THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all very much. It is
such an honor to be back in Atlanta, on the campus of one of the great
universities in our country.
I want to thank Wayne, the President of the University, for hosting
us. (Applause.) And, Saxby, thank you for your
leadership and your strong support of our national effort to defend the
homeland.
I want to thank the Governor and the First Lady for being
here. The last time I saw you was at Booker T. Washington
High School. I was honored that you all came and took time
out of your day to help us focus the nation's attention on how best to
secure the homeland.
I want to thank all who work at the Center for Emergency Response
Technology Instruction and Policy. I have just seen a
demonstration that helps prepare the emergency firefighters and --
firefighters and the police how to take care of a disaster or an
attack; how best to protect the citizens. This is an
innovative training center. And I want to thank all those
involved with the center for your hospitality and the -- and for the
chance to see firsthand how Atlanta and the state of Georgia are
preparing for any possible attack.
I particularly want to thank the guy who -- they cut off his
clothes and ran him through
water. (Laughter.) That goes beyond the call of
duty to impress the President. (Laughter.) There
he is. (Laughter and applause.) Better you than
me. (Laughter.)
I'm also here to say thanks to those who wear the
uniform: the policemen, policewomen, the firefighters, the
emergency medical teams, all of whom work hours on hours to serve the
people of Georgia and the United States of
America. (Applause.)
My first responsibility as your President is to protect the
American people and to provide a strategy that not only protects the
American people, but should there ever be another incident, provides
response, quick response for the American people.
I picked a good friend, a former governor colleague of Roy and
mine, to serve as the Director of Homeland Security. His job
is to develop a strategy, a national strategy that uses national, state
and local assets to protect the homeland. And I picked a
very good man to take on this assignment. Tom Ridge is doing
a heck of a good job, and I'm so honored he left his job as
governor. (Applause.)
Part of that homeland security measure is to enhance the capacity
of first responders to deal with any kind of emergency. And
that's what we're watching today, the training of first
responders. Those who have called into action must be able
to save as many lives as possible.
And that's why the budget I submitted for '03 has $3.5 billion
available for state and local governments to enhance the capacity of
our first responders to deal with any crisis that might arise.
As well, I submitted what we call a supplemental budget request.
That's an emergency request. And part of that emergency
request is nearly $5 billion to make sure that we make our airports
more secure and make our borders more secure. What we want
to know in America is who's coming into the United States and why and,
if they're leaving, when they're supposed to leave, in order to make
sure we protect the homeland.
So, in other words, what we've done is we're making the borders
more secure, we're dealing with first-time responders to make sure
they've got what's needed to be able to respond. As well, I
understand how it works in rural parts of our country, like
Georgia. I've got a pretty good handle on what happens in
rural Georgia. I cut my teeth on rural Georgia in 1968 and
'69 as a pilot trainee in Valdosta, Georgia, home of the mighty
Bulldogs, I think they're called.
I also understand the role of the volunteer
firefighter. You've got a lot of fine citizens serving as
volunteer firefighters in your state. We've got a lot in my state; I'm
a proud backer of the Crawford Volunteer Fire Department -- Crawford,
Texas.
And one of the things that I know is that not all rural counties --
in Georgia or in Texas or anywhere else -- can have all the equipment
necessary to be an integral part of the first line of
response. But I do know that neighbors like to work with
neighbors. And I do know that one county might have a good
hospital, another county might have the capacity to
respond. So we've got money in our budget, Governor, for
what I call mutual aid agreements. There's $140 million in
the budget to encourage rural countries to pool their resources, their
talents, their time to be able to respond to any kind of attack.
We've got a big focus on the big cities, like Atlanta and the
surrounding counties. But we've also got to make sure that
our rural areas all across America also have got a capacity to
respond.
You also need to know that we are spending a great deal of time
trying to gather as much intelligence as we possibly can to make sure
that we follow every lead to protect the American people. If
we get a hint that somebody is coming, we're going to
respond. (Applause.) And part of a modern
homeland defense system is one that shares information more timely, not
only amongst federal agencies, but amongst state and local
authorities.
The enemy is a dangerous group of people. There's no way
to rehabilitate these folks. They are
murderers. And they hate what America stands
for. See, they can't stand the thought that we're a society
that welcomes all religions, that we value freedom of religion as a
part of our basic core. They hate the idea of political
discourse and debate, freedom to speak. They don't even like
the free press. They don't like much about what America
stands for. And I want to issue this warning to the American
people, that they're still after us. But we're on alert.
And I want to thank all the local law enforcement officials and
everybody else who has got positions of responsibility for paying
attention, and for reporting anything that seems out of the ordinary so
we can follow it up to make sure it's not a real threat to America.
But the surest way that we protect the homeland is to run them down
one by one and bring them to justice, and that's what we're going to
do. (Applause.)
