For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
October 20, 2001
President Pleased with Global Effort to Fight Terrorism
Remarks by President Bush and Prime Minister Koizumi of Japan
The Portman Ritz-Carlton
Shanghai, People's Republic of China
11:45 A.M. (Local)
PRESIDENT BUSH: It's an honor
to be with our -- with my friend. And we have no stronger
friend in the fight against terror than the Prime Minister of
Japan. I have been impressed by his resolve and his
determination.
I'm also very impressed by his resolve and
determination to make economic reforms within Japan. He's
got a very good strategy, an economic strategy, and I support
it. And I support the fact that he is a strong leader.
I regret that I didn't have an opportunity
to take advantage of the kind invitation to go to Tokyo, but, Mr. Prime
Minister, I assure you that when things settle down, if I'm still
invited, I would like to come back.
PRIME MINISTER KOIZUMI: Of
course.
PRESIDENT BUSH: Thank you,
sir.
PRIME MINISTER KOIZUMI: I
appreciate your strong leadership to fight terrorism. Your
determination and the patience, I appreciate.
PRESIDENT BUSH: Thank you,
sir. Thank you.
I'll be glad to take -- yes, Ron.
Q A question, sir?
PRESIDENT BUSH: Sure.
Q Your reaction,
please, to the crash of the helicopter that cost the lives of two
servicemen. And can you tell us what mission it was that
they were supporting?
PRESIDENT BUSH: My heart goes
out to the family and friends of those who lost their
life. It is hard to express my gratitude in proper words for
people that are willing to sacrifice for freedom. The nation
feels the same gratitude. And I want to assure the loved
ones that the soldiers died in a cause that is just and right, and that
we will prevail.
In the addresses I've given to our nation,
I have said that sometimes the American people and our allies will see
actions we take, and sometimes people won't see the actions we
take. But they can rest assured that we will use the
resources of our country, all the resources of our country, to ferret
out and find and bring to justice those who would harm our country and
harm other countries, as well. And that's exactly what we're
doing.
Q Sir, are you
satisfied with the progress in the first day of the ground war by the
Special Forces?
PRESIDENT BUSH: I am satisfied
we're making very good progress. We are dismantling Taliban
defenses, Taliban military. We are destroying terrorist
hideaways. We are, slowly, but surely, encircling the
terrorists so that we can bring them to justice.
Steve.
Q Do you feel like
you've prepared the American people adequately for the possibility of
casualties, sir?
PRESIDENT BUSH: Steve, I think
the American people understand that ours will be a long struggle
against terror. And they understand there will be
sacrifice. After all, there was no greater example of that
sacrifice than on Flight 93, when American citizens, after having said
the Lord's Prayer, said, "let's roll." And they stormed that
airplane so as to save lives on the ground.
I think the American people now fully
understand that we are in an important struggle, a struggle that will
take time, and that the country -- there will be moments of
sacrifice. We've seen two such examples today.
The thing that's important for me to tell
the American people, that these soldiers will not have died in
vain. This is a just cause. It's an important
cause. The Prime Minister of Japan understands how important
this cause is. He's a strong friend and ally in our fight
against terror. We must succeed -- and we will succeed.
Q Mr. President,
both you and Dr. Rice have talked about how much cooperation you're
getting from other countries. Is it the case that all
countries around the world are cooperating in this effort, or are there
still countries that we would like to see more determination from to
join this fight against terror?
PRESIDENT BUSH: Well, I fully
understand that some countries will participate with military forces,
and others won't feel comfortable doing that. Some countries
will be very good about sharing intelligence; other countries may not
be so good. Some countries will be much more efficient about
cutting off money; other countries may be a little lax about cutting
off money. But the point is, is that the coalition is broad
and deep and strong and committed.
And we are very pleased with not only the
commitment, but the collective contribution. And we're
making great progress. We're -- not only are we doing well
militarily, but we're sharing intelligence all across the globe, in
ways that people could never envision up to now.
So I'm very pleased. And I want
to commend the Secretary of State for not only working hard to put the
coalition together, but working hard to reenforce the
coalition. And one of the reasons I came to this important
meeting was to be able to look at my friend and thank him for his
commitment, his support, and thank other world leaders for their
support.
Q Should the
American people expect more from --
Q Sir, can you tell
us how the meeting went with the Prime Minister of Malaysia, who has
expressed concern about the military action?
PRESIDENT BUSH: Well, we had a
very good visit today. He is concerned about the death of
innocent people in Afghanistan, and I assured him I am,
too. Our beef is not with the Afghan people. Our
beef is with a government that houses and feeds and tries to hide
terrorists. And I assured him that our campaign was -- that
we were trying to be as careful as we possibly could to achieve our
military objective.
Secondly, I want the American people to
understand that we're a compassionate government. We're
spending a great deal of money to help the people of
Afghanistan. And I'm concerned about the fact that food
isn't getting to some Afghan citizens, and the reason why is because
the Taliban is preventing food distribution. They're
disrupting food, they're stealing food. These are people
that are willing to starve their people, which is yet another reason
why the Taliban must go.
Q Should the
American people expect more --
Q -- to his
question, were you commenting on the success of today's mission, or to
the success of the mission in general?
PRESIDENT BUSH: The success of
the mission in general. We're making great
progress. We're making great progress. As you
know, I'm not going to comment on a specific operation. I
will tell you, though, that we're using all the resources of the
country. And, in general, we're making very good
progress. We're pleased with the progress being made.
Q Should the
American people expect more raids like today, sir?
Q -- what about
Putin tomorrow --
PRESIDENT BUSH: Oh, I think
it's a very important meeting with President Putin
tomorrow. I'm sorry, Mr. Prime Minister. But I
look forward to the continued progress toward our Crawford meeting.
Somebody said, well, there's great
anticipation that there will be so-called
breakthroughs. Well, the breakthrough occurred in our first
meeting, where we made a determined effort to work together to find
common ground when it comes to new strategic
arrangements. But I wouldn't expect any startling news,
except for the fact that were continuing our dialogue.
The Prime Minister has got a few
comments.
Q (Question asked
in Japanese.)
PRIME MINISTER KOIZUMI: My
treasure, precious, for Ripken, world-famous baseball
player. I love baseball very much. I love
baseball very much -- American sports.
PRESIDENT BUSH: He's got a very
nice arm, too. (Laughter.) I saw his fast ball at
Camp David. (Laughter.)
PRIME MINISTER KOIZUMI: Yes --
quite a spirit, very strong. Reliable.
PRESIDENT BUSH: Plus, we've
been very impressed by Ichiro. (Laughter.)
PRIME MINISTER KOIZUMI: My name
is June Ichiro. (Laughter.) June is pure -- June
means pure, purity. Ichiro.
PRESIDENT BUSH: Got
you. (Laughter.)
END 11:55
A.M. (Local)
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