Saddam Hussein his final chance to disarm. He has shown instead utter
contempt for the United Nations, and for the opinion of the world. The
108 U.N. inspectors were sent to conduct -- were not sent to conduct a
scavenger hunt for hidden materials across a country the size of
California. The job of the inspectors is to verify that Iraq's regime
is disarming. It is up to Iraq to show exactly where it is hiding its
banned weapons, lay those weapons out for the world to see, and destroy
them as directed. Nothing like this has happened.
The United Nations concluded in 1999 that Saddam Hussein had biological
weapons sufficient to produce over 25,000 liters of anthrax -- enough
doses to kill several million people. He hasn't accounted for that
material. He's given no evidence that he has destroyed it.
The United Nations concluded that Saddam Hussein had materials
sufficient to produce more than 38,000 liters of botulinum toxin --
enough to subject millions of people to death by respiratory failure.
He hadn't accounted for that material. He's given no evidence that he
has destroyed it.
Our intelligence officials estimate that Saddam Hussein had the
materials to produce as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve
agent. In such quantities, these chemical agents could also kill untold
thousands. He's not accounted for these materials. He has given no
evidence that he has destroyed them.
U.S. intelligence indicates that Saddam Hussein had upwards of 30,000
munitions capable of delivering chemical agents. Inspectors recently
turned up 16 of them -- despite Iraq's recent declaration denying their
existence. Saddam Hussein has not accounted for the remaining 29,984 of
these prohibited munitions. He's given no evidence that he has
destroyed them.
From three Iraqi defectors we know that Iraq, in the late 1990s, had
several mobile biological weapons labs. These are designed to produce
germ warfare agents, and can be moved from place to a place to evade
inspectors. Saddam Hussein has not disclosed these facilities. He's
given no evidence that he has destroyed them.
The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed in the 1990s that
Saddam Hussein had an advanced nuclear weapons development program, had
a design for a nuclear weapon and was working on five different methods
of enriching uranium for a bomb. The British government has learned
that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium
from Africa. Our intelligence sources tell us that he has attempted to
purchase high-strength aluminum tubes suitable for nuclear weapons
production. Saddam Hussein has not credibly explained these activities.
He clearly has much to hide.
The dictator of Iraq is not disarming. To the contrary; he is
deceiving. From intelligence sources we know, for instance, that
thousands of Iraqi security personnel are at work hiding documents and
materials from the U.N. inspectors, sanitizing inspection sites and
monitoring the inspectors themselves. Iraqi officials accompany the
inspectors in order to intimidate witnesses.
Iraq is blocking U-2 surveillance flights requested by the United
Nations. Iraqi intelligence officers are posing as the scientists
inspectors are supposed to interview. Real scientists have been coached
by Iraqi officials on what to say. Intelligence sources indicate that
Saddam Hussein has ordered that scientists who cooperate with U.N.
inspectors in disarming Iraq will be killed, along with their families.
Year after year, Saddam Hussein has gone to elaborate lengths, spent
enormous sums, taken great risks to build and keep weapons of mass
destruction. But why? The only possible explanation, the only possible
use he could have for those weapons, is to dominate, intimidate, or
attack.
With nuclear arms or a full arsenal of chemical and biological weapons,
Saddam Hussein could resume his ambitions of conquest in the Middle
East and create deadly havoc in that region. And this Congress and the
America people must recognize another threat. Evidence from
intelligence sources, secret communications, and statements by people
now in custody reveal that Saddam Hussein aids and protects terrorists,
including members of al Qaeda. Secretly, and without fingerprints, he
could provide one of his hidden weapons to terrorists, or help them
develop their own.
Before September the 11th, many in the world believed that Saddam
Hussein could be contained. But chemical agents, lethal viruses and
shadowy terrorist networks are not easily contained. Imagine those 19
hijackers with other weapons and other plans -- this time armed by
Saddam Hussein. It would take one vial, one canister, one crate slipped
into this country to bring a day of horror like none we have ever
known. We will do everything in our power to make sure that that day
never comes.
