THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all very
much. Please be seated. Thank you for that warm
welcome. I'm glad to be back here at the
Citadel. (Applause.)
I have come to talk about the future security of our country, in a
place where I took up this subject two years ago when I was candidate
for President. In September 1999, I said here at the Citadel
that America was entering a period of consequences that would be
defined by the threat of terror, and that we faced a challenge of
military transformation. That threat has now revealed
itself, and that challenge is now the military and moral necessity of
our time. (Applause.)
So, today, I will set forth the commitments essential to victory in
our war against terror.
I want to thank Major General John Grinalds for his
hospitality. I want to thank the Citadel Board of Visitors,
the staff, and the faculty. I understand the Governor is
here. And I know my friends, the Lt. Governor, the Speaker
and the Attorney General are here, and it was great to have seen them
at the airport. I thank my friend, Adjutant General Stan
Spears for being here.
I'm grateful that Senator Hollings and members of the South
Carolina congressional delegation flew down on Air Force
One. I only wish that the senior Senator was on the airplane
so I could have wished him a happy 99th
birthday. (Applause.)
But most of all, most of all, I want to say how much I appreciate
being in the presence of some of America's finest, the South Carolina
Corp of Cadets of Citadel. (Applause.)
Four days ago, I joined the men and women of the USS Enterprise to
mark the 60th anniversary of Pearl Harbor. December 7th,
1941 was a decisive day that changed our nation forever. In
a single moment, America's "splendid isolation" was
ended. And the four years that followed transformed the
American way of war.
The age of battleships gave way to the offensive capability of
aircraft carriers. The tank, once used only to protect
infantry, now served to cut through enemy lines. At
Guadalcanal, and Normandy, and Iwo Jima, amphibious warfare proved its
worth. And by war's end, no one would ever again doubt the
value of strategic air power.
Even more importantly, an American President and his successors
shaped a world beyond a war. They rebuilt Europe with the
Marshall Plan, formed a great alliance for freedom in NATO, and
expressed the hope of collective security in the United
Nations. America took the lead, becoming freedom's defender
and assuming responsibilities that only we could bear.
September 11th, 2001 -- three months and a long time ago -- set
another dividing line in our lives and in the life of our
nation. An illusion of immunity was shattered. A
faraway evil became a present danger. And a great cause
became clear: We will fight terror and those who sponsor it,
to save our children from a future of fear. (Applause.)
To win this war, we have to think differently. The enemy
who appeared on September 11th seeks to evade our strength and
constantly searches for our weaknesses. So America is
required once again to change the way our military thinks and
fights. And starting on October 7th, the enemy in
Afghanistan got the first glimpses of a new American military that
cannot, and will not, be evaded. (Applause.)
When I committed U.S. forces to this battle, I had every confidence
that they would be up to the task. And they have proven me
right. The Taliban and the terrorists set out to dominate a
country and intimidate the world. Today, from their caves,
it's all looking a little
different. (Applause.) And no cave is deep enough
to escape the patient justice of the United States of
America. (Applause.)
We are also beginning to see the possibilities of a world beyond
the war on terror. We have a chance, if we take it, to write
a hopeful chapter in human history. All at once, a new
threat to civilization is erasing old lines of rivalry and resentment
between nations. Russia and America are building a new
cooperative relationship. India and the United States are
increasingly aligned across a range of issues, even as we work closely
with Pakistan. Germany and Japan are assuming new military
roles, appropriate to their status as great democracies.
The vast majority of countries are now on the same side of a moral
and ideological divide. We're making common cause with every
nation that chooses lawful change over chaotic violence -- every nation
that values peace and safety and innocent life.
Staring across this divide are bands of murderers, supported by
outlaw regimes. They are a movement defined by their
hatreds. They hate progress, and freedom, and choice, and
culture, and music, and laughter, and women, and Christians, and Jews,
and all Muslims who reject their distorted doctrines. They
love only one thing -- they love power. And when they have
it, they use it without mercy.
The great threat to civilization is not that the terrorists will
inspire millions. Only the terrorists themselves would want
to live in their brutal and joyless world. The great threat
to civilization is that a few evil men will multiply their murders, and
gain the means to kill on a scale equal to their hatred. We
know they have this mad intent, and we're determined to stop them.
Our lives, our way of life, and our every hope for the world depend
on a single commitment: The authors of mass murder must be
defeated, and never allowed to gain or use the weapons of mass
destruction. (Applause.)
America and our friends will meet this threat with every method at
our disposal. We will discover and destroy sleeper
cells. We will track terrorist movements, trace their
communications, disrupt their funding, and take their network apart,
piece by piece.
