THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all very
much. Saxby, thanks so very much for your kind words in your
introduction. This country is fortunate to have such a good
man be the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland
Defense. It's important that we have good leadership in
roles that relate to making sure our land is secure. And the
state of Georgia sent a good one up there in Saxby
Chambliss. (Applause.)
I'm honored to be in the company of other members of the Georgia
delegation. As you know, I'm a proud member of the
Republican Party. I'm traveling today with proud members of
the Democrat Party. But we're all proud Americans, first and
foremost. (Applause.)
I'd like you all to welcome Cynthia McKinney and Congressman John
Lewis from Atlanta, Georgia. Thank you all. I
appreciate your being here. (Applause.) I got a
little Georgia briefing on the way in from the airport from a man who
understands this state pretty darn well -- a Marine -- I was about to
make a huge mistake and say former
Marine. (Laughter.) And your former governor,
Senator Zell Miller. (Applause.)
I want to thank other locally elected officials for being here, and
I particularly want to thank a member of my Cabinet. This
man is a man who understands public education. He
understands it well. You see, I picked him out of the
trenches. I didn't find somebody, somebody who can talk
theory to be the Department of Education -- head of the Department of
Education. I found somebody who has
practiced. And when I asked him to join my team, he was the
Superintendent of the Houston Independent School District, a school
district that was committed to make sure there was excellence for every
child, and no child -- I mean no child -- would be left
behind. Please welcome the Secretary of Education, Rod
Paige. (Applause.)
We are on our way, after this chance for me to tell you about how I
think things are going, to Booker T. Washington High School to talk
about the need for folks to teach. I'm going to spend a
little time at the end of this talk, talking about that. But
Rod is here to highlight our passion and focus on education.
I also am here to tell you that even though we're at war, and even
though we're in recession, this nation has never been
stronger. (Applause.)
You know, I like to tell people that the enemy must have been
watching too much daytime TV. (Laughter.) They
thought we were soft. They thought we would
weaken. They thought we were so materialistic that we'd be
unable to put something greater than ourselves as a
priority. But my, oh, my, did they make a huge
mistake. (Applause.)
This nation is united. It is patient. It is
determined to do the right thing. And that right thing is to
rout out terror wherever it hides and wherever it exists, so the world
can be free for our children and our
grandchildren. (Applause.)
I knew that when I called our military into action, our military
would perform brilliantly. They have not let us
down. And for those of you who have got a relative in the
military, thank you from the bottom of our heart. And please
thank them on behalf of the Commander-in-Chief. (Applause.)
We sent them on a mission, and the mission was to hold those
accountable who attacked us. But it wasn't just those who
attacked; there's a new doctrine. It says that if you harbor
a terrorist, if you feed a terrorist, if you hide a terrorist, you're
just as guilty as the terrorist. And the Taliban found out
that we say what we do in America. We held them
accountable. (Applause.)
And by holding that barbaric government accountable, this great
nation liberated a people. We liberated women and children
from the clutches of a government that did not believe in respect for
women and rights for children. (Applause.)
I can't tell you how proud I am of our commitment to
values. And as I said in my speech, that commitment to
values is going to be an integral part of our foreign policy as we move
forward. These aren't American values, these are universal
values. Values that speak universal truths.
But we've only accomplished part of our mission in the first
theater on the war against terror. We're still going to get
al Qaeda. Now, these are -- remember, this is a difficult
stage of the war, because these are the fellows that like to commit
somebody else's sons to suicide missions, while they, themselves,
burrow into caves. But there is no cave deep enough for the
reach of the American military and American
justice. (Applause.)
The can run and they can hide, but they can't run and hide
forever. This patient nation will stay the course until we
bring the killers to justice. We seek not revenge; we seek
justice. But we seek something else. We
understand this is a struggle for freedom, itself. We
understand that we face an enemy that knows no value, does not share
the same values we do. For the sake of the civilized world,
for the sake of civility for the world, for the sake of a peaceful
world, we must not only find them in Afghanistan, we must find them
wherever they hide, in any country that harbors terrorism around the
world. (Applause.)
And we will. And we will. In my speech to
Congress, I said that not only would we find, rout out terror and
terrorist training camps -- and by the way, the evidence we found
indicates that there's been thousands of people trained in these
camps. So they're moving around. We can't rest,
we can't weary. We've also sent another message, that if
you're one of these nations that develops weapons of mass destruction,
and you're likely to team up with a terrorist group, or you're now
sponsoring terror, or you don't hold the values we hold dear true to
your heart, then you, too, are on our watch list.
People say, what does that mean? It means they better
get their house in order, is what it means. It means they
better respect the rule of law. It means they better not try
to terrorize America and our friends and allies, or the justice of this
nation will be served on them, as well. (Applause.)
My hope, of course, is that nations make the right
choice. And I believe some nations are doing just that; by
being steadfast with our coalition and our friends and allies, that
nations choose a peaceful course, that they reject
terror. And, as I say, many nations are realizing when we
say you're either with us or against us, we mean it. There's
no middle ground when it comes to freedom and terror.
And so, my hope is, is that those nations we put on notice and
other nations around the world will make the right
choice. But they should not make any mistake about
it. We will defend our national security. The
security of the United States of America is my most important
job. And I take it seriously, and I will follow
through. (Applause.)
And that's why the budget I sent to Congress says
this: To those who wear our uniform, you deserve the best
training, the best equipment, and you deserve a pay
raise. The number one priority of my budget is the defense
of the United States of America. (Applause.)