Some have said we must not act until the threat is imminent. Since when
have terrorists and tyrants announced their intentions, politely
putting us on notice before they strike? If this threat is permitted to
fully and suddenly emerge, all actions, all words, and all
recriminations would come too late. Trusting in the sanity and
restraint of Saddam Hussein is not a strategy, and it is not an option.
The dictator who is assembling the world's most dangerous weapons has
already used them on whole villages -- leaving thousands of his own
citizens dead, blind, or disfigured. Iraqi refugees tell us how forced
confessions are obtained -- by torturing children while their parents
are made to watch. International human rights groups have catalogued
other methods used in the torture chambers of Iraq: electric shock,
burning with hot irons, dripping acid on the skin, mutilation with
electric drills, cutting out tongues, and rape. If this is not evil,
then evil has no meaning.
And tonight I have a message for the brave and oppressed people of
Iraq: Your enemy is not surrounding your country -- your enemy is
ruling your country. And the day he and his regime are removed from
power will be the day of your liberation.
The world has waited 12 years for Iraq to disarm. America will not
accept a serious and mounting threat to our country, and our friends
and our allies. The United States will ask the U.N. Security Council to
convene on February the 5th to consider the facts of Iraq's ongoing
defiance of the world. Secretary of State Powell will present
information and intelligence about Iraqi's legal -- Iraq's illegal
weapons programs, its attempt to hide those weapons from inspectors,
and its links to terrorist groups.
We will consult. But let there be no misunderstanding: If Saddam
Hussein does not fully disarm, for the safety of our people and for the
peace of the world, we will lead a coalition to disarm him.
Tonight I have a message for the men and women who will keep the peace,
members of the American Armed Forces: Many of you are assembling in or
near the Middle East, and some crucial hours may lay ahead. In those
hours, the success of our cause will depend on you. Your training has
prepared you. Your honor will guide you. You believe in America, and
America believes in you.
Sending Americans into battle is the most profound decision a President
can make. The technologies of war have changed; the risks and suffering
of war have not. For the brave Americans who bear the risk, no victory
is free from sorrow. This nation fights reluctantly, because we know
the cost and we dread the days of mourning that always come.
We seek peace. We strive for peace. And sometimes peace must be
defended. A future lived at the mercy of terrible threats is no peace
at all. If war is forced upon us, we will fight in a just cause and by
just means -- sparing, in every way we can, the innocent. And if war is
forced upon us, we will fight with the full force and might of the
United States military -- and we will prevail.
And as we and our coalition partners are doing in Afghanistan, we will
bring to the Iraqi people food and medicines and supplies -- and
freedom.
Many challenges, abroad and at home, have arrived in a single season.
In two years, America has gone from a sense of invulnerability to an
awareness of peril; from bitter division in small matters to calm unity
in great causes. And we go forward with confidence, because this call
of history has come to the right country.
Americans are a resolute people who have risen to every test of our
time. Adversity has revealed the character of our country, to the world
and to ourselves. America is a strong nation, and honorable in the use
of our strength. We exercise power without conquest, and we sacrifice
for the liberty of strangers.
Americans are a free people, who know that freedom is the right of
every person and the future of every nation. The liberty we prize is
not America's gift to the world, it is God's gift to humanity.
We Americans have faith in ourselves, but not in ourselves alone. We do
not know -- we do not claim to know all the ways of Providence, yet we
can trust in them, placing our confidence in the loving God behind all
of life, and all of history.
May He guide us now. And may God continue to bless the United States of
America.
***
State of the Union Address
George W. Bush
January 20, 2004
Mr. Speaker, Vice President Cheney, Members of Congress, distinguished
guests, and fellow citizens:
America this evening is a Nation called to great responsibilities. And
we are rising to meet them.
