For Immediate Release
Office of the Vice President
December 2, 2002
Remarks by the Vice President at the Air National Guard Senior Leadership Conference
Adams Mark Hotel
Denver, Colorado
10:29 A.M. CST
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Thank you. (Applause.) Thank you very
much, General. I appreciate that warm welcome. I've been looking
forward to having the opportunity to visit Denver today and to
address the senior leaders of America's Air National Guard. I
am honored to bring you greetings from the former Commander-in-Chief
of the Texas National Guard, and the first Air National Guard veteran
ever to live in the White House -- President George W. Bush.
(Applause.)
I talked to the President just this morning, and he asked me
to please give you his personal thanks for the fantastic job you've
done for all us over the course of the last year and a half. In a
speech last year to a group of National Guard personnel in
Charleston, the President said that you not only have a former
Guardsman in the White House, you also have a friend in the White
House. And let me say to all of you that you also have a friend in the
Vice President's office, as well. (Applause.)
In every generation, America has been served by people of honor,
who place duty and country above themselves. And I know that I'm
addressing many of those right now this morning.
The National Guard plays a unique role in our nation's defense.
You serve America within our borders, and beyond our borders. You
assist your neighbors in flood and storm and fire, and you answer
your country's call to provide for the common defense. You are truly
dual-missioned. But you have a single, overriding purpose -- you
live your lives for the sake of your nation and your fellow Americans.
The Air National Guard's role in the aftermath of September 11th
has been truly remarkable. You have assumed an astonishing
portion of the military missions in Operation Noble Eagle and
Operation Enduring Freedom. Today, there are nearly 11,000 mobilized
and volunteer members of the Air National Guard serving at home or
overseas. Air National Guard pilots fly three quarters of the
combat air patrols defending the United States mainland, you
provide 40 percent of our airlift capacity in Afghanistan, and 42
percent of the fighters in our air expeditionary force. Between
September 11th of 2001 and September 11th of this year, Air National
Guard pilots flew 46,000 sorties. As members of the National Guard,
you may not be full-time soldiers, but you are all full-time patriots.
(Applause.)
In my trip to the Middle East last March, I met Air National
Guard officers throughout the region who represent the very best of
America. At Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, for example, I was
escorted by Lieutenant Colonel Dean Pennington, a squadron
commander in the South Carolina Air National Guard. Like everyone
else in the Guard, Colonel Pennington led two lives -- at home he
was a commercial airline pilot; in the Gulf, he flew an F-16 and
helped to keep some of the America's most important commitments
in one of the world's most dangerous and challenging
neighborhoods.
And I have very special reason to recognize the skill
and professionalism of the men and women of America's Air National
Guard. On the morning of September 11th we were not sure how many
planes had been hijacked, or how many sites had been targeted. The
President, therefore, decided to order that the Air National Guard
fly combat air patrols over Washington, D.C., and New York.
Today, I want to express our nation's gratitude to the Air Guard's
119th Fighter Wing, whose F-16s defended the skies over Washington
that morning and to the Air National Guard 102nd Fighter Wing, whose
F-15's rose to the defense of New York City. In a time of great peril
and uncertainty you were America's first line of defense and we will
never forget it. (Applause.)
Since the hour of the attacks on September 11th, our country has
been fighting an unprecedented kind of war. As the President said
in Prague recently, "a great evil is stirring in the world -- perils we
have not seen or faced before."
In the face of these new threats, Americans will do what we've
always done, we'll stand firm against the enemies of freedom. We
will organize ourselves to meet history's latest challenge. We
will out-think the terrorists, out-plan the terrorists, outfight the
terrorists. No matter how long it takes, once again, we will prevail.
(Applause.)
President Bush understands, as future Presidents must
also understand, that this new century requires us to guarantee our
security in new ways. During the Cold War the only grave threat to
America came from a rival superpower. We handled the threat with
summit meetings, arms control treaties, and a policy of deterrence.
In the terrorists, however, we have enemies who have nothing to
defend. A group like the al Qaeda cannot be deterred or placated
or reasoned with at a conference table. For this reason the war
against terror will not end in a treaty. There will be no summit
meeting or negotiations with terrorists. The conflict can only end
with their complete and utter destruction and a victory for the
United States and the cause of freedom. (Applause.)
In the last 14 months every level of our government has
taken important steps to be better prepared for the fight against
terrorism. For the first time ever, Customs agents are at
overseas ports identifying suspicious containers before they can get
anywhere near the United States. We've also put more marshals on
our airplanes and stepped up security at power plants, and ports,
and border crossings. We've deployed detection equipment to look
for weapons of mass destruction. We're stockpiling enough
smallpox vaccine for every American. The U.S.A. Patriot Act has
helped us detect and disrupt terrorist activity in our country. And
last week the President signed a historic bill to create a new
Department of Homeland Security that will protect the American
people against emerging threats in the 21st century. This
Cabinet-level department will focus the full resources of the
American government on the safety of the American people.
