Remarks by President Bush and Prime Minister Berlusconi
Villa Madama
Rome, Italy
11:15 A.M. (Local)
PRIME MINISTER BERLUSCONI: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Villa
Madama today, which has been around for more than 500 years. I'd like
to very cordially and warmly welcome the President of the United
States. I welcome him on my own behalf, and on behalf of the
government and on behalf of the Italian people that have really
welcomed the U.S. President very warmly, because we remember what the
people of the U.S. have done for us and for our freedom.
Later on during this press conference, I'm certain that I'll have
the time to go into these issues that link us and connect us to the
United States because of our past. But I would like, also, to mention
to you why we feel very close to the United States today, and we will
so in the future. And I'd like for the President to now take the
floor.
PRESIDENT BUSH: Mr. Prime Minister, thank you very much. Laura
and I are so pleased to be in Rome, to commemorate the 60th anniversary
of the Allied liberation of the Eternal City. I'm proud to stand with
you, Mr. Prime Minister, my friend. I always look forward to our
conversations. I listen to your advice; I trust your judgment. I take
you for your word.
We are bound together by ties of family history and shared values.
The friendship between our two nations has withstood many trials,
including those perilous times in 1944 that we recall and we honor
today. Over two centuries, our governments have been allies and
adversaries. And today, the affection between our peoples have never
been stronger.
For the last 60 years, our alliance has helped secure the peace of
the world. Italy stood on the front lines of freedom throughout the
Cold War. Italy's membership in NATO has given strength and purpose to
that vital alliance. And today in the Balkans and in Afghanistan and
in Iraq, Americans and Italians are once again defending freedom
against the forces of oppression and terror.
All Americans join me in honoring the more than 20 Italians who
have fallen in the cause of liberty in Iraq. Their sacrifice was
worthy of the ideals of this great nation. Their service will help
make Italy, America and the world more secure, as a free and democratic
Iraq arises in the heart of the Middle East.
Our coalition is moving forward with a plan to help Iraq achieve
democracy and freedom. Later this month we'll hand over authority to a
sovereign Iraqi government. The members of that government were
announced earlier this week in Baghdad, and they are a team of Iraqi
patriots that reflects the religious, ethnic and religious diversity of
the Iraqi nation.
Italian and American military forces will remain in Iraq to help
Iraqis establish the security so that the Iraqi people can live their
lives free of fear, and so that democracy can take root. Our countries
will continue to rebuild Iraq's infrastructure and help Iraq's economy
grow and prosper. And we will help Iraq move toward a national
election that will bring forward new leaders empowered by the Iraqi
people.
These efforts deserve the full support of the international
community. More importantly, a free Iraq deserves our best efforts,
our hard work. Members of the U.N. Security Council and Iraq's new
leaders are working toward a new resolution that will express
international support for Iraq's interim government. The Security
Council resolution will reaffirm the world's security commitment to the
Iraqi nation and encourage other U.N. members to join in helping the
Iraqi people as they establish a representative government.
I want to thank you for your help in this resolution, Mr. Prime
Minister. I also look forward to joining the Prime Minister in Sea
Island, Georgia, next week, and in Turkey at the NATO conference. Of
course, at Sea Island we'll be having the G8, where we'll discuss the
role our great alliances can play in helping Iraq, and the role we can
play in helping spread democracy throughout the world.
This war on terror we face, Mr. Prime Minister, is the challenge of
our time. Democracy and prosperity are the antidotes to the bitterness
and hatred that feed terrorism. As freedom advances in the Middle
East, more and more people in that region will be inspired -- inspired
to peace, inspired to dedicate their lives to the welfare of their
families and to the success of their nations. The bitterness and
burning hatreds that feed terrorism will fade away, and America and
Italy and the rest of the world will be more safe.
I want to thank you, Mr. Prime Minister, and I want to thank the
Italian people for their friendship and courage and vision and hope for
the future. We remember the sons of Italy who have given their lives
to ensure a better future. I look forward to continuing to work with
you to make the world a more secure and better place.