Above all, we're acting to end the state sponsorship of
terror. Rogue states are clearly the most likely sources of
chemical and biological and nuclear weapons for
terrorists. Every nation now knows that we cannot accept --
and we will not accept -- states that harbor, finance, train, or equip
the agents of terror. Those nations that violate this
principle will be regarded as hostile regimes. They have
been warned, they are being watched, and they will be held to
account. (Applause.)
Preventing mass terror will be the responsibilities of Presidents
far into the future. And this obligation sets three urgent
and enduring priorities for America. The first priority is
to speed the transformation of our military.
When the Cold War ended, some predicted that the era of direct
threats to our nation was over. Some thought our military
would be used overseas -- not to win wars, but mainly to police and
pacify, to control crowds and contain ethnic conflict. They
were wrong.
While the threats to America have changed, the need for victory has
not. (Applause.) We are fighting shadowy,
entrenched enemies -- enemies using the tools of terror and guerrilla
war -- yet we are finding new tactics and new weapons to attack and
defeat them. This revolution in our military is only
beginning, and it promises to change the face of battle.
Afghanistan has been a proving ground for this new
approach. These past two months have shown that an
innovative doctrine and high-tech weaponry can shape and then dominate
an unconventional conflict. The brave men and women of our
military are rewriting the rules of war with new technologies and old
values like courage and honor. And they have made this
nation proud.
Our commanders are gaining a real-time picture of the entire
battlefield, and are able to get targeting information from sensor to
shooter almost instantly. Our intelligence professionals and
special forces have cooperated in battle-friendly -- with
battle-friendly Afghan forces -- fighters who know the terrain, who
know the Taliban, and who understand the local culture. And
our special forces have the technology to call in precision air strikes
-- along with the flexibility to direct those strikes from horseback,
in the first cavalry charge of the 21st century. (Applause.)
This combination -- real-time intelligence, local allied forces,
special forces, and precision air power -- has really never been used
before. The conflict in Afghanistan has taught us more about
the future of our military than a decade of blue ribbon panels and
think-tank symposiums.
The Predator is a good example. This unmanned aerial
vehicle is able to circle over enemy forces, gather intelligence,
transmit information instantly back to commanders, then fire on targets
with extreme accuracy.
Before the war, the Predator had skeptics, because it did not fit
the old ways. Now it is clear the military does not have
enough unmanned vehicles. We're entering an era in which
unmanned vehicles of all kinds will take on greater importance -- in
space, on land, in the air, and at sea.
Precision-guided munitions also offer great promise. In
the Gulf War, these weapons were the exception -- while in Afghanistan,
they have been the majority of the munitions we have
used. We're striking with greater effectiveness, at greater
range, with fewer civilian casualties. More and more, our
weapons can hit moving targets. When all of our military can
continuously locate and track moving targets -- with surveillance from
air and space -- warfare will be truly revolutionized.
The need for military transformation was clear before the conflict
in Afghanistan, and before September the 11th. Here at the
Citadel in 1999, I spoke of keeping the peace by redefining war on our
terms. The same recommendation was made in the strategic
review that Secretary Rumsfeld briefed me on last August -- a review
that I fully endorse. What's different today is our sense of
urgency -- the need to build this future force while fighting a present
war. It's like overhauling an engine while you're going at
80 miles an hour. Yet we have no other choice.
Our military has a new and essential mission. For states
that support terror, it's not enough that the consequences be costly --
they must be devastating. (Applause.) The more
credible this reality, the more likely that regimes will change their
behavior -- making it less likely that America and our friends will
need to use overwhelming force against them.
To build our future force, the Armed Services must continue to
attract America's best people, with good pay and good living
conditions. Our military culture must reward new thinking,
innovation, and experimentation. Congress must give defense
leaders the freedom to innovate, instead of micromanaging the Defense
Department. And every service and every constituency of our
military must be willing to sacrifice some of their own pet
projects. Our war on terror cannot be used to justify
obsolete bases, obsolete programs, or obsolete weapon
systems. Every dollar of defense spending must meet a single
test: It must help us build the decisive power we will need
to win the wars of the future. (Applause.)
Our country is united in supporting a great cause -- and in
supporting those who fight for it. We will give our men and
women in uniform every resource, every weapon, every tool they need to
win the long battle that lies ahead.
America's next priority to prevent mass terror is to protect
against the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and the means
to deliver them. I wish I could report to the American
people that this threat does not exist -- that our enemy is content
with car bombs and box cutters -- but I cannot.
