For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
March 15, 2002
President Calls for Quick Passage of Defense Bill
Remarks by the President in Fayetteville, North Carolina Welcome
Cumberland County Complex
Fayetteville, North Carolina
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all very much. At
ease! (Laughter and applause.) General McNeil,
thank you very much. For a warrior, you're pretty darn
articulate. Thank you all for such a warm
welcome. It's great to be here in Cumberland County, North
Carolina. (Applause.)
I'm also honored to be here with fine men and women who wear our
uniform from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, the world's finest fighting
soldiers. (Applause.) For generations, Fort Bragg
has stood for the best in the United States military. And
now, along with those stationed at Pope Air Force Base, you're playing
a crucial role, a vital role, a successful role in our defense of
freedom, in our war against terror. I'm proud of your
service. I thank you from the bottom of our
hearts. (Applause.)
I want to thank General Holland, Commander-in-Chief, Headquarters
U.S. Special Operations Command. I want to thank General
Brown. I want to thank all the fine men and women of the
18th Airborne Corps, the Special Forces, and the Special Operation
units. (Applause.) It is good to be with the fine
folks of the 43rd Airlift Wing. (Applause.) I am
honored to be traveling with members of the North Carolina
congressional delegation, two of whom you've just heard from,
Congressman McIntyre, Congressman Hayes, Congressman Etheridge is with
us today, as is my friend, Elizabeth Dole. Thank you all for
coming. (Applause.)
One week ago this coliseum was the scene of graduation ceremonies
for the latest group of soldiers to have earned the right to wear the
Green Beret. (Applause.) In doing so, they will
join the ranks of some of the best and bravest citizens we have. The
soldiers and sailors and airmen of the U.S. Special Operations Command
are the best in the world, and the world is seeing how tough and how
brave they are today. (Applause.)
Our Special Operations forces know the danger that awaits
them. This is a dangerous battle that we face, a dangerous
war. And I'm proud of the courage, not only of the soldiers
who volunteer for battle, but for the loved ones who remain
behind. Not only am I proud of our soldiers, I am proud of
the wives and husbands and sons and daughters and moms and dads. And,
on behalf of a grateful nation, we thank you, as
well. (Applause.) We appreciate your courage and your
sacrifice.
Two young men from the Special Forces were recently laid to rest,
Chief Warrant Officer Stanley Harriman and Air Force Tech Sergeant John
Chapman. I want their families to know that we pray with
them, that we honor them, and they died in a just cause, for defending
freedom, and they will not have died in vain. (Applause.)
Because of such soldiers, a vicious regime has been toppled in
Afghanistan, and an entire people have been liberated from oppression.
Because of American soldiers and our brave allies and friends who have
fought beside them, the Taliban is out of
business. (Applause.)
At the beginning of this war, I made it very clear -- as clear as a
fellow from Texas could make it -- either you're with us or you're
against us. (Applause.) And if you harbor a
terrorist, if you feed a terrorist, if you try to hide a terrorist, you
are just as guilty as the murderers who killed innocent Americans on
September the 11th. (Applause.) And thanks to the
mighty United States military, the Taliban found out exactly what I
meant. (Applause.)
But the world has seen we are not conquerors; we're
liberators. We fight for freedom, and at the same time, we
have saved a people from mass starvation. We fight for
freedom, but at the same time, we're clearing away minefields,
rebuilding roads, and opening up hospitals. We fight for
freedom, and yet, next week, schools will reopen in Afghanistan and,
for the first time, many young girls will go to school for the first
time in their lives. (Applause.)
We haven't been at this struggle very long. I know it
seems like a long time for those of you whose loved ones are
overseas. But we've been at it for six months, and we've
made a lot of progress. And you know what? The terrorists
have now figured out they picked on the wrong people.
(Applause.) They must have thought we were
soft. They must have thought we were so materialistic that
we wouldn't fight for values that we loved. They must have thought
that we were so self-absorbed, that the word sacrifice had left the
American vocabulary. And, my, were they wrong.