And the good news is, is that our Congress is
unified. There is no difference between the Republicans and
Democrats when it comes to freedom and security. And for
that, I'm grateful. And I'm confident that my budget, the
military aspect of my budget will not only get a fair hearing, but will
be passed by members of both political parties.
Secondly, we've got to protect our homeland. I wake up
every morning, get into the Oval Office -- by the way, it is still an
awesome experience to walk in the Oval Office -- (laughter) -- every
morning. (Applause.) What an honor it is to walk
in there. And even Spot, the dog, is
impressed. (Laughter.) Barney's not invited
in. The carpet's too
new. (Laughter.) Don't tell Barney. I
hope he's not watching C-SPAN. (Laughter.)
But I sit at that grand desk in the Oval Office and read a threat
assessment, read about the intentions of the enemy. And it
reminds me that this nation's got to be alert. Now, what
does that mean? Well, it means if you see something unusual,
tell the local police. They're on alert. It means
that we've got to make sure federal law enforcement officials know that
their most important priority is to prevent another attack.
I'm proud to report that Director Mueller and the FBI have changed
the culture. We're still going to be after spies and
white-collar crime, but their most important function is to make sure
that we get as much intelligence as possible and act on it to prevent
the enemy from hitting us again.
And so, my fellow citizens, I know the farther we get away from
9/11, we hope that the world becomes more secure. But you
just need to know that I take nothing for granted. Time and
distance from when the evil ones hit does not diminish my intensity for
doing everything we can to protect our people. And that's
why I asked Tom Ridge to put together a homeland defense
strategy. That's why I'm asking Congress to pass a
significant budget increase, to focus on bioterrorism; to provide money
and support for local law enforcement and fire folks; to make sure
there's emergency plans in place; to make sure that our INS knows
exactly who is coming into our country and who is leaving our country;
to make sure that homeland -- (applause) -- to make sure our homeland
is as secure as possible.
But I want to remind you all, and remind those who wonder about our
activities overseas, the best way to secure the homeland of our country
is to find the terrorists where they hide, and get
'em. (Applause.)
No, the enemy made a mistake, and they don't understand our
country. And they could not have predicted what would have
happened in America. While we hate what happened on
September the 11th, I welcome -- I welcome -- the changes that are
taking place in our country. I stand in awe of the American
people, I do. I'm the President of a land of people who are
so compassionate and so decent and so kind, that evil people can't
possibly, possibly put that into their calculation. This is
a land where neighbors are helping neighbors. (Applause.)
I view this as a unique moment not only to fight for freedom, a
unique moment to fight for peace, but a unique moment to help change
our culture from one that says, "if it feels good, do it," to a new
culture which says, each of us are responsible for the decisions we
make in life. (Applause.)
Part of a responsibility culture starts at home. And it
says, if you are a mom or a dad, the most important job you will ever
have is to love your children. That's the most important
job. (Applause.) But a responsibility culture
also says that we're responsible for the citizens -- our
neighbors. We're responsible for loving a neighbor like we'd
like to be loved ourselves.
And, by the way, there's corporate responsibility, part of the
responsibility here, which says that let's make sure when you account
for losses and profits, that you put it all on your books so everybody
understands. (Applause.)
I have asked America to fight evil with acts of
kindness. You see, I believe that the best way -- people
say, well, what can I do to help? Well, there's ways you can
help by being alert. But I'm asking people to fight evil
with good. As you can probably tell from my speeches, I
don't see any shades of gray in the war against terror. It's
either evil -- (applause.) I also believe that we as a
nation can overwhelm the evil ones by rising up, and support a new
culture of responsibility by volunteering.
And so I've asked the nation, each of us, to volunteer 4,000 hours,
minimum, over the rest of our lifetime, or two years in service to your
country. And I know many in Atlanta do that, and I thank you
for that. You come out of your churches or synagogues, or
mosques, and you've got a program based upon faith, and you're working
hard to change people's lives. You're already doing
it. Just keep doing it. It's good for America,
and it's good in the fight against evil. (Applause.)
But some don't know where to help. And so we've started
what's called the USA Freedom Corps. And it's a chance for
people to participate in homeland security, or participate in spreading
American values and kindness and generosity around the world through
the Peace Corps, or to participate at home in inner-city
neighborhoods.
Join Teach For America, for example, which is a fantastic program
that I'm going to go herald at Booker T. Washington High
School. There's a way to join Senior Corps. And
there's all kinds of ways to help our country. And if you're
interested, call 877 -- (laughter) -- USA-CORPS, or
usafreedomcorps.gov.
My fellow Americans, if you want to join the fight against
terrorists, join up. Volunteer to make your community a
better place. Spread love and compassion throughout our
country. The way I like you to define it is, we will
overcome evil through the gathering momentum of millions of acts of
kindness and decency.
And, after all, it's going to happen, because you know
why? This is such a decent and compassionate
country. We're a country based on fabulous
values. We're a country open to everybody. We're
a country based upon the principle that says, freedom is important,
freedom is essential, freedom is non-negotiable. (Applause.)
No question in my mind these are tough times for
America. But there's no question in my mind we'll
prevail. Right is on our side. And we'll prevail,
because we're a fabulous nation, and we're a fabulous nation because
we're a nation full of fabulous people.
It's my honor to be your President. God
bless. (Applause.)