Posted on 11/19/2005 12:32:53 PM PST by mdittmar
President Bush today dismissed political and media speculation about withdrawing U.S. forces from Iraq and instead gave an impassioned and historically rich defense of the American war effort there during a rousing visit to U.S. troops at Osan Air Base, South Korea.President Bush today dismissed political and media speculation about withdrawing U.S. forces from Iraq and instead gave an impassioned and historically rich defense of the American war effort there during a rousing visit to U.S. troops at Osan Air Base, South Korea.
The president said Iraq is "the central front in our war against the terrorists" and vowed that America will "confront this mortal danger. We will stay on the offensive. We will not wait to be attacked again. We will not rest or tire until the war on terror is won."
Today, Bush said, some 30,000 U.S. personnel are in Korea to defend against North Korean communist aggression; consequently, South Korea has grown free and prosperous.
He thanked U.S. troops there for their service and sacrifice. "You know what it takes to win a war," he said. "You know how to protect the peace; and you know what it takes to defend our nation."
Bush spoke about the Korean War as part of the larger struggle against communism. The Korean War was a fiercely fought and sometimes unpopular war that killed more than 33,000 U.S. servicemembers. However, historians credit the military intervention in Korea as integral to the West's successful prosecution of the Cold War.
Defense of the United States today, Bush said, requires a similar military engagement against the worldwide "Islamo fascist" network.
"These militants," Bush said, "believe that controlling one country will rally the Muslim masses, enabling them to overthrow moderate governments in the region and establish a radical Islamic empire that reaches from Spain to Indonesia."
But if these radical Islamists are not stopped, Bush said, "the terrorists will be able to advance their agenda to develop weapons of mass destruction, to destroy Israel, to intimidate Europe, and to break our will and blackmail our government into isolation."
Bush said this "is not going to happen on my watch."
The president said the United States did not ask for this war, "but we're answering history's call with a comprehensive strategy to win this war on terror."
The strategy the president outlined involves four steps:
First, Bush said, America will continue to hunt, capture and kill terrorists worldwide. The United States, he said, has "disrupted a number of serious al Qaeda terrorist plots since September the 11th, including several al Qaeda plots to attack inside the United States." This unceasing and largely covert effort will continue unabated, Bush said.
Second, America will continue to work closely with allied nations worldwide to deny outlaw regimes and terrorists access to weapons of mass destruction. One such successful effort, Bush said, involved a cooperative venture with Great Britain and Pakistan to expose and disrupt a "major black market operation in nuclear technology led by A.Q. Khan."
Moreover, Bush added, the United States and its partners in the Proliferation Security Initiative stopped more than a dozen shipments of suspect weapons technology - including equipment for Iran's ballistic missile program.
And diplomatic pressure, backed up by the implicit threat of military force, has caused Libya "to abandon its chemical and nuclear weapons programs. So long as I'm your president," Bush said, "we'll continue to deny the world's most dangerous men the world's most dangerous weapons."
Third, America will continue to act to deny terrorists the support of any nation state. "The United States makes no distinction between those who commit acts of terror and those who support and harbor the terrorists, because they're equally guilty of murder," Bush said. "Any government that chooses to be an ally of terror has also chosen to be an enemy of civilization, and the civilized world will hold those regimes to account."
The United States will not permit any nation state to be used as a home base or launching pad for terrorist activities. That's why, Bush said, U.S. troops are fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Finally, America will pursue political reform, democracy and freedom throughout the Middle East. "History has proven," Bush said, "that free nations are peaceful nations, and that democracies do not fight their neighbors. By advancing the hope of freedom and democracy for others," he argued, "we'll make our own freedom more secure."
In Iraq, democracy is on the march, Bush said. Since Saddam fell in April 2003, Iraq has moved from tyranny to a transitional government, ratified a constitution and now heads to the election of a permanent government under that constitution.
"The Iraqi people," Bush continued, "are proving their determination to build a future founded on democracy and hope, and the United States of America will help them succeed."