Thousands of terrorists have been brought to
justice. But I want you to know, my fellow citizens, we will
not relent. We will not slow down until the threat of global
terrorism has been destroyed. (Applause.)
I have made this message clear to the American people. I
have made this message clear to our vast coalition. And I've
made this message clear to our enemies -- and our military has
delivered the message.
We have finished the first phase of our war against
terror. You see, when we routed out the Taliban, we
completed that phase. And now we're entering a second stage
of what I think will be a long war. It's a sustained
campaign, a tireless, relentless campaign, to deny sanctuary, to deny
safe haven to terrorists who would threaten citizens anywhere in the
world, threaten our way of life, threaten our friends, threaten our
allies. These terrorists are now on the run. And we intend
to keep them on the run. (Applause.)
We know their strategy. They want to try to regroup, and
they want to hit us. We're doing everything we can to stop
them. No, we know their strategy. We also know
they're the most committed, the most dangerous, the least likely to
surrender. Folks, these are trained killers who hate
freedom. And so long as they're on the loose, we're in
danger. And, therefore, in order to keep them from harming
any of our citizens again, we're going to hunt 'em down, one by
one. This mighty nation will not blink, we will not
yield. We will defend the innocent lives of the American
people by bringing terrorist killers to justice. (Applause.)
Obviously, as you well know, we found some of them bunched up in
the Shahikote Mountains. And we sent our military
in. And they're not bunched up
anymore. (Laughter.) And when we find them
bunched up again, we'll send our military in, and the same thing will
happen. You know, they've got these leaders that are so bold
that they're willing to send youngsters to their suicide while they try
to hide in deep caves. But they're going to find out there
is not a cave deep enough to escape the long arm of American
justice. (Applause.)
And so as fellow citizens, you need to know the strategy of this
new phase is this: We want every terrorist to be made to
live like an international fugitive, on the run, with no place to
settle, no place to organize, no place to hide, no governments to hide
behind, not even a safe place to sleep. And we're going to
stay at it. You watch, we're going to stay at it for however
long it takes. And the good news is, the American people are
united and patient and understand the nature of the struggle
ahead. And for that I'm grateful, and so are the men and
women who wear the uniform of the United States
military. (Applause.)
At the same time, the civilized world must take seriously the
growing threat of terror on a catastrophic scale. We've got
to prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction, because there is
no margin for error and there is no chance to learn from any
mistake. The United States and her allies will act
deliberately -- we'll be deliberate -- but inaction is not an
option. Men who have no respect for life must never be
allowed to control the ultimate instruments of death. I have
made it clear that we will not let the most dangerous regimes in the
world team up with killers and, therefore, hold this great nation
hostage. Whatever it takes to defend the liberty of America,
this administration will do. (Applause.)
I want you to know that, even though we have made great progress in
six short months, I am aware that history will judge us not based upon
the beginning of this campaign, but how it ends. Great
challenges lie ahead, and we're in for a long struggle. And
therefore, we must make sure that our United States military must have
everything it needs to meet the objective. (Applause.)
And just like our military has responsibilities, I have
responsibilities as the Commander-in-Chief to the
military. At every stage of the war on terror, I can assure
you our actions will be carefully planned and carefully
prepared. Our objectives will be clear. We will
be deliberate, but when we act, we'll be
decisive. (Applause.) I will give clear orders,
and I will make sure that you have every tool you need to do your job.
I've asked Congress for a one-year increase of more than $48
billion for national defense. (Applause.) This is
the largest defense increase in a generation -- because we're at war,
and Congress needs to pass this budget. And, by the way, it
includes another pay raise for people who wear the
uniform. (Applause).
Nothing is more important than the national security of our
country, nothing is more important. So nothing is more
important than our defense budget. I've heard some of them
talking about, it's too big up there. Let me just make this
as clear as I can make it: the price for freedom is high,
but it's never too high, as far as I'm
concerned. (Applause.)