But the President knows that wars are never won on the defensive.
In the fight against global terror, we must take the battle to the
enemy. And where necessary, preempt serious threats before they
materialize against our country. The only path to safety is the
path of action. And the United States of America will act. We
will confront every threat from every source that could possibly bring
harm to our country.
The world recognizes that we do not fight a religion. Ours is not
a campaign against the Muslim faith. As the President has said,
this is a fight to save the civilized world. This is a struggle
against evil, against an enemy that rejoices in the murder of
innocent, unsuspecting human beings. That is why people in every
part of the world and of all faiths must stand together against this
foe.
Today, America leads a coalition of more than 90 nations
sharing intelligence, hunting down terrorists, and freezing the
assets of terror groups and front organizations. Against such
enemies, America and the civilized world have only one option:
wherever terrorists operate, we must find them; wherever they dwell,
we must hunt them down. We will stop them in their plotting and
training, and we will bring them to justice. And let there be no
doubt, through the relentless and inexorable application of pressure,
using every element of national power, we are striking hard at
terrorist networks.
In the current phase of the war on terrorism, we are focused
on disrupting terrorist operations, dismantling terrorist groups and
cells, denying sanctuaries, and deterring future action. Our
people in law enforcement and intelligence have been putting in long
hours in the most urgent and sometimes dangerous circumstances to
thwart plots both here at home and abroad. Many of their successes
must go unheralded. But some of their achievements are part of the
public record.
For example, since the September 11th attacks, we've captured
or killed many key leaders within the al Qaeda organization. These
include Abu Zubaydah, bin Laden's chief of operations, who was seized
last March in Pakistan and has been providing valuable information to
U.S. interrogators; Ramzi bin al-Shibh, believed to be a top
planner of the September 11th attacks, who was apprehended in
Pakistan, and is also providing us with valuable leads; and Salem
Suniam al-Harethi, a top bin Laden operative in Yemen, reportedly
killed recently along with five terrorist colleagues.
Most recently, the United States captured al Qaeda's operations
chief in the Gulf, Abdal Rashim al Nashiri, a Saudi national, who is
believed to have been a key planner in the October 2000 attack on the
U.S.S. Cole that killed 17 of our sailors -- the man who has
also trained al Qaeda terrorists who took part in the bombings of our
embassies in east Africa in 1998.
We and our partners have also dismantled terrorist cells in
Italy, Spain, Germany; frozen over $110 million in terrorist assets
in some 500 accounts -- $34 million in the U.S., $78 million
overseas; and arrested about 2,400 suspected terrorists in 99
countries.
Today, more than 60,000 American troops are deployed around the
world in the war on terrorism -- 7,000 American troops in
Afghanistan alone. Others are working with Yemenis, Georgians, and
Filipinos to increase their capacity to fight terrorism. We
are also expanding our maritime interdiction operations to prevent
the illegal movement of personnel, arms, and equipment into our
country. And we are rapidly identifying scientist and technical
experts in foreign countries who have ties with al Qaeda and other
terrorist organizations -- thereby reducing the possibility of the
proliferation of illicit technology and weapons of mass destruction.
Here at home, the FBI has arrested and charged individuals
with conspiracy to provide material support for terrorist groups; has
disrupted a cell in Buffalo, New York, and arrested six individuals
on charges of supporting foreign terrorist organizations; has
arrested four individuals in Portland in connection with an
ongoing terrorism investigation; and identified over 200 known or
suspected terrorists who've entered the United States undetected.
Of course, America's most dramatic victory in the war
against terrorism took place in Afghanistan, where the Taliban
regime and the al Qaeda terrorists have met the fate that they chose
for themselves. I saw up close and personal the new methods and
capabilities of America's armed services last spring. And may I
say, as a former Secretary of Defense, that I've never been more proud
of the American military. (Applause.)
I met men like Major John D. Caine, an Air National Guard pilot,
who was the first to use the Predator UAV to help guide his
munitions in combat. The combination of advantages already seen in
this conflict -- precision power from the air; real-time
intelligence; special forces; and the long reach of naval task
forces; close coordination with local forces represents a dramatic
advance in our ability to engage and defeat any enemy. These
advantages will only become more vital in future campaigns. President
Bush has often spoken of how America can keep the peace by
redefining war on our terms. That means that our military -- active
duty, National Guard, and Reserves -- must have every tool to answer
any threat that may emerge against us. It means that any enemy
conspiring to harm America or our friends must face a swift,
certain, and devastating response.
But for all the progress we've made in the war on terror, one
thing is abundantly clear: our nation is still in danger. The threats
to America are grave. As the President has said, "our war on terror
is well begun, but it is only begun. This campaign may not be
finished on our watch, yet it must be and it will be waged on our
watch."
