you're going to get the best health care we can possibly provide.
(Applause.) We agree our homeless vets ought to have shelter, and that's
what we're providing.

In other words, we agree the veterans deserve the full support of our
government and that's what you're going to get as George W. Bush as your
President. (Applause.)

I want to thank Bob Wallace, the Executive Director. He spends a lot of
time in the Oval Office -- I'm always checking the silverware drawer.
(Laughter.) He's going to be bringing in George Lisicki here soon. He's
going to be the national commander-in-chief for my next year in office. And
I'm looking forward to working with George, and I'm looking forward to
working with Wallace, and I'm looking forward to hearing from you. They're
going to find an open-minded President, dedicated to doing what's right.
(Applause.)

I appreciate Linda Meader, the National President of the Ladies Auxiliary.
She brought old Dave with her. (Applause.) Virginia Carman, the incoming
President. I want to thank Deputy Secretary of Veterans Affairs Gordon
Mansfield for joining us today. I appreciate the United States Senator from
the state of Missouri, strong supporter of the military and strong
supporter of the veterans, Kit Bond. (Applause.) Two members of the
Congress have kindly showed up today -- I'm proud they're both here:
Congressman Emanuel Cleaver -- no finer man, no more decent a fellow than
Emanuel Cleaver -- is with us. And a great Congressman from right around
the corner here, Congressman Sam Graves. Thank you all for coming.
(Applause.)

Lieutenant General Jack Stultz, Commanding General, U.S. Army Reserve
Command, is with us today. General, thanks for coming. Lieutenant General
Bill Caldwell, Commanding General, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, is with us
today, as well. General Caldwell, thank you for your service. (Applause.)

Thank you all for letting me come by. I want to open today's speech with a
story that begins on a sunny morning, when thousands of Americans were
murdered in a surprise attack -- and our nation was propelled into a
conflict that would take us to every corner of the globe.

The enemy who attacked us despises freedom, and harbors resentment at the
slights he believes America and Western nations have inflicted on his
people. He fights to establish his rule over an entire region. And over
time, he turns to a strategy of suicide attacks destined to create so much
carnage that the American people will tire of the violence and give up the
fight.

If this story sounds familiar, it is -- except for one thing. The enemy I
have just described is not al Qaeda, and the attack is not 9/11, and the
empire is not the radical caliphate envisioned by Osama bin Laden. Instead,
what I've described is the war machine of Imperial Japan in the 1940s, its
surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, and its attempt to impose its empire
throughout East Asia.

Ultimately, the United States prevailed in World War II, and we have fought
two more land wars in Asia. And many in this hall were veterans of those
campaigns. Yet even the most optimistic among you probably would not have
foreseen that the Japanese would transform themselves into one of America's
strongest and most steadfast allies, or that the South Koreans would
recover from enemy invasion to raise up one of the world's most powerful
economies, or that Asia would pull itself out of poverty and hopelessness
as it embraced markets and freedom.

The lesson from Asia's development is that the heart's desire for liberty
will not be denied. Once people even get a small taste of liberty, they're
not going to rest until they're free. Today's dynamic and hopeful Asia -- a
region that brings us countless benefits -- would not have been possible
without America's presence and perseverance. It would not have been
possible without the veterans in this hall today. And I thank you for your
service. (Applause.)

There are many differences between the wars we fought in the Far East and
the war on terror we're fighting today. But one important similarity is at
their core they're ideological struggles. The militarists of Japan and the
communists in Korea and Vietnam were driven by a merciless vision for the
proper ordering of humanity. They killed Americans because we stood in the
way of their attempt to force their ideology on others. Today, the names
and places have changed, but the fundamental character of the struggle has
not changed. Like our enemies in the past, the terrorists who wage war in
Iraq and Afghanistan and other places seek to spread a political vision of
their own -- a harsh plan for life that crushes freedom, tolerance, and
dissent.

Like our enemies in the past, they kill Americans because we stand in their
way of imposing this ideology across a vital region of the world. This
enemy is dangerous; this enemy is determined; and this enemy will be
defeated. (Applause.)

We're still in the early hours of the current ideological struggle, but we
do know how the others ended -- and that knowledge helps guide our efforts
today. The ideals and interests that led America to help the Japanese turn
defeat into democracy are the same that lead us to remain engaged in
Afghanistan and Iraq.