As we gather tonight, hundreds of thousands of American servicemen and
women are deployed across the world in the war on terror. By bringing
hope to the oppressed, and delivering justice to the violent, they are
making America more secure.
Each day, law enforcement personnel and intelligence officers are
tracking terrorist threats; analysts are examining airline passenger
lists; the men and women of our new Homeland Security Department are
patrolling our coasts and borders. And their vigilance is protecting
America.
Americans are proving once again to be the hardest working people in
the world. The American economy is growing stronger. The tax relief you
passed is working.
Tonight, Members of Congress can take pride in great works of
compassion and reform that skeptics had thought impossible. You are
raising the standards of our public schools; and you are giving our
senior citizens prescription drug coverage under Medicare.
We have faced serious challenges together - and now we face a choice.
We can go forward with confidence and resolve - or we can turn back to
the dangerous illusion that terrorists are not plotting and outlaw
regimes are no threat to us. We can press on with economic growth, and
reforms in education and Medicare - or we can turn back to the old
policies and old divisions.
We have not come all this way - through tragedy, and trial, and war -
only to falter and leave our work unfinished. Americans are rising to
the tasks of history, and they expect the same of us. In their efforts,
their enterprise, and their character, the American people are showing
that the state of our Union is confident and strong.
Our greatest responsibility is the active defense of the American
people. Twenty-eight months have passed since September 11th, 2001 -
over two years without an attack on American soil - and it is tempting
to believe that the danger is behind us. That hope is understandable,
comforting - and false. The killing has continued in Bali, Jakarta,
Casablanca, Riyadh, Mombassa, Jerusalem, Istanbul, and Baghdad. The
terrorists continue to plot against America and the civilized world.
And by our will and courage, this danger will be defeated.
Inside the United States, where the war began, we must continue to give
homeland security and law enforcement personnel every tool they need to
defend us. And one of those essential tools is the PATRIOT Act, which
allows Federal law enforcement to better share information, to track
terrorists, to disrupt their cells, and to seize their assets. For
years, we have used similar provisions to catch embezzlers and drug
traffickers. If these methods are good for hunting criminals, they are
even more important for hunting terrorists. Key provisions of the
PATRIOT Act are set to expire next year. The terrorist threat will not
expire on that schedule. Our law enforcement needs this vital
legislation to protect our citizens - you need to renew the PATRIOT Act.
America is on the offensive against the terrorists who started this
war. Last March, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, a mastermind of September
11th, awoke to find himself in the custody of U.S. and Pakistani
authorities. Last August 11th brought the capture of the terrorist
Hambali, who was a key player in the attack in Indonesia that killed
over 200 people. We are tracking al-Qaida around the world - and nearly
two-thirds of their known leaders have now been captured or killed.
Thousands of very skilled and determined military personnel are on a
manhunt, going after the remaining killers who hide in cities and caves
- and, one by one, we will bring the terrorists to justice.
As part of the offensive against terror, we are also confronting the
regimes that harbor and support terrorists, and could supply them with
nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons. The United States and our
allies are determined: We refuse to live in the shadow of this ultimate
danger.
The first to see our determination were the Taliban, who made
Afghanistan the primary training base of al-Qaida killers. As of this
month, that country has a new constitution, guaranteeing free elections
and full participation by women. Businesses are opening, health care
centers are being established, and the boys and girls of Afghanistan
are back in school. With help from the new Afghan Army, our coalition
is leading aggressive raids against surviving members of the Taliban
and al-Qaida. The men and women of Afghanistan are building a nation
that is free, and proud, and fighting terror - and America is honored
to be their friend.
Since we last met in this chamber, combat forces of the United States,
Great Britain, Australia, Poland, and other countries enforced the
demands of the United Nations, ended the rule of Saddam Hussein - and
the people of Iraq are free. Having broken the Baathist regime, we face
a remnant of violent Saddam supporters. Men who ran away from our
troops in battle are now dispersed and attack from the shadows.
