For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
November 10, 2001
President Bush Speaks to United Nations
Remarks by the President
To United Nations General Assembly
U.N. Headquarters
New York, New York
9:38 A.M. EST
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Mr. Secretary
General, Mr. President, distinguished delegates, and ladies and
gentlemen. We meet in a hall devoted to peace, in a city
scarred by violence, in a nation awakened to danger, in a world uniting
for a long struggle. Every civilized nation here today is
resolved to keep the most basic commitment of civilization: We will
defend ourselves and our future against terror and lawless violence.
The United Nations was founded in this cause. In a
second world war, we learned there is no isolation from
evil. We affirmed that some crimes are so terrible they
offend humanity, itself. And we resolved that the
aggressions and ambitions of the wicked must be opposed early,
decisively, and collectively, before they threaten us
all. That evil has returned, and that cause is renewed.
A few miles from here, many thousands still lie in a tomb of
rubble. Tomorrow, the Secretary General, the President of the General
Assembly, and I will visit that site, where the names of every nation
and region that lost citizens will be read aloud. If we were
to read the names of every person who died, it would take more than
three hours.
Those names include a citizen of Gambia, whose wife spent their
fourth wedding anniversary, September the 12th, searching in vain for
her husband. Those names include a man who supported his wife in
Mexico, sending home money every week. Those names include a
young Pakistani who prayed toward Mecca five times a day, and died that
day trying to save others.
The suffering of September the 11th was inflicted on people of many
faiths and many nations. All of the victims, including
Muslims, were killed with equal indifference and equal satisfaction by
the terrorist leaders. The terrorists are violating the
tenets of every religion, including the one they invoke.
Last week, the Sheikh of Al-Azhar University, the world's oldest
Islamic institution of higher learning, declared that terrorism is a
disease, and that Islam prohibits killing innocent
civilians. The terrorists call their cause holy, yet, they
fund it with drug dealing; they encourage murder and suicide in the
name of a great faith that forbids both. They dare to ask
God's blessing as they set out to kill innocent men, women and
children. But the God of Isaac and Ishmael would never
answer such a prayer. And a murderer is not a martyr; he is
just a murderer.
Time is passing. Yet, for the United States of America,
there will be no forgetting September the 11th. We will
remember every rescuer who died in honor. We will remember
every family that lives in grief. We will remember the fire
and ash, the last phone calls, the funerals of the children.
And the people of my country will remember those who have plotted
against us. We are learning their names. We are
coming to know their faces. There is no corner of the Earth
distant or dark enough to protect them. However long it
takes, their hour of justice will come.
Every nation has a stake in this cause. As we meet, the
terrorists are planning more murder -- perhaps in my country, or
perhaps in yours. They kill because they aspire to
dominate. They seek to overthrow governments and destabilize
entire regions.
Last week, anticipating this meeting of the General Assembly, they
denounced the United Nations. They called our Secretary
General a criminal and condemned all Arab nations here as traitors to
Islam.
Few countries meet their exacting standards of brutality and
oppression. Every other country is a potential
target. And all the world faces the most horrifying prospect
of all: These same terrorists are searching for weapons of
mass destruction, the tools to turn their hatred into
holocaust. They can be expected to use chemical, biological
and nuclear weapons the moment they are capable of doing
so. No hint of conscience would prevent it.
This threat cannot be ignored. This threat cannot be
appeased. Civilization, itself, the civilization we share, is
threatened. History will record our response, and judge or
justify every nation in this hall.
The civilized world is now responding. We act to defend
ourselves and deliver our children from a future of fear. We
choose the dignity of life over a culture of death. We
choose lawful change and civil disagreement over coercion, subversion,
and chaos. These commitments -- hope and order, law and life
-- unite people across cultures and continents. Upon these
commitments depend all peace and progress. For these
commitments, we are determined to fight.
The United Nations has risen to this responsibility. On
the 12th of September, these buildings opened for emergency meetings of
the General Assembly and the Security Council. Before the
sun had set, these attacks on the world stood condemned by the
world. And I want to thank you for this strong and
principled stand.