The defense strategy that refused to hand the South Koreans over to a
totalitarian neighbor helped raise up a Asian Tiger that is the model for
developing countries across the world, including the Middle East. The
result of American sacrifice and perseverance in Asia is a freer, more
prosperous and stable continent whose people want to live in peace with
America, not attack America.

At the outset of World War II there were only two democracies in the Far
East -- Australia and New Zealand. Today most of the nations in Asia are
free, and its democracies reflect the diversity of the region. Some of
these nations have constitutional monarchies, some have parliaments, and
some have presidents. Some are Christian, some are Muslim, some are Hindu,
and some are Buddhist. Yet for all the differences, the free nations of
Asia all share one thing in common: Their governments derive their
authority from the consent of the governed, and they desire to live in
peace with their neighbors.

Along the way to this freer and more hopeful Asia, there were a lot of
doubters. Many times in the decades that followed World War II, American
policy in Asia was dismissed as hopeless and naive. And when we listen to
criticism of the difficult work our generation is undertaking in the Middle
East today, we can hear the echoes of the same arguments made about the Far
East years ago.

In the aftermath of Japan's surrender, many thought it naive to help the
Japanese transform themselves into a democracy. Then as now, the critics
argued that some people were simply not fit for freedom.

Some said Japanese culture was inherently incompatible with democracy.
Joseph Grew, a former United States ambassador to Japan who served as Harry
Truman's Under Secretary of State, told the President flatly that -- and I
quote -- "democracy in Japan would never work." He wasn't alone in that
belief. A lot of Americans believed that -- and so did the Japanese -- a
lot of Japanese believed the same thing: democracy simply wouldn't work.

Others critics said that Americans were imposing their ideals on the
Japanese. For example, Japan's Vice Prime Minister asserted that allowing
Japanese women to vote would "retard the progress of Japanese politics."

It's interesting what General MacArthur wrote in his memoirs. He wrote,
"There was much criticism of my support for the enfranchisement of women.
Many Americans, as well as many other so-called experts, expressed the view
that Japanese women were too steeped in the tradition of subservience to
their husbands to act with any degree of political independence." That's
what General MacArthur observed. In the end, Japanese women were given the
vote; 39 women won parliamentary seats in Japan's first free election.
Today, Japan's minister of defense is a woman, and just last month, a
record number of women were elected to Japan's Upper House. Other critics
argued that democracy -- (applause.)

There are other critics, believe it or not, that argue that democracy could
not succeed in Japan because the national religion -- Shinto -- was too
fanatical and rooted in the Emperor. Senator Richard Russell denounced the
Japanese faith, and said that if we did not put the Emperor on trial, "any
steps we may take to create democracy are doomed to failure." The State
Department's man in Tokyo put it bluntly: "The Emperor system must
disappear if Japan is ever really to be democratic."

Those who said Shinto was incompatible with democracy were mistaken, and
fortunately, Americans and Japanese leaders recognized it at the time,
because instead of suppressing the Shinto faith, American authorities
worked with the Japanese to institute religious freedom for all faiths.
Instead of abolishing the imperial throne, Americans and Japanese worked
together to find a place for the Emperor in the democratic political
system.

And the result of all these steps was that every Japanese citizen gained
freedom of religion, and the Emperor remained on his throne and Japanese
democracy grew stronger because it embraced a cherished part of Japanese
culture. And today, in defiance of the critics and the doubters and the
skeptics, Japan retains its religions and cultural traditions, and stands
as one of the world's great free societies. (Applause.)

You know, the experts sometimes get it wrong. An interesting observation,
one historian put it -- he said, "Had these erstwhile experts" -- he was
talking about people criticizing the efforts to help Japan realize the
blessings of a free society -- he said, "Had these erstwhile experts had
their way, the very notion of inducing a democratic revolution would have
died of ridicule at an early stage."

Instead, I think it's important to look at what happened. A democratic
Japan has brought peace and prosperity to its people. Its foreign trade and
investment have helped jump-start the economies of others in the region.
The alliance between our two nations is the lynchpin for freedom and
stability throughout the Pacific. And I want you to listen carefully to
this final point: Japan has transformed from America's enemy in the
ideological struggle of the 20th century to one of America's strongest
allies in the ideological struggle of the 21st century. (Applause.)

