President Bush Meets with President Karzai of Afghanistan
Remarks by President Bush and President Karzai of Afghanistan in Photo Opportunity
The Oval Office
11:51 A.M. EST
PRESIDENT BUSH: A couple of opening statements; we'll answer
questions today.
Mr. President, welcome back to the Oval Office.
The President has just brought me and members of my administration
up to date on the progress being made in Afghanistan. I guess the best
way to summarize the discussion is that I'm welcoming a courageous
leader, who's got a clear vision about the future of a country he
loves, back to the Oval Office.
I was deeply impressed by some of the statistics that he talked
about. Over 2 million refugees have returned back to Afghanistan since
he was last here in the Oval Office. As the President pointed out,
those are people who are expressing their opinion about the future of
Afghanistan by making a decision to return home.
He also told me that there are now 3 million children going to
school in Afghanistan. Right after and during the period of the
Taliban and right after the war, the number of children going to school
was negligible.
This is tremendous progress, and I want the American people to know
that we're proud of the progress which is being made. I want to
continue to thank the American people for their support of the -- of
Afghanistan and our desire for the -- human life to improve there.
And, Mr. President, we appreciate your leadership, your
determination. And we continue to look forward to working with you to
bring not only peace to that part of the world, but a hopeful future
for the citizens. So welcome back to the Oval Office.
PRESIDENT KARZAI: Well, thank you very much, Mr. President. It's
an honor for me to be here with you in the White House. The United
States and yourself have helped tremendously in the past year to
rebuild Afghanistan, to help us in all aspects of life, including the 3
million children that now go to school have been receiving help from
the United States. You have helped us with the roads, with the
building of the National Army of Afghanistan.
I'm here to thank you and the American people. And I'm also here
to ask you to do more for us in making the life of the Afghan people
better, more stable, more peaceful. I'm also here to tell you that the
war against terrorism is going on. We have defeated them, but some
elements are still there. And we should go on strong and tough to get
them all and free the world from that menace.
PRESIDENT BUSH: Thank you, sir.
Ron.
Q Mr. President, following up on your speech last night, if the
United States had expanded its mission beyond the liberation of Kuwait
and removed Saddam Hussein from power in the 1990s, would the Middle
East be more peaceful now?
PRESIDENT BUSH: The mission in early 1990s was to liberate Kuwait,
and the United States achieved that mission. The mission now is to
disarm Saddam Hussein, in the name of peace. And we will disarm Saddam
Hussein.
I noticed today there is some talk about the illegal rockets in
Iraq. He -- this is part of his -- the discussion about these
rockets is part of his campaign of deception. See, he'll say, I'm not
going to destroy the rockets, and then he'll have a change of mind this
weekend and destroy the rockets, and say, I've disarmed. The rockets
are just the tip of the iceberg. The only question at hand is total,
complete disarmament, which he is refusing to do.
Steve.
Q If I could just follow up, though, on your rationale from
yesterday. If we could have peace in the Middle East by removing
Saddam now, couldn't we have had it if we had removed him 10 years
ago? Or is that a --
PRESIDENT BUSH: The mission -- just remember what the mission
was. When you commit troops to war, you must have a clear mission.
Should we be forced to commit our troops because of his failure to
disarm, the mission will be complete disarmament, which will mean
regime change. That was not the mission in 1991.
Q You talked last night about the Middle East road map. What's
holding that up? When can we see that?
PRESIDENT BUSH: We have been working on the Middle East every
day. We will continue to work to bring peace to the Middle East. And
my fervent desire is for the -- is to achieve peace, and to improve
the plight of the Palestinian citizen and, at the same time, improve
the security for not only the Palestinians, but the Israelis. We work
the peace issue constantly.
Q Mr. President, consumer confidence numbers hit their lowest
levels in, I think, nine years yesterday. And many of those surveyed
say that they're more concerned about the economy than they are about
Iraq. Money managers on Wall Street say that even when the uncertainty
over what is happening in Iraq is resolved, there remain many obstacles
of a purely business nature that leave them less than confident looking
forward. Are you frustrated by the sense that perhaps perception could
become reality here, that the lack of confidence seems to be becoming
more entrenched?
PRESIDENT BUSH: I've got confidence in the future of our economy.
There's strong signals that this economy will improve. But I
understand we need to have a stimulus package to make sure that the
forecasts and the predictions become true. A lot of the experts are
projecting growth at 3.3 percent. Inherent in their projections is
that Congress pass a stimulus package, fiscal stimulus package. I
proposed the one that I think will work.
And so that is one of the reasons why you're seeing this
administration on a regular basis pursue a stimulus package that will
have a positive effect for job creation, a stimulus package directed to
small business owners in America, a stimulus package which will
encourage investment, a stimulus package which will ultimately help
seniors because their dividends might be taxed twice. So this is a
stimulus package that is very positive.
But I'm very optimistic about the future of this country
-- the economic future, and I'm optimistic about our chances to
achieve peace.