I also thank the Arab Islamic countries that have condemned
terrorist murder. Many of you have seen the destruction of
terror in your own lands. The terrorists are increasingly isolated by
their own hatred and extremism. They cannot hide behind
Islam. The authors of mass murder and their allies have no
place in any culture, and no home in any faith.
The conspiracies of terror are being answered by an expanding
global coalition. Not every nation will be a part of every
action against the enemy. But every nation in our coalition
has duties. These duties can be demanding, as we in America
are learning. We have already made adjustments in our laws
and in our daily lives. We're taking new measures to
investigate terror and to protect against threats.
The leaders of all nations must now carefully consider their
responsibilities and their future. Terrorist groups like al
Qaeda depend upon the aid or indifference of
governments. They need the support of a financial
infrastructure, and safe havens to train and plan and hide.
Some nations want to play their part in the fight against terror,
but tell us they lack the means to enforce their laws and control their
borders. We stand ready to help. Some governments
still turn a blind eye to the terrorists, hoping the threat will pass
them by. They are mistaken. And some governments, while
pledging to uphold the principles of the U.N., have cast their lot with
the terrorists. They support them and harbor them, and they
will find that their welcome guests are parasites that will weaken
them, and eventually consume them.
For every regime that sponsors terror, there is a price to be
paid. And it will be paid. The allies of terror are equally
guilty of murder and equally accountable to justice.
The Taliban are now learning this lesson -- that regime and the
terrorists who support it are now virtually
indistinguishable. Together they promote terror abroad and
impose a reign of terror on the Afghan people. Women are
executed in Kabal's soccer stadium. They can be beaten for
wearing socks that are too thin. Men are jailed for missing
prayer meetings.
The United States, supported by many nations, is bringing justice
to the terrorists in Afghanistan. We're making progress
against military targets, and that is our objective. Unlike
the enemy, we seek to minimize, not maximize, the loss of innocent
life.
I'm proud of the honorable conduct of the American
military. And my country grieves for all the suffering the
Taliban have brought upon Afghanistan, including the terrible burden of
war. The Afghan people do not deserve their present
rulers. Years of Taliban misrule have brought nothing but
misery and starvation. Even before this current crisis, 4
million Afghans depended on food from the United States and other
nations, and millions of Afghans were refugees from Taliban
oppression.
I make this promise to all the victims of that
regime: The Taliban's days of harboring terrorists and
dealing in heroin and brutalizing women are drawing to a
close. And when that regime is gone, the people of
Afghanistan will say with the rest of the world: good
riddance.
I can promise, too, that America will join the world in helping the
people of Afghanistan rebuild their country. Many nations,
including mine, are sending food and medicine to help Afghans through
the winter. America has air-dropped over 1.3 million
packages of rations into Afghanistan. Just this week, we air-lifted
20,000 blankets and over 200 tons of provisions into the
region. We continue to provide humanitarian aid, even while
the Taliban tried to steal the food we send.
More help eventually will be needed. The United States
will work closely with the United Nations and development banks to
reconstruct Afghanistan after hostilities there have ceased and the
Taliban are no longer in control. And the United States will
work with the U.N. to support a post-Taliban government that represents
all of the Afghan people.
In this war of terror, each of us must answer for what we have done
or what we have left undone. After tragedy, there is a time
for sympathy and condolence. And my country has been very
grateful for both. The memorials and vigils around the world
will not be forgotten. But the time for sympathy has now
passed; the time for action has now arrived.
The most basic obligations in this new conflict have already been
defined by the United Nations. On September the 28th, the
Security Council adopted Resolution 1373. Its requirements
are clear: Every United Nations member has a responsibility
to crack down on terrorist financing. We must pass all
necessary laws in our own countries to allow the confiscation of
terrorist assets. We must apply those laws to every
financial institution in every nation.