Thank you, sir.
PRIME MINISTER BERLUSCONI: Thank you, Mr. President. And I wish
to reaffirm here before you and before the press from the U.S. the
feelings that are shared by a large majority of the Italian people
towards your country that has welcomed millions of Italians that sought
a better future in your country, and it was for them, a very generous
home. This is a first reason why we feel great gratitude towards you
and your country.
There's another reason, actually, why this celebration is taking
place, and why you accepted to personally be here to celebrate this
important date. Sixty years ago there were 25,000 young Americans who
sacrificed their lives to make happier, to make more prosperous and
more secure our life here, to give our country freedom. And we will be
eternally grateful to you for this.
We're also grateful because in the postwar period, we face very
difficult times. And America's generosity contributed to growth of our
economy with the Marshall Plan. We have yet another reason to be
grateful to you, sir. Through NATO and, therefore, through the
contribution of U.S. citizens, Europe and Italy have been able to
defend itself against a Soviet Union which, at that time, had its
missiles and nuclear arsenals pointed towards our cities.
And today, too, we're here together, in the name of this spirit of
deep friendship, to work together in the effort to make democracy grow
and advance throughout the world, to combat this attack to the West
that comes from terrorism and from fundamentalism. We think that it's
a wrongful idea to think that there are peoples for whom democracy
simply does not work. There is nothing that is more wrong than that
perception. Democracy means respect for human rights. It means an
open and free market. And these, of course, are the fundamental
pillars of a world that hopes to look to the future in peace, in
security, and well-being.
For all this, Mr. President, we are very close to you, and we're
close to you not as allies, but always feel that the other is an ally,
but as loyal friends. And therefore, we feel that whenever criticism
is due, we can have the freedom to make that criticism.
I wish to thank you, sir, for the way in which you've always
listened to us. I thank you for always having given us the
opportunity. We're not part of the U.N. Security Council, of course,
but we thank you for having given us the opportunity to have a say in
matters and to work together to contribute to the drafting of this last
resolution. And we certainly hope that the U.N. is going to approve
this next week. And we're going to be available by participating with
our men and women in the peace mission.
Let me just say one last word regarding the reasons why our troops
are in Iraq, and will stay in Iraq until the new government -- the
government that will be elected in January next -- until that
government, I was saying, feels the troops and the other countries can
be helpful in maintaining peace in the construction of a democracy.
We're in Iraq exactly for the same reasons why we are in Bosnia, why
our men are in Macedonia, why we're in Kosovo, and why we're in
Afghanistan, where, this morning, I guaranteed to the President of the
United States where I was saying Italy will participate with troops --
it will participate in Afghanistan's effort to become a democratic
country through the elections that are going to be held in the month of
September. We're in Iraq for the very same reasons why we have
deployed our men in these countries, together with the U.S. forces.
If anyone were to think that it would be advisable to withdraw
troops from Iraq, then we would have to do the same from all the other
countries in which we have our troops. And we think that this is
actually the opposite of what should be done in order to secure peace
in these countries, to make sure that they experience no civil wars and
that they prosper until they become established democracies.
So thank you for your visit, Mr. President. And thank you very
much for everything that the United States will continue to do to
spread democracy throughout the world.
With our press offices, we actually established that there will be
two questions addressed to the U.S. President and two to the Italian
President. So I open the floor for questions. The Americans first.
Q Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. President, you got strong
statement of support just now from the Prime Minister. This country
has troops in Iraq with the United States troops. And yet, there were
many street demonstrations yesterday; there were concerns expressed by
the Pope about the U.S. mission. Do you think that your trip to Europe
is mending fences or stirring the pot?
And to the Prime Minister, do you anticipate that the troops that
you have in Iraq will remain at the same levels for the next coming
months? Or will there be more or less?
