Remarks by the President to International Democratic Union Leaders Dinner
The State Dining Room
7:03 P.M. EDT
PRESIDENT BUSH: If I may have your attention for a minute, please.
It is a great pleasure for me to welcome the International Democratic
Union's members, and its new chairman, Prime Minister of Australia John
Howard. And it's my pleasure to thank the outgoing chairman, William
Hague, for his outstanding leadership. (Applause.)
With us this evening are IDU members from 40 nations, including
five current heads of state or government, and nine former heads of
state or government. The presence of so many distinguished world
leaders is a remarkable testament to the power and attractiveness of
our ideas.
More than a century ago, the British Chancellor of the Exchequer,
Sir William Harcourt, declared, we're all socialists now. (Laughter.)
Today it's fair to say we're all democratic capitalists now.
(Applause.) The democratic capitalist's vision of a free and just and
compassionate society has captured the imagination of the world. Free
markets, free governments, and free societies are not American idea,
they're not European or Western ideas, they're universal ideas. And
they inspire all the member parties of the International Democratic
Union.
The historical record is clear: economic systems that put freedom
first have achieved greater levels of equality and well-being than
systems that seek to strengthen the power of a state and stifle
economic liberty. That's the record. But while the ideas of the IDU
-- but while the ideas the IDU stands for have made unprecedented
gains, the free societies we love face unprecedented threats.
We face cold-blooded killers that hate the freedoms we cherish.
And with the spread of chemical and biological and nuclear weapons,
along with ballistic missile technology, freedom's enemies could attain
catastrophic power. And there's no doubt that they would use that
power to attack us and to attack the values we uphold.
It is our commitment to freedom and human dignity and the strong
belief that each individual matters that sets our enemies against us
and draws our friends together in a great coalition of liberty. We
will oppose the new totalitarians with all our power. We will hunt
them down one by one and bring them to justice.
And we must never hate -- hesitate to speak for what we believe.
We believe we fight an enemy that is barbaric and that is evil. We
believe targeting innocent civilians for murder is always and
everywhere wrong; and political, social and economic freedoms are
always and everywhere right.
The war on terror will be long and it will be dangerous. It will
require us to be patient, and steadfast, and clear about what we're
fighting for. We fight for the non-negotiable demands of human
dignity: the rule of law, limits on the power of the state, respect
for women, respect for private property, and free speech, and equal
justice, and religious tolerance.
And so I'd like you to join me in a toast for the ideas which we
all share, and for the great hope to replace poverty and repression and
resentment with the promise of a better day for everyone who inhabits
this Earth.