The president said that there is historical precedent for what is now happening in Iraq and Afghanistan. That is, the United States has previously brought peace and freedom to countries where it once waged war. Japan, an enemy in World War II, is now a democracy, a highly prosperous nation, and "one of America's most trusted allies," Bush said.
Similarly, South Korea, ravaged by war from 1950-1953, is now prosperous and free. "Freedom is the destiny of every man, woman, and child on this Earth," Bush said.
For that reason, he argued, the United States must continue to help the Iraqi people build a working democracy. Setting a deadline for the withdrawal of U.S. troops there, as some in Washington urge, would be a disastrous mistake, Bush said.
The president cited Army Maj. Gen. William Webster, the commander of the 3rd Infantry Division and Task Force Baghdad. Webster said such a withdrawal would be "'a recipe for disaster,'" Bush said. "So long as I'm the commander-in-chief, our strategy in Iraq will be driven by the sober judgment of our military commanders on the ground.
"We will fight the terrorists in Iraq," Bush vowed. "We will stay in the fight until we have achieved the victory that our brave troops have fought for."
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Good for him. He needs to keep this up every single day, or until the democrats decide to defend this nation with the rest of us.
Oooh, Bush gets in a little dig against Kennedy...
You gotta love this President
To start with, I love this President’s kinda Midwest, down-south, down-to-earth sense of humor. At the start of his historic speech to the U.S. troops in S. Korea the president put the crowd at ease: “Please be seated -- unless you don't have a seat.” The point that struck me as comical is that when any president of the United States speaks, people move, but GWB doesn’t take himself that seriously, and has many times shown us his human sensibilities and good nature. This was only one small, almost insignificant example of the humility that this President possesses, which is exactly why his detractors want to paint him as a stubborn, ignorant, bumbler.
You gotta love the raw sincerity of this great man. Sure, he is as glib about using the proper grammar as most of us are, but there is no doubt about what he means: “Your Commander-in-Chief is proud of you, and so is the American people.” If you want to split hairs, and the press is likely to do so, all you will know about this speech is that GWB choose the third person singular instead of the third person plural when referring to how much American is proud of our brilliant and brave fighting forces.
“Together the United States and the Republic of Korea have shown that the future belongs to freedom and one day, all Koreans will enjoy the blessings of freedom.” And if this was not GWB’s last term, and if the socialists were at last silenced by a public outcry against their unpatriotic pandering to the most anti American factions in this country and the world, I have no doubt that the President’s hope for freedom for everyone on the Korean peninsula would become a reality.
Unlike the cut-and-run white-flag left-wing liberals who don’t have a plan for victory, the president gave a thumbs up to our military personnel who were listening and watching: “You know what it takes to win a war; you know how to protect the peace; and you know what it takes to defend our nation.”
You gotta love this guy who while facing daily lies from the left, and while facing the left’s attempted character assignation of this great president, father and husband, he has steadfastly remind on course as the leader of the world who reflects the mainstream vision of America. I salute him, and I am certain that now that republicans are on the offensive the country will stand firmly behind them and against terrorism.
"our military commanders on the ground"
Also a little dig at Murta, Kerry, and other would-be armchair "commanders."
great post - I loved the speech - and his gritty down-to-earth "gotta love this guy" style. I was clapping from my bed! Talked to a soldier in Iraq this morning who said he heard the speech and said, "It's about time!" The troops need this and are eating this up!
A well written column with a well said message. Too bad the "lose at all cost" media would never pick up something like this in a million years.
Hang in there GW, the American people are with you. You have the bully pulpit, keep using it.
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie.Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
Amen, armydawg1. I think GW's style is to ACT and he is a DOER. I don't think he realizes how much we need to hear his voice. I see him as an unassuming person, who doesn't really like the limelight, like his predecessor, Bubba, who craves every speck of limelight he can get.
GW's advisors need to keep on him about speaking out - more than once a week. And to keep hammering the same message. Over and over and over and over.
And armydawg1, thanks so much for your service.
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