I want to thank you for giving me the chance to come and share with
you some of my thoughts about this war against terrorists and
terrorism. First, I see a lot of young folks here. I want
to assure you of a couple of things about our
country. First, we don't do this, take this action out of
revenge. We seek justice, not revenge. We seek
justice.
And, secondly, we take this action because we believe so deeply in
freedom. We love our freedom. And this nation
will stand strong and steady when it comes to defending our freedoms.
I also want you to know that I laid out a doctrine and it's really
important for when the United States speaks it means what they
say. And I said that if you harbor a terrorist, you're just
as guilty as the terrorist; if you feed one or hide one, you're just as
guilty as those who came and murdered thousands of innocent
Americans. It's an important part of any foreign policy to
do what you say you're going to do, and we did. Thanks to the mighty
United States military, the Taliban no longer is in
power. (Applause.)
But I want to make two points to the young. One, we're
not alone in this. There's a vast coalition of other
countries that love freedom like we do. And, secondly, your
country went into Afghanistan not as conquerors, but we were
liberators. It is hard to believe what I'm about to tell
you, but there are hundreds of young girls in Afghanistan who weren't
allowed to go to school. And thanks to the United States
government and the coalition we put together, last weekend, children --
boys and girls -- got to go to school in
Afghanistan. (Applause.)
But our defense of freedom is far from over. While we
have held the doctrine in Afghanistan -- the doctrine of thou shall not
harbor a terrorist -- there still are killers running loose; there just
are. And we must deal with that fact. And the
best way to deal with it is to make sure there is no sanctuary, no
haven, no place for them to group up or to train. The best way to deal
with that is to cut off their money; is to insist that you're either
with us or you're against us; insist that there be action when it comes
to nations in the world -- is to hold people accountable in the name of
freedom.
And so the United States government is today determined and
steadfast and patient and resolved to chase down any criminal, any
international terrorist and bring them to justice. And the
good news is the American people understand the cause. They
understand the need. They understand that history has called
us into action, and we must not blink. And we must not grow
weary. Because, I repeat, we fight for
freedom. We fight for values we hold so dear and precious.
Now, I believe that, by being firm and disciplined and determined,
we can achieve peace throughout the world. I believe out of
this incredible evil that was done on September the 11th, we can
realize good. And one of the good is going to be peace.
It is awfully hard to realize there can be peace in a place like
the Middle East. My heart breaks for those innocent lives
that are lost on a daily basis, and today there was another suicide
bomber who murdered innocent Israelis. This callous, this
cold-blooded killing -- it must stop. I condemn it in the
most strongest of terms. I call upon Mr. Arafat and the
Palestinian Authority to do everything in their power to stop the
terrorist killing, because there are people in the Middle East who
would rather kill than have peace.
If the United States is firm and strong in routing out terror, if
the United States stays steady in our quest for peace, I believe we can
achieve peace in places where people think we'll never have
peace. The road is going to be hard, there's no question
about it. It'll test our will, it'll test our
determination. But the enemy that struck us is going to find
out what we're made out of. They've already found out a
small taste about what we're made out of.
You know, when they hit us, they must have thought we were so
self-absorbed and so materialistic, that we would sue
them. (Laughter and applause.) They're
wrong. (Laughter.)
They're also wrong about one other thing. Our nation --
our nation -- is not only a strong and determined nation, we are a
compassionate nation. We're a nation who will show the world our true
face. By not only putting a military in place that's well
paid, well trained, well equipped, but also by loving a neighbor like
we'd like to be loved ourself.
Today, I had two fine Americans -- if you all would stand, please
-- come out to the airport. These good folks take time out
of their lives. These are citizens that have heard a call to love a
neighbor like they'd like to be loved themselves. They spend
extra time helping a neighbor in need. They've asked the
question, what can I do to make my society a better
place? You can sit down if you like. How can I
serve something -- how can I serve something greater than myself?
Thank you all for coming to the airport. Thank you for
your service to your community. Thank you for teaching
children to read. Thank you for mentoring. Thank
you for having served in AmeriCorps.
You see, if you want to help in the war against terror, find
somebody whose heart may be broken and help mend it by loving
them. Walk across the street and say to a shut-in, I care
for you. Mentor a child on how to read. If you're
a mom or a dad, love your children with all your heart and all your
soul.
It's the accumulation of millions of acts of kindness and decency
that define the true nature of our country. And by loving a
neighbor like you'd like to be loved yourself, you help stand square in
the face of evil.
The evil ones hit us. I believe the world can be more
peaceful. I know our nation can be more
compassionate. And, as a result, those who died on September
the 11th and those who died on September the 11th, and those who died
subsequently defending freedom will not have died in vain. Thank you
all for coming. God bless. (Applause.)