We have a responsibility to share intelligence and coordinate the
efforts of law enforcement. If you know something, tell
us. If we know something, we'll tell you. And
when we find the terrorists, we must work together to bring them to
justice. We have a responsibility to deny any sanctuary,
safe haven or transit to terrorists. Every known terrorist
camp must be shut down, its operators apprehended, and evidence of
their arrest presented to the United Nations. We have a
responsibility to deny weapons to terrorists and to actively prevent
private citizens from providing them.
These obligations are urgent and they are binding on every nation
with a place in this chamber. Many governments are taking
these obligations seriously, and my country appreciates
it. Yet, even beyond Resolution 1373, more is required, and
more is expected of our coalition against terror.
We're asking for a comprehensive commitment to this
fight. We must unite in opposing all terrorists, not just
some of them. In this world there are good causes and bad
causes, and we may disagree on where the line is drawn. Yet,
there is no such thing as a good terrorist. No national
aspiration, no remembered wrong can ever justify the deliberate murder
of the innocent. Any government that rejects this principle,
trying to pick and choose its terrorist friends, will know the
consequences.
We must speak the truth about terror. Let us never
tolerate outrageous conspiracy theories concerning the attacks of
September the 11th; malicious lies that attempt to shift the blame away
from the terrorists, themselves, away from the guilty. To
inflame ethnic hatred is to advance the cause of terror.
The war against terror must not serve as an excuse to persecute
ethnic and religious minorities in any country. Innocent
people must be allowed to live their own lives, by their own customs,
under their own religion. And every nation must have avenues for the
peaceful expression of opinion and dissent. When these
avenues are closed, the temptation to speak through violence grows.
We must press on with our agenda for peace and prosperity in every
land. My country is pledged to encouraging development and
expanding trade. My country is pledged to investing in
education and combatting AIDS and other infectious diseases around the
world. Following September 11th, these pledges are even more
important. In our struggle against hateful groups that
exploit poverty and despair, we must offer an alternative of
opportunity and hope.
The American government also stands by its commitment to a just
peace in the Middle East. We are working toward a day when
two states, Israel and Palestine, live peacefully together within
secure and recognize borders as called for by the Security Council
resolutions. We will do all in our power to bring both
parties back into negotiations. But peace will only come
when all have sworn off, forever, incitement, violence and terror.
And, finally, this struggle is a defining moment for the United
Nations, itself. And the world needs its principled
leadership. It undermines the credibility of this great
institution, for example, when the Commission on Human Rights offers
seats to the world's most persistent violators of human
rights. The United Nations depends, above all, on its moral
authority -- and that authority must be preserved.
The steps I described will not be easy. For all nations,
they will require effort. For some nations, they will
require great courage. Yet, the cost of inaction is far
greater. The only alternative to victory is a nightmare
world where every city is a potential killing field.
As I've told the American people, freedom and fear are at
war. We face enemies that hate not our policies, but our
existence; the tolerance of openness and creative culture that defines
us. But the outcome of this conflict is
certain: There is a current in history and it runs toward
freedom. Our enemies resent it and dismiss it, but the
dreams of mankind are defined by liberty -- the natural right to create
and build and worship and live in dignity. When men and
women are released from oppression and isolation, they find fulfillment
and hope, and they leave poverty by the millions.
These aspirations are lifting up the peoples of Europe, Asia,
Africa and the Americas, and they can lift up all of the Islamic
world.
We stand for the permanent hopes of humanity, and those hopes will
not be denied. We're confident, too, that history has an
author who fills time and eternity with his purpose. We know
that evil is real, but good will prevail against it. This is
the teaching of many faiths, and in that assurance we gain
strength for a long journey.
It is our task -- the task of this generation -- to provide the
response to aggression and terror. We have no other choice,
because there is no other peace.
We did not ask for this mission, yet there is honor in history's
call. We have a chance to write the story of our times, a story of
courage defeating cruelty and light overcoming
darkness. This calling is worthy of any life, and worthy of
every nation. So let us go forward, confident, determined,
and unafraid.
Thank you very much. (Applause.)
END 10:00 A.M. EST
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