Free The People!
Let Your Voice Be Heard!
Speech Aboard the Aircraft Carrier Abraham Lincoln
May 01, 2002
Friday,
May 02, 2003 
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,85776,00.html
President George W.
Bush Aboard The USS Abraham Lincoln —
Admiral
Kelly, Captain Card, officers and sailors of the USS Abraham Lincoln, and my fellow
Americans: Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the Battle of Iraq,
the United States and our allies have prevailed. And now our coalition is engaged in
securing and reconstructing that country.
In this
battle, we have fought for the cause of liberty, and for the peace of the world. Our
nation and our coalition are proud of this accomplishment yet it is you, the members
of the United States military, who achieved it. Your courage, your willingness to
face danger for your country and for each other made this day possible. Because of
you, our nation is more secure. Because of you, the tyrant has fallen, and Iraq is
free.
Operation
Iraqi Freedom was carried out with a combination of precision, speed, and boldness
the enemy did not expect, and the world had not seen before. From distant bases or ships
at sea, we sent planes and missiles that could destroy an enemy division, or strike a
single bunker. Marines and soldiers charged to Baghdad across 350
miles of hostile ground, in one of the swiftest advances of heavy arms in history.
You have shown the world the skill and might of the American Armed Forces.
This nation
thanks all the members of our coalition who joined in a noble cause. We thank the
Armed Forces of the United Kingdom, Australia, and Poland, who shared in the hardships of
war. We thank all the citizens of Iraq who welcomed our troops and joined in the
liberation of their own country. And tonight, I have a special word for Secretary
Rumsfeld, for General Franks, and for all the men and women who wear the uniform of the
United States: America is
grateful for a job well done.
The
character of our military through history -- the daring of Normandy, the fierce courage of
Iwo Jima, the decency and idealism that turned enemies into allies -- is fully
present in this generation. When Iraqi civilians looked into the faces of our
servicemen and women, they saw strength, and kindness, and good will. When I look at
the members of the United States military, I see the best of our country, and I am honored
to be your commander-in-chief.
In the
images of falling statues, we have witnessed the arrival of a new era. For a hundred
years of war, culminating in the nuclear age, military technology was designed and
deployed to inflict casualties on an ever-growing scale. In defeating Nazi Germany
and imperial Japan, Allied Forces destroyed entire cities, while enemy leaders who started
the conflict were safe until the final days. Military power was used to end a regime
by breaking a nation.
Today, we
have the greater power to free a nation by breaking a dangerous and aggressive regime.
With new tactics and precision weapons, we can achieve military objectives without
directing violence against civilians. No device of man can remove the tragedy from
war. Yet it is a great advance when the guilty have far more to fear from war than
the innocent.
In the
images of celebrating Iraqis, we have also seen the ageless appeal of human freedom.
Decades of lies and intimidation could not make the Iraqi people love their
oppressors or desire their own enslavement. Men and women in every culture need
liberty like they need food, and water, and air. Everywhere that freedom arrives,
humanity rejoices. And everywhere that freedom stirs, let tyrants fear.
We have
difficult work to do in Iraq. We are bringing order to parts of that country that
remain dangerous. We are pursuing and finding leaders of the old regime, who will be
held to account for their crimes. We have begun the search for hidden chemical and
biological weapons, and already know of hundreds of sites that will be investigated.
We are helping to rebuild Iraq, where the dictator built palaces for himself,
instead of hospitals and schools for the people. And we will stand with the new
leaders of Iraq as they establish a government of, by, and for the Iraqi people.
The
transition from dictatorship to democracy will take time, but it is worth every effort.
Our coalition will stay until our work is done. Then we will leave, and
we will leave behind a free Iraq.
The Battle
of Iraq is one victory in a war on terror that began on September 11th, 2001, and still
goes on. That terrible morning, 19 evil men -- the shock troops of a hateful
ideology -- gave America and the civilized world a glimpse of their ambitions.
They imagined, in the words of one terrorist, that September 11th would be the
"beginning of the end of America." By seeking to turn our cities into
killing fields, terrorists and their allies believed they could destroy this nation's
resolve, and force our retreat from the world. They have failed.
In the
Battle of Afghanistan, we destroyed the Taliban, many terrorists, and the camps where they
trained. We continue to help the Afghan people lay roads, restore hospitals, and
educate all of their children. Yet we also have dangerous work to complete.