Critics also complained when America intervened to save South Korea from
communist invasion. Then as now, the critics argued that the war was
futile, that we should never have sent our troops in, or they argued that
America's intervention was divisive here at home.

After the North Koreans crossed the 38th Parallel in 1950, President Harry
Truman came to the defense of the South -- and found himself attacked from
all sides. From the left, I.F. Stone wrote a book suggesting that the South
Koreans were the real aggressors and that we had entered the war on a false
pretext. From the right, Republicans vacillated. Initially, the leader of
the Republican Party in the Senate endorsed Harry Truman's action, saying,
"I welcome the indication of a more definite policy" -- he went on to say,
"I strongly hope that having adopted it, the President may maintain it
intact," then later said "it was a mistake originally to go into Korea
because it meant a land war."

Throughout the war, the Republicans really never had a clear position. They
never could decide whether they wanted the United States to withdraw from
the war in Korea, or expand the war to the Chinese mainland. Others
complained that our troops weren't getting the support from the government.
One Republican senator said, the effort was just "bluff and bluster." He
rejected calls to come together in a time of war, on the grounds that "we
will not allow the cloak of national unity to be wrapped around horrible
blunders."

Many in the press agreed. One columnist in The Washington Post said, "The
fact is that the conduct of the Korean War has been shot through with
errors great and small." A colleague wrote that "Korea is an open wound.
It's bleeding and there's no cure for it in sight." He said that the
American people could not understand "why Americans are doing about 95
percent of the fighting in Korea."

Many of these criticisms were offered as reasons for abandoning our
commitments in Korea. And while it's true the Korean War had its share of
challenges, the United States never broke its word.

Today, we see the result of a sacrifice of people in this room in the stark
contrast of life on the Korean Peninsula. Without Americans' intervention
during the war and our willingness to stick with the South Koreans after
the war, millions of South Koreans would now be living under a brutal and
repressive regime. The Soviets and Chinese communists would have learned
the lesson that aggression pays. The world would be facing a more dangerous
situation. The world would be less peaceful.

Instead, South Korea is a strong, democratic ally of the United States of
America. South Korean troops are serving side-by-side with American forces
in Afghanistan and in Iraq. And America can count on the free people of
South Korea to be lasting partners in the ideological struggle we're facing
in the beginning of the 21st century. (Applause.)

For those of you who served in Korea, thank you for your sacrifice, and
thank you for your service. (Applause.)

Finally, there's Vietnam. This is a complex and painful subject for many
Americans. The tragedy of Vietnam is too large to be contained in one
speech. So I'm going to limit myself to one argument that has particular
significance today. Then as now, people argued the real problem was
America's presence and that if we would just withdraw, the killing would
end.

The argument that America's presence in Indochina was dangerous had a long
pedigree. In 1955, long before the United States had entered the war,
Graham Greene wrote a novel called, "The Quiet American." It was set in
Saigon, and the main character was a young government agent named Alden
Pyle. He was a symbol of American purpose and patriotism -- and dangerous
naivete. Another character describes Alden this way: "I never knew a man
who had better motives for all the trouble he caused."

After America entered the Vietnam War, the Graham Greene argument gathered
some steam. As a matter of fact, many argued that if we pulled out there
would be no consequences for the Vietnamese people.

In 1972, one antiwar senator put it this way: "What earthly difference does
it make to nomadic tribes or uneducated subsistence farmers in Vietnam or
Cambodia or Laos, whether they have a military dictator, a royal prince or
a socialist commissar in some distant capital that they've never seen and
may never heard of?" A columnist for The New York Times wrote in a similar
vein in 1975, just as Cambodia and Vietnam were falling to the communists:
"It's difficult to imagine," he said, "how their lives could be anything
but better with the Americans gone." A headline on that story, date Phnom
Penh, summed up the argument: "Indochina without Americans: For Most a
Better Life."

The world would learn just how costly these misimpressions would be. In
Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge began a murderous rule in which hundreds of
thousands of Cambodians died by starvation and torture and execution. In
Vietnam, former allies of the United States and government workers and
intellectuals and businessmen were sent off to prison camps, where tens of
thousands perished. Hundreds of thousands more fled the country on rickety
boats, many of them going to their graves in the South China Sea.