The President and I begin each day, as we did today, with a
briefing on the threat situation around the world. We know that the
terrorists who struck America are still at work, still attempting to
strike us wherever they can. Where al Qaeda and its allies are
concerned, we are dealing with a network that operates in some 50
or more countries; that has murdered Americans in Bali, Kuwait, and
in Jordan; that is determined to acquire weapons of mass destruction
-- chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. And they would use those
weapons against us if they could.
There is also a grave danger that al Qaeda or other terrorists
will join with outlaw regimes that have these weapons to attack
their common enemy, the United States of America. That is why
confronting the threat posed by Iraq is not a distraction from
the war on terror. It is absolutely crucial to winning the war
on terror. Saddam Hussein is harboring terrorists and the
instruments of terror. He is pressing forward with weapons of mass
destruction -- weapons he's already used in his war against Iran and
against his own people. His regime has had high-level contacts with
al Qaeda going back a decade and has provided training to al Qaeda
terrorists. And as the President has said, "Iraq could decide on any
given day to provide biological or chemical weapons to a terrorist
group or to individual terrorists" -- which is why the war on terror
will not be won till Iraq is completely and verifiably deprived
of weapons of mass destruction. (Applause.)
The government of the United States understands that just as
World War II was waged in both Europe and the Pacific, the war on
terror must be waged on many fronts at once. As we destroy the
terrorist networks and hunt down the killers, we must simultaneously
confront the regime that is developing weapons for the sole purpose
of inflicting death on a massive scale.
Thanks to the strong leadership of the President, the United
States Congress and U.N. Security Council have both determined that
the outlaw regime in Iraq will not be allowed to possess chemical,
biological, or nuclear weapons. The President will see to it that
these judgments are enforced. We will not permit Saddam Hussein to
blackmail and terrorize freedom-loving nations.
Last month, Saddam's regime said it would deal with U.N.
inspections. Saddam has made such pledges before and he has
violated them all -- time and time again. We have now called an
end to Saddam's game. Under the terms of the U.N. Security Council
Resolution 1441, Saddam must disclose the extent of his chemical,
nuclear, and biological weapons by December 8th. And this time
deception will not be tolerated. This time, as the President has
said, delay and defiance will invite the severest
consequences. The demands of the world will be met, or action
will be unavoidable. Either Saddam Hussein will fully comply
with the United Nations resolution, or the United States and a
coalition of other nations will disarm Saddam Hussein. (Applause.)
As the United States acts to hunt down terrorists and
confront Saddam's murderous regime, we also affirm our solidarity
with the peoples of the Middle East. There are long-term obstacles to
peace and development in the Middle East. And as the nations of that
region address them, they can count on American support. As the
President said last summer, "prosperity and freedom and dignity are
not just Americans hopes or Western hopes, they are universal human
hopes. Even in the violence and turmoil of the Middle East, America
believes those hopes have the power to transform lives and nations."
To successfully meet whatever challenges await you, the men and
women of our armed forces deserve the best tools, the best training,
and the best support we can possibly give you. That is why
President Bush has signed into law the most significant increase in
defense spending since Ronald Reagan lived in the White House. And
today, the President will sign into law a pay raise for every member
of the military. We believe you deserve it. (Applause.)
As a former Secretary of Defense, I know the conduct of our
military does more than bring credit to the country, it
reflects the basic fundamental character of the American people.
This is a good, a decent, and a generous land. We fight not for
revenge against our enemies, but for the freedom and security of own
people and for the peace of the world.
This past year has brought many critical missions to the men
and women of the Air National Guard. Throughout this holiday
season, these missions continue. The responsibilities of a
citizen-soldier involve real sacrifice, long periods away from your
families, your jobs, sometimes from your country. The sacrifices
are shared by spouses, by children, and employers, as well. But
whether it's in the skies over Washington, or Afghanistan, New
York, or the Persian Gulf, Americans count on the Air National Guard
to help protect our homeland and to help keep the peace. On our
nation's behalf, for myself and President Bush, I thank the
citizen-airmen of the Air National Guard for your unending service to
your fellow citizens, for your magnificent contributions to the war
on terror, for the great honor you bring to your uniform, to our
flag, and to our country. You joined the Air National Guard because
you believe in America and America believes in you.
In this time of testing for our nation, I have the honor to
stand beside a great President who has united Americans behind great
goals and has brought honor and dignity to the White House. For all
the challenges we face, the United States of America has never been
stronger than we are today. We are using our great strength not to
dominate others, but to lift the dark threat of terrorism from
our country and from our world. We confront a determined enemy.
But we will go forward -- clear in our purposes, confident in
the rightness of our cause, and certain of the victories to come.
Thank you very much. (Applause.)
END 10:50 A.M. CST
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