These killers, joined by foreign terrorists, are a serious, continuing
danger. Yet we are making progress against them. The once all-powerful
ruler of Iraq was found in a hole, and now sits in a prison cell. Of
the top 55 officials of the former regime, we have captured or killed
45. Our forces are on the offensive, leading over 1,600 patrols a day,
and conducting an average of 180 raids every week. We are dealing with
these thugs in Iraq, just as surely as we dealt with Saddam Hussein's
evil regime.
The work of building a new Iraq is hard, and it is right. And America
has always been willing to do what it takes for what is right. Last
January, Iraq's only law was the whim of one brutal man. Today our
coalition is working with the Iraqi Governing Council to draft a basic
law, with a bill of rights. We are working with Iraqis and the United
Nations to prepare for a transition to full Iraqi sovereignty by the
end of June. As democracy takes hold in Iraq, the enemies of freedom
will do all in their power to spread violence and fear. They are trying
to shake the will of our country and our friends - but the United
States of America will never be intimidated by thugs and assassins. The
killers will fail, and the Iraqi people will live in freedom.
Month by month, Iraqis are assuming more responsibility for their own
security and their own future. And tonight we are honored to welcome
one of Iraq's most respected leaders: the current President of the
Iraqi Governing Council, Adnan Pachachi. Sir, America stands with you
and the Iraqi people as you build a free and peaceful nation.
Because of American leadership and resolve, the world is changing for
the better. Last month, the leader of Libya voluntarily pledged to
disclose and dismantle all of his regime's weapons of mass destruction
programs, including a uranium enrichment project for nuclear weapons.
Colonel Qadhafi correctly judged that his country would be better off,
and far more secure, without weapons of mass murder. Nine months of
intense negotiations involving the United States and Great Britain
succeeded with Libya, while 12 years of diplomacy with Iraq did not.
And one reason is clear: For diplomacy to be effective, words must be
credible - and no one can now doubt the word of America.
Different threats require different strategies. Along with nations in
the region, we are insisting that North Korea eliminate its nuclear
program. America and the international community are demanding that
Iran meet its commitments and not develop nuclear weapons. America is
committed to keeping the world's most dangerous weapons out of the
hands of the world's most dangerous regimes.
When I came to this rostrum on September 20th, 2001, I brought the
police shield of a fallen officer, my reminder of lives that ended, and
a task that does not end. I gave to you and to all Americans my
complete commitment to securing our country and defeating our enemies.
And this pledge, given by one, has been kept by many. You in the
Congress have provided the resources for our defense, and cast the
difficult votes of war and peace. Our closest allies have been
unwavering. America's intelligence personnel and diplomats have been
skilled and tireless.
d the men and women of the American military - they have taken the
hardest duty. We have seen their skill and courage in armored charges,
and midnight raids, and lonely hours on faithful watch. We have seen
the joy when they return, and felt the sorrow when one is lost. I have
had the honor of meeting our servicemen and women at many posts, from
the deck of a carrier in the Pacific, to a mess hall in Baghdad. Many
of our troops are listening tonight. And I want you and your families
to know: America is proud of you. And my Administration, and this
Congress, will give you the resources you need to fight and win the war
on terror.
I know that some people question if America is really in a war at all.
They view terrorism more as a crime - a problem to be solved mainly
with law enforcement and indictments. After the World Trade Center was
first attacked in 1993, some of the guilty were indicted, tried,
convicted, and sent to prison. But the matter was not settled. The
terrorists were still training and plotting in other nations, and
drawing up more ambitious plans. After the chaos and carnage of
September 11th, it is not enough to serve our enemies with legal
papers. The terrorists and their supporters declared war on the United
States - and war is what they got.