Three decades later, there is a legitimate debate about how we got into the
Vietnam War and how we left. There's no debate in my mind that the veterans
from Vietnam deserve the high praise of the United States of America.
(Applause.) Whatever your position is on that debate, one unmistakable
legacy of Vietnam is that the price of America's withdrawal was paid by
millions of innocent citizens whose agonies would add to our vocabulary new
terms like "boat people," "re-education camps," and "killing fields."

There was another price to our withdrawal from Vietnam, and we can hear it
in the words of the enemy we face in today's struggle -- those who came to
our soil and killed thousands of citizens on September the 11th, 2001. In
an interview with a Pakistani newspaper after the 9/11 attacks, Osama bin
Laden declared that "the American people had risen against their
government's war in Vietnam. And they must do the same today."

His number two man, Zawahiri, has also invoked Vietnam. In a letter to al
Qaeda's chief of operations in Iraq, Zawahiri pointed to "the aftermath of
the collapse of the American power in Vietnam and how they ran and left
their agents."

Zawahiri later returned to this theme, declaring that the Americans "know
better than others that there is no hope in victory. The Vietnam specter is
closing every outlet." Here at home, some can argue our withdrawal from
Vietnam carried no price to American credibility -- but the terrorists see
it differently.

We must remember the words of the enemy. We must listen to what they say.
Bin Laden has declared that "the war [in Iraq] is for you or us to win. If
we win it, it means your disgrace and defeat forever." Iraq is one of
several fronts in the war on terror -- but it's the central front -- it's
the central front for the enemy that attacked us and wants to attack us
again. And it's the central front for the United States and to withdraw
without getting the job done would be devastating. (Applause.)

If we were to abandon the Iraqi people, the terrorists would be emboldened,
and use their victory to gain new recruits. As we saw on September the
11th, a terrorist safe haven on the other side of the world can bring death
and destruction to the streets of our own cities. Unlike in Vietnam, if we
withdraw before the job is done, this enemy will follow us home. And that
is why, for the security of the United States of America, we must defeat
them overseas so we do not face them in the United States of America.
(Applause.)

Recently, two men who were on the opposite sides of the debate over the
Vietnam War came together to write an article. One was a member of
President Nixon's foreign policy team, and the other was a fierce critic of
the Nixon administration's policies. Together they wrote that the
consequences of an American defeat in Iraq would be disastrous.

Here's what they said: "Defeat would produce an explosion of euphoria among
all the forces of Islamist extremism, throwing the entire Middle East into
even greater upheaval. The likely human and strategic costs are appalling
to contemplate. Perhaps that is why so much of the current debate seeks to
ignore these consequences." I believe these men are right.

In Iraq, our moral obligations and our strategic interests are one. So we
pursue the extremists wherever we find them and we stand with the Iraqis at
this difficult hour -- because the shadow of terror will never be lifted
from our world and the American people will never be safe until the people
of the Middle East know the freedom that our Creator meant for all.
(Applause.)

I recognize that history cannot predict the future with absolute certainty.
I understand that. But history does remind us that there are lessons
applicable to our time. And we can learn something from history. In Asia,
we saw freedom triumph over violent ideologies after the sacrifice of tens
of thousands of American lives -- and that freedom has yielded peace for
generations.

The American military graveyards across Europe attest to the terrible human
cost in the fight against Nazism. They also attest to the triumph of a
continent that today is whole, free, and at peace. The advance of freedom
in these lands should give us confidence that the hard work we are doing in
the Middle East can have the same results we've seen in Asia and elsewhere
-- if we show the same perseverance and the same sense of purpose.

In a world where the terrorists are willing to act on their twisted beliefs
with sickening acts of barbarism, we must put faith in the timeless truths
about human nature that have made us free.

Across the Middle East, millions of ordinary citizens are tired of war,
they're tired of dictatorship and corruption, they're tired of despair.
They want societies where they're treated with dignity and respect, where
their children have the hope for a better life. They want nations where
their faiths are honored and they can worship in freedom.

And that is why millions of Iraqis and Afghans turned out to the polls --
millions turned out to the polls. And that's why their leaders have stepped
forward at the risk of assassination. And that's why tens of thousands are
joining the security forces of their nations. These men and women are
taking great risks to build a free and peaceful Middle East -- and for the
sake of our own security, we must not abandon them.