One former al Qaeda member has testified in court that he was
involved in an effort 10 years ago to obtain nuclear
materials. And the leader of al Qaeda calls that effort "a
religious duty." Abandoned al Qaeda houses in Kabul
contained diagrams for crude weapons of mass
destruction. And as we all know, terrorists have put anthrax
into the U.S. mail, and used sarin gas in a Tokyo subway.
And almost every state that actively sponsors terror is known to be
seeking weapons of mass destruction and the missiles to deliver them at
longer and longer ranges. Their hope is to blackmail the
United States into abandoning our war on terror, and forsaking our
friends and allies and security commitments around the
world. Our enemies are bound for
disappointment. America will never be blackmailed, and we
will never forsake our commitment to liberty. (Applause.)
To meet our new threats, I have directed my National Security
Advisor and my Homeland Security Director to develop a comprehensive
strategy on proliferation. Working with other countries, we
will strengthen nonproliferation treaties and toughen export
controls. Together, we must keep the world's most dangerous
technologies out of the hands of the world's most dangerous people.
A crucial partner in this effort is Russia -- a nation we are
helping to dismantle strategic weapons, reduce nuclear material, and
increase security at nuclear sites. Our two countries will
expand efforts to provide peaceful employment for scientists who
formerly worked in Soviet weapons facilities. The United
States will also work with Russia to build a facility to destroy tons
of nerve agent. I'll request an over-all increase in funding
to support this vital mission.
Even as we fight to prevent proliferation, we must prepare for
every possibility. At home, we must be better prepared to
detect, protect against, and respond to the potential use of weapons of
mass destruction. Abroad, our military forces must have the
ability to fight and win against enemies who would use such weapons
against us.
Biodefense has become a major initiative of ours. This
year we've already requested nearly $3 billion additional dollars for
biodefense, more than doubling the level of funding prior to September
the 11th.
The attacks on our nation made it even more clear that we need to
build limited and effective defenses against a missile
attack. (Applause.) Our enemies seek every chance
and every means to do harm to our country, our forces, and our
friends. And we will not permit it.
Suppose the Taliban and the terrorists had been able to strike
America or important allies with a ballistic missile. Our
coalition would have become fragile, the stakes in our war much, much
higher. We must protect Americans and our friends against
all forms of terror, including the terror that could arrive on a
missile.
Last week we conducted another promising test of our missile
defense technology. For the good of peace, we're moving
forward with an active program to determine what works and what does
not work. In order to do so, we must move beyond the 1972
Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, a treaty that was written in a different
era, for a different enemy. (Applause.)
America and our allies must not be bound to the past. We
must be able to build the defenses we need against the enemies of the
21st century.
Our third and final priority in the fight against mass terror is to
strengthen the advantage that good intelligence gives our
country. Every day I make decisions influenced by the
intelligence briefing of that morning. To reach decisions, a
President needs more than data and information. A President
needs real and current knowledge and analysis of the plans, intentions,
and capabilities of our enemies.
The last several months have shown that there is no substitute for
good intelligence officers, people on the ground. These are
the people who find the targets, follow our enemies, and help us
disrupt their evil plans.
The United States must rebuild our network of human
intelligence. (Applause.) And we will apply the
best new technology to gather intelligence on the new
threats. Sophisticated systems like Global Hawk, an unmanned
surveillance plane, are transforming our intelligence
capabilities. Our technological strengths produce great
advantages, and we will build on them.
Our intelligence services and federal law enforcement agencies must
work more closely together, and share timely information with our state
and local authorities. The more we know, the more terrorist
plans we can prevent and disrupt, and the better we'll be able to
protect the American people.
And in all they do, our intelligence agencies must attract the best
people -- the best collectors, the best analysts, the best
linguists. We will give them the training they need and the
compensation they deserve.
There have been times here in America when our intelligence
services were held in suspicion, and even contempt. Now,
when we face this new war, we know how much we need
them. And for their dedication and for their service,
America is grateful. (Applause.)
We're also grateful to you, the students of the
Citadel. Your uniforms symbolize a tradition of honor and
sacrifice, renewed in your own lives. Many of you will enter
our military -- taking your place in the war against
terror. That struggle may continue for many years, and it
may bring great costs. But you will have chosen a great
calling at a crucial hour for our nation.
The course we follow is a matter of profound consequence to many
nations. If America wavers, the world will lose
heart. If America leads, the world will show its
courage. America will never waver. America will
lead the world to peace. (Applause.)
Our cause is necessary. Our cause is
just. And no matter how long it takes, we will defeat the
enemies of freedom. (Applause.)
In all that is to come, I know the graduates of the Citadel will
bring credit to America, to the military, and to this great
institution. In the words of your school song, you will go
where you've always gone -- "in the paths our fathers showed
us. Peace and Honor, God and Country -- we will fight for
thee."