Some in this chamber, and in our country, did not support the
liberation of Iraq. Objections to war often come from principled
motives. But let us be candid about the consequences of leaving Saddam
Hussein in power. We are seeking all the facts - already the Kay Report
identified dozens of weapons of mass destruction-related program
activities and significant amounts of equipment that Iraq concealed
from the United Nations. Had we failed to act, the dictator's weapons
of mass destruction programs would continue to this day. Had we failed
to act, Security Council resolutions on Iraq would have been revealed
as empty threats, weakening the United Nations and encouraging defiance
by dictators around the world. Iraq's torture chambers would still be
filled with victims - terrified and innocent. The killing fields of
Iraq - where hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children vanished
into the sands - would still be known only to the killers. For all who
love freedom and peace, the world without Saddam Hussein's regime is a
better and safer place.
Some critics have said our duties in Iraq must be internationalized.
This particular criticism is hard to explain to our partners in
Britain, Australia, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Thailand,
Italy, Spain, Poland, Denmark, Hungary, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Romania, the
Netherlands, Norway, El Salvador, and the 17 other countries that have
committed troops to Iraq. As we debate at home, we must never ignore
the vital contributions of our international partners, or dismiss their
sacrifices. From the beginning, America has sought international
support for operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, and we have gained much
support. There is a difference, however, between leading a coalition of
many nations, and submitting to the objections of a few. America will
never seek a permission slip to defend the security of our people.
We also hear doubts that democracy is a realistic goal for the greater
Middle East, where freedom is rare. Yet it is mistaken, and
condescending, to assume that whole cultures and great religions are
incompatible with liberty and self-government. I believe that God has
planted in every heart the desire to live in freedom. And even when
that desire is crushed by tyranny for decades, it will rise again.
As long as the Middle East remains a place of tyranny, despair, and
anger, it will continue to produce men and movements that threaten the
safety of America and our friends. So America is pursuing a forward
strategy of freedom in the greater Middle East. We will challenge the
enemies of reform, confront the allies of terror, and expect a higher
standard from our friends. To cut through the barriers of hateful
propaganda, the Voice of America and other broadcast services are
expanding their programming in Arabic and Persian - and soon, a new
television service will begin providing reliable news and information
across the region. I will send you a proposal to double the budget of
the National Endowment for Democracy, and to focus its new work on the
development of free elections, free markets, free press, and free labor
unions in the Middle East. And above all, we will finish the historic
work of democracy in Afghanistan and Iraq, so those nations can light
the way for others, and help transform a troubled part of the world.
America is a Nation with a mission - and that mission comes from our
most basic beliefs. We have no desire to dominate, no ambitions of
empire. Our aim is a democratic peace - a peace founded upon the
dignity and rights of every man and woman. America acts in this cause
with friends and allies at our side, yet we understand our special
calling: This great Republic will lead the cause of freedom.
In these last three years, adversity has also revealed the fundamental
strengths of the American economy. We have come through recession, and
terrorist attack, and corporate scandals, and the uncertainties of war.
And because you acted to stimulate our economy with tax relief, this
economy is strong, and growing stronger.
You have doubled the child tax credit from 500 to a thousand dollars,
reduced the marriage penalty, begun to phase out the death tax, reduced
taxes on capital gains and stock dividends, cut taxes on small
businesses, and you have lowered taxes for every American who pays
income taxes.
Americans took those dollars and put them to work, driving this economy
forward. The pace of economic growth in the third quarter of 2003 was
the fastest in nearly 20 years. New home construction: the highest in
almost 20 years. Home ownership rates: the highest ever. Manufacturing
activity is increasing. Inflation is low. Interest rates are low.
Exports are growing. Productivity is high. And jobs are on the rise.
These numbers confirm that the American people are using their money
far better than government would have - and you were right to return it.
America's growing economy is also a changing economy. As technology
transforms the way almost every job is done, America becomes more
productive, and workers need new skills. Much of our job growth will be
found in high-skilled fields like health care and biotechnology. So we
must respond by helping more Americans gain the skills to find good
jobs in our new economy.