And as I speak, a special operations task force, led by the 82nd Airborne, is on the trail
of terrorists, and those who seek to undermine the free government of Afghanistan.
America and our coalition will finish what we began.
From
Pakistan to the Philippines to the Horn of Africa, we are hunting down Al Qaeda killers.
Nineteen months ago, I pledged that the terrorists would not escape the patient
justice of the United States. As of tonight, nearly one-half of Al Qaeda's senior
operatives have been captured or killed.
The
liberation of Iraq is a crucial advance in the campaign against terror. We have removed an
ally of Al Qaeda, and cut off a source of terrorist funding. And this much is certain:
No terrorist network will gain weapons of mass destruction from the Iraqi regime,
because that regime is no more.
In these 19
months that changed the world, our actions have been focused, and deliberate, and
proportionate to the offense. We have not forgotten the victims of September
11th -- the last phone calls, the cold murder of children, the searches in the
rubble. With those attacks, the terrorists and their supporters declared war on the
United States. And war is what they got.
Our war
against terror is proceeding according to principles that I have made clear to all:
Any person
involved in committing or planning terrorist attacks against the American people becomes
an enemy of this country, and a target of American justice.
Any person,
organization, or government that supports, protects, or harbors terrorists is complicit in
the murder of the innocent, and equally guilty of terrorist crimes.
Any outlaw
regime that has ties to terrorist groups, and seeks or possesses weapons of mass
destruction, is a grave danger to the civilized world, and will be confronted.
And anyone
in the world, including the Arab world, who works and sacrifices for freedom has a loyal
friend in the United States.
Our
commitment to liberty is America's tradition -- declared at our founding, affirmed in
Franklin Roosevelt's Four Freedoms, asserted in the Truman Doctrine, and in Ronald
Reagan's challenge to an evil empire. We are committed to freedom in Afghanistan, in
Iraq, and in a peaceful Palestine. The advance of freedom is the surest strategy to
undermine the appeal of terror in the world.
Where
freedom takes hold, hatred gives way to hope. When freedom takes hold, men and women
turn to the peaceful pursuit of a better life. American values, and American
interests, lead in the same direction: We stand for human liberty.
The United
States upholds these principles of security and freedom in many ways -- with all the
tools of diplomacy, law enforcement, intelligence, and finance. We are working with
a broad coalition of nations that understand the threat, and our shared responsibility to
meet it. The use of force has been, and remains, our last resort. Yet all can
know, friend and foe alike, that our nation has a mission: We will answer threats to
our security, and we will defend the peace.
Our mission
continues. Al Qaeda is wounded, not destroyed. The scattered cells of the
terrorist network still operate in many nations, and we know from daily intelligence that
they continue to plot against free people. The proliferation of deadly weapons
remains a serious danger. The enemies of freedom are not idle, and neither are we.
Our government has taken unprecedented measures to defend the homeland, and we will
continue to hunt down the enemy before he can strike.
The war on
terror is not over, yet it is not endless. We do not know the day of final victory,
but we have seen the turning of the tide. No act of the terrorists will change our
purpose, or weaken our resolve, or alter their fate. Their cause is lost. Free
nations will press on to victory.
Other
nations in history have fought in foreign lands and remained to occupy and exploit.
Americans, following a battle, want nothing more than to return home. That is your
direction tonight. After service in the Afghan and Iraqi theatres of war --
after 100 thousand miles, on the longest carrier deployment in recent history -- you
are homeward bound. Some of you will see new family members for the first time --
150 babies were born while their fathers were on the Lincoln. Your families are
proud of you, and your nation will welcome you.
We are
mindful as well that some good men and women are not making the journey home. One of
those who fell, Corporal Jason Mileo, spoke to his parents five days before his death.
Jason's father said, "He called us from the center of Baghdad, not to brag,
but to tell us he loved us. Our son was a soldier."
Every name,
every life, is a loss to our military, to our nation, and to loved ones who grieve.
There is no homecoming for these families. Yet we pray, in God's time, their reunion
will come.
Those we
lost were last seen on duty. Their final act on this earth was to fight a great
evil, and bring liberty to others. All of you -- all in this generation of our
military -- have taken up the highest calling of history. You are defending
your country, and protecting the innocent from harm. And wherever you go, you carry
a message of hope, a message that is ancient, and ever new. In the words of the prophet
Isaiah: "To the captives, 'Come out,' and to those in darkness, 'Be
free.'"
Thank you
for serving our country and our cause. God bless you all, and may God bless America.