As you know, if you follow the budget process, oftentimes Congress
waits until the last days of the fiscal year in order to pass the
defense budget. That's bad budgeting practices in times of
peace. It's really bad budgeting practices in times of
war. I expect the United States Congress to not only pass
the budget as I submitted, I expect them to make it the first order of
business, so we can plan for this war. (Applause.)
Now is not the time to play politics with the defense
budget. Now is the time to get it out first, and get it on
my desk. We need to send that clear message that not only
are we in this for the long haul, but the elected representatives of
the United States people understand it, as well. I'm proud of the
bipartisan spirit that exists in our war against terror. Now, let's
just make sure we've got some good budgeting practices to go along with
it. (Applause.)
We're working hard to make sure the homeland is
secure. I'll never forget, right after September the 11th I
went to see some high school kids, and they were
seniors. And it dawned on me that -- obviously on them, too
-- that this is the first high school class that had ever seen an
attack on the homeland like this, at least on the 48 states that are
contiguous. And it reminded me then, and I've never
forgotten it, that oceans no longer matter when it comes to making us
safe; that we have a giant obligation, an obligation I take very
seriously here at home, to make sure we do everything we can to protect
innocent life.
So you need to know that any time we get a hint about somebody may
be thinking about doing something, we're on them. Every time
we get a scintilla of evidence that somebody might be trying to get in
here or burrow in our society, we're doing everything we can,
everything we can, to protect the American people. We honor
our Constitution, but we're on alert. And so are many of you
all, and I want to thank you for that.
We've got a good first responders initiative. We've got
a great initiative on bioterrorism. We're making our borders
more secure. We want to make sure we know who's coming in
and who's coming out. We want to make sure the INS is
reformed. (Laughter and applause.) As you might
-- could tell by the news that day, I was plenty hot -- (laughter) --
when I read about the bureaucratic inefficiency of this
agency. We're going to do everything we can to reform
it. We want to button up the homeland as best as we can.
But my attitude is this: The best way to secure the
homeland is to unleash the mighty United States military and hunt them
down and bring them to justice. (Applause.) And
the best way to fight evil at home is to love your neighbor like you'd
like to be loved yourself. (Applause.) The best
way to stand squarely in the face of those who hijacked a good religion
is to live a life that helps people in need.
You know, the true strength of our country is much greater than our
military. The true strength of America are the hearts and
souls of loving American citizens. And we have an obligation
in our free society to work to make our society as compassionate and as
kind as it can possibly be. (Applause.)
Today, I had the honor when I landed here to meet Jane
Davis. Where are you, Jane? There she
is. Jane, thank you. (Applause.) Don't
clap yet until you hear about her. She's the wife of Colonel
Gary Matteson of Fort Bragg. The reason I mention Jane is
because she is an example of what I'm talking about, about the strength
of the country. Right after September the 11th, she left
North Carolina to volunteer at Ground Zero in New York
City. (Applause.) Nobody had to tell
Jane. There wasn't a government edict, there wasn't a
telegram from Washington, D.C., directing her to go to Ground Zero; she
followed her heart. She knew it was the right thing to do.
It's the Jane Davises that really defined America for the world to
see. And you can be -- you can help a neighbor in all kinds
of ways. You can walk across a street to a shut-in and say,
what can I do to help your day? Or you can mentor a child,
or you can teach in a classroom. (Applause.) If you want to
help, you can get on the Internet and dial up usafreedomcorps.gov, and
see. And we've got a member of the Senior Corps here, which
is a part of the USA Freedom Corps.
If you want to be involved, there's all kinds of
ways. All you've got to do is act. But if you're
interested in joining the war against terror, do something to make your
community a more vibrant and kind place. (Applause.)
It is what I like to call the gathering momentum of millions of
acts of kindness that define America for what we are. And
I'm proud to be the President of a nation that is dedicated and firm in
our defense of liberty, that will stand strong when we defend freedom,
and not blink or tire. And likewise, I'm proud to be the
President of a nation whose true strength are the hearts and souls of
citizens from all walks of life.
May God bless you all, and may God bless
America. (Applause.)