PRESIDENT BUSH: I think -- first of all, democracy is a beautiful
thing, and I am pleased to be in a country where people are allowed to
express their opinion. I believe the world understands the importance
of a free Iraq emerging in the Middle East. There may have been
differences of opinion about Saddam Hussein and the enforcement of a
U.N. Security Council Resolution 1441. Now the world understands the
importance of working with the Iraqis to encourage the development of a
free society.
And that's why it is important for me to remind people that there
will be a transfer of full sovereignty to an Iraqi government, and that
the Iraqi people will be making the decisions as to how to -- how to
proceed forward. And we are there to help them. People in Europe have
heard the comments of Prime Minister Allawi and the Foreign Minister,
both of whom -- who have asked for help in making Iraq secure enough to
get to free elections. And we're there to help them do that. And
we're there to help them reconstruct their country.
And I sense a spirit of unity in terms of working with the new
Iraqi government. That's why we're working closely with nations to get
a United Nations Security Council resolution that confirms that which I
just said. And I am confident we will get one soon. And I want to
thank the Prime Minister for working toward that end.
But, one -- on the Holy Father. First of all, I had a great visit
yesterday. I was honored to be in his presence again. This was my
third meeting with His Holiness. And it was -- it was such an honor to
be in the presence of a strong, Godly man. And he and I share concerns
about treating people with human dignity.
And I -- like His Holiness, I was repulsed by the pictures I saw
about the treatment by some of our troops toward Iraqi prisoners.
That treatment did not reflect the spirit of America. Those people
stained our honor. And there will be a full investigation in a
transparent way about the actions that took place -- which will stand
in stark contrast to what takes place in a society run by -- that is
run by a tyrant. And it's important for the people of the Middle East
to see the rule of law, and to see somebody being held to account in a
transparent way. But the visit yesterday was a very constructive,
positive visit.
One more from the American side? I'll pick one. Steve.
Q Thank you, Mr. President.
PRESIDENT BUSH: His name is Steve.
Q After the resignation of George Tenet, how do you keep morale
from dropping in the intelligence community at a critical time? Should
he be blamed for intelligence failures, and what is the status of those
reforms you've been talking about?
PRESIDENT BUSH: Let me say what I said on the way out of town the
other day. George Tenet did a superb job for America. It was a high
honor to work with him, and I'm sorry he left. He chose to do so for
personal reasons. When he came to see me at the White House, the night
before he departed -- the night before he delivered his letter, the
night before I departed -- I talked about morale within the agency.
And he assured me that morale would remain high because the people
inside the agency understand the vitality of their mission.
The CIA plays a really important role in fighting the war on
terror. In order for us to find the thugs who hide in caves and who
plot against free people, we must gather intelligence and share
intelligence with our friends, so we can bring people to justice before
they hurt us again. And the people inside the Agency know that role
and know how important that role is.
Secondly, John McLaughlin, who has been at the Agency for a long
period of time, has my confidence, but more importantly, has the
confidence of the people who work in the Agency. And finally, in terms
of reform, I look forward to working with all the commissions that are
looking into the intelligence-gathering apparatus of the United States,
including the Silberman-Robb Commission -- which is now gathering
information, and will present a report to the country within a year --
to come up with recommendations to make sure that we get the best
intelligence possible. You cannot win the war on terror unless your
intelligence agency has got high morale and is well-structured to fight
and win the war of the 21st century.
Make no mistake about it, we're still at war. It's important for
the people of Italy to understand, there's still a terrorist network
that wants to murder and kill. And what they're trying to do is shake
our will. They want us to retreat from the world. They want us to
forget our values. They want us to become fearful. They want us to
throw up our hands and surrender, which I refuse to do. For the sake
of the security of free people, I refuse to relent to the killers,
refuse to surrender one inch to people who have hijacked a great
religion and who will murder innocent women and children. And
fortunately, I've got a strong ally in that view in the Prime Minister
of Italy.
