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Listen
to entire speech (missing the first couple of thank-you's
at the start)
December 11, 2001
Thank you all very much. Please be seated. Thank you for that warm
welcome. I'm glad to be back here at the Citadel.
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.
(cont'd next page)
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