There is one group of people who understand the stakes, understand as well
as any expert, anybody in America -- those are the men and women in
uniform. Through nearly six years of war, they have performed
magnificently. (Applause.) Day after day, hour after hour, they keep the
pressure on the enemy that would do our citizens harm. They've overthrown
two of the most brutal tyrannies of the world, and liberated more than 50
million citizens. (Applause.)

In Iraq, our troops are taking the fight to the extremists and radicals and
murderers all throughout the country. Our troops have killed or captured an
average of more than 1,500 al Qaeda terrorists and other extremists every
month since January of this year. (Applause.) We're in the fight. Today our
troops are carrying out a surge that is helping bring former Sunni
insurgents into the fight against the extremists and radicals, into the
fight against al Qaeda, into the fight against the enemy that would do us
harm. They're clearing out the terrorists out of population centers,
they're giving families in liberated Iraqi cities a look at a decent and
hopeful life.

Our troops are seeing this progress that is being made on the ground. And
as they take the initiative from the enemy, they have a question: Will
their elected leaders in Washington pull the rug out from under them just
as they're gaining momentum and changing the dynamic on the ground in Iraq?
Here's my answer is clear: We'll support our troops, we'll support our
commanders, and we will give them everything they need to succeed.
(Applause.)

Despite the mistakes that have been made, despite the problems we have
encountered, seeing the Iraqis through as they build their democracy is
critical to keeping the American people safe from the terrorists who want
to attack us. It is critical work to lay the foundation for peace that
veterans have done before you all.

A free Iraq is not going to be perfect. A free Iraq will not make decisions
as quickly as the country did under the dictatorship. Many are frustrated
by the pace of progress in Baghdad, and I can understand this. As I noted
yesterday, the Iraqi government is distributing oil revenues across its
provinces despite not having an oil revenue law on its books, that the
parliament has passed about 60 pieces of legislation.

Prime Minister Maliki is a good guy, a good man with a difficult job, and I
support him. And it's not up to politicians in Washington, D.C. to say
whether he will remain in his position -- that is up to the Iraqi people
who now live in a democracy, and not a dictatorship. (Applause.) A free
Iraq is not going to transform the Middle East overnight. But a free Iraq
will be a massive defeat for al Qaeda, it will be an example that provides
hope for millions throughout the Middle East, it will be a friend of the
United States, and it's going to be an important ally in the ideological
struggle of the 21st century. (Applause.)

Prevailing in this struggle is essential to our future as a nation. And the
question now that comes before us is this: Will today's generation of
Americans resist the allure of retreat, and will we do in the Middle East
what the veterans in this room did in Asia?

The journey is not going to be easy, as the veterans fully understand. At
the outset of the war in the Pacific, there were those who argued that
freedom had seen its day and that the future belonged to the hard men in
Tokyo. A year and a half before the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japan's Foreign
Minister gave a hint of things to come during an interview with a New York
newspaper. He said, "In the battle between democracy and totalitarianism
the latter adversary will without question win and will control the world.
The era of democracy is finished, the democratic system bankrupt."

In fact, the war machines of Imperial Japan would be brought down --
brought down by good folks who only months before had been students and
farmers and bank clerks and factory hands. Some are in the room today.
Others here have been inspired by their fathers and grandfathers and uncles
and cousins.

That generation of Americans taught the tyrants a telling lesson: There is
no power like the power of freedom and no soldier as strong as a soldier
who fights for a free future for his children. (Applause.) And when
America's work on the battlefield was done, the victorious children of
democracy would help our defeated enemies rebuild, and bring the taste of
freedom to millions.

We can do the same for the Middle East. Today the violent Islamic
extremists who fight us in Iraq are as certain of their cause as the Nazis,
or the Imperial Japanese, or the Soviet communists were of theirs. They are
destined for the same fate. (Applause.)

The greatest weapon in the arsenal of democracy is the desire for liberty
written into the human heart by our Creator. So long as we remain true to
our ideals, we will defeat the extremists in Iraq and Afghanistan. We will
help those countries' peoples stand up functioning democracies in the heart
of the broader Middle East. And when that hard work is done and the critics
of today recede from memory, the cause of freedom will be stronger, a vital
region will be brighter, and the American people will be safer.

Thank you, and God bless. (Applause.)

END 10:29 A.M. CDT
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