Commencement address at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, June 7, 2004

America is pursuing our forward strategy for freedom in the broader Middle East in many ways. Voices in that region are increasingly demanding reform and democratic change. So we are working with courageous leaders like President Karzai of Afghanistan, who is ushering in a new era of freedom for the Afghan people. We're taking aside reformers who are standing for human rights and political freedom, often at great personal risk. We're encouraging economic opportunity and the rule of law and government reform and the expansion of liberty throughout the region.

And we