PRIME MINISTER BERLUSCONI: I can't but agree with what the
American President just said. Also, in terms of humiliations on the
Iraqi prisoners, I must highlight and stress the deep difference
between a dictatorship where torture is usually standard practice and
is continuous, and the democracy, which has the ability to denounce it,
to report the mistakes and to punish in a very clear way, an open way,
the culprits, the perpetrators. That's the big difference between
totalitarianism and a true, real democracy.
Once again, I would like also to add that the behavior of a few,
where in democracy you have the basic principles that responsibility
and accountability is personal, the crime of one or a few people cannot
be blamed on a whole population.
If you have questions for the Italian Prime Minister, I'm here,
ready to answer them.
Q I'd like to ask both of you something about the celebrations
tomorrow in Normandy. I would like to ask President Bush, don't you
feel insulted that one of your allies has not been invited to a
celebration -- since Italy participated through resistance in the
liberation fight.
And I would like to ask Prime Minister Berlusconi whether he
doesn't think and believe that those who exclude Italy and continue to
imagine Europe being led just by three countries actually want to have
an influence in the domestic choices made in our country.
PRIME MINISTER BERLUSCONI: The information sources of our friend,
journalist, are very disputable. I must say that the reality is the
following. This is the situation: There was a kind of embarrassment
by the French President because Italy, because of the historical
situation which had taken place in Italy at the D-Day. I personally
got rid of this embarrassment for the French President, because since I
had invited the President -- the American President, President Bush, to
come to Italy before the celebrations of D-Day, to celebrate the 60th
anniversary of the liberation of Rome, I believed that it was much more
valuable to have just for Italy, only for Rome and for us, a
representative of the American people, rather than being part of one
celebration where there are going to be 17 prime ministers. So I'd
rather have him here, alone, than going there, one of 17.
And this is reality. And I thank, once again, President Bush for
accepting to come here.
PRESIDENT BUSH: I am honored to have this invitation to come.
Yesterday, at our embassy, I had the great honor of addressing some of
the Americans who came to liberate Italy. In other words, it was a
part of a series of events that I have been attending to commemorate
what we have called in our country, the "greatest generation." A week
ago, or so, I was on the Mall in Washington, D.C., where we
commemorated a new World War II Memorial. And as part of that series
of events to honor young men who came here to sacrifice for the liberty
of others, my visit to Rome is very appropriate and necessary. I think
they're called -- some of them were called the "Devil's Brigade."
These were young guys from all across America who came into Rome. And
I had the honor and chance to thank them personally. And it's
necessary the American President honor these folks on Italian soil for
the job they did.
And then, of course, I'll be able to pay honor to those who came to
Normandy, as well. I think it's appropriate, and I appreciate the
invitation to be here to do so.
PRIME MINISTER BERLUSCONI: I'd like to add, Mr. President, that we
visited, together, the cemetery of the American soldiers, and together
we were moved and touched, 60 years later, in reading those names on
the tombstones, in seeing their birth date and their death date. They
were 22, 23, 25 years. So very young lives which sacrificed themselves
for a higher ideal, that of freedom and liberate Italy and Europe from
totalitarianism, which had been the disease affecting our continent.
And America, twice, came here to -- (inaudible) -- after being --
(inaudible) -- America came back here to give its contribution to
Europe to keep Europe in freedom. And today this new Europe, which was
joined by other 10 countries which have been subject for 70 years to
the communist totalitarianism, I think that this new Europe will be
more capable and able to feel the unity and unification with United
States, and to be together with the United States to make up the West.
Italy is working for this. Italy is working in order to keep
European Union close to the United States to strengthen our friendship,
because only through a joint action we will succeed in fighting this
recent war -- the war caused by the terror attacks. We can win
together. We must win together. We will win together.
Another question?
Q Good morning.
PRIME MINISTER BERLUSCONI: Do you have the same sources as your
colleague?
Q No, I don't think I do. No, really, I have a question for
both Presidents. I'd like to know exactly, what's the role of Italy in
the development of what might be a new U.N. resolution for Iraq?
PRIME MINISTER BERLUSCONI: Well, you want to know the highlights?
Q Yes, I'd like to know about Italy's role in that development.
PRIME MINISTER BERLUSCONI: I see. Well, I think perhaps it should
be the President to answer that question.
PRESIDENT BUSH: Well, I'll be glad to answer it. Last week, the
Prime Minister came to the Oval Office. He wanted assurances that
there would be a full transfer of sovereignty TO an Iraqi government.
You might remember -- seven days ago, I guess it was that you were
there -- that there was some doubt as to -- in people's minds as to
whether or not we intended to participate in a full transfer of
sovereignty. I assured him that not only that was our intention, that
would be -- his desires would be reflected in the United Nations
Security Council resolution.
There's a variety of issues that he sought assurances on. He fully
understands, for example, that our troops must be there at the request
of a sovereign government. In other words, when you transfer TO full
sovereignty, the government must say, we welcome your help. And that's
precisely what is happening.
Again, I repeat what I said before. The Prime Minister, as well as
the Foreign Minister, not only thanked us for our contributions, but
asked us to stay there to help the Iraqis step up the security forces
necessary to make sure the country is peaceful enough for elections to
be held. That's what they want, they want to hold elections.
And by the way, the terrorists don't want elections. And that's
just their nature, see. They're frightened of freedom. And that's why
they kill indiscriminately, to stop -- to try to stop this march toward
a free society. And it will be a major defeat in their cause.
These terrorists, by the way, hold -- have an ideology that is --
that is very much like that ideology which subjected the people of
Afghanistan to brutality, that basically demeans women, that doesn't
believe in rule of law, that doesn't believe in free thought or free
religion. That's what they want. And they would like to spread that
ideology, particularly in the Middle East.
And I equate the struggle we have today with the struggle we had
with communism in Europe after World War II. And the free world could
have either yielded to communism or stood up to communism right after
World War II. And fortunately, we stood up to communism. And now,
Europe is free, whole, and peaceful. And we have the same issue
today. And the fundamental question is, will we hold the line and
uphold our values and work to spread democracy, or will we yield to
terrorism and resentment and hatred?
And this is a turning point in history. It's a -- it's an
important moment. And one of the reasons why I'm proud to stand here
with the Prime Minister is he understands the stakes, he understands
the importance. And like me, he shares a great sense of optimism about
the future.
And so I'm proud to be with you, Mr. Prime Minister. It's great to
be back in this beautiful city. You've got a fantastic country. And
our country is better off because of the contributions of millions of
Italian Americans, I might add. And thanks for having me. God bless.
PRIME MINISTER BERLUSCONI: I have to give my answer --
PRESIDENT BUSH: I thought you wanted me to answer the question.
(Laughter.)
PRIME MINISTER BERLUSCONI: I was glad to meet you, Mr. President.
I simply wish to say that we've been very, very happy to have been able
to give our contribution. In spite -- and this is something we ought
to remember -- in spite of the fact that we're not members of the U.N.
Security Council, which I don't think is something that this government
is responsible for.
There is one point, I believe, that was not introduced, a point
that I was able to discuss with the President of the Russian
Federation, Mr. Putin, which has to do with the calling of an
international conference on Iraq. And I'd like to explain the reasons
why this point was not discussed, or is not found in the current draft
of the resolution.
As this resolution -- or rather, as sovereignty will be transferred
to the new Iraqi government, it was believed that it will be precisely
the new Iraqi government to decide on whether or not it may be useful
and possible to hold an international conference. And this, too, I
think is evidence of the sovereignty that is not just words, but that
is something that we believe in seriously, concretely and
transparently.
Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you to the press, from the U.S.
especially. Thank you to everyone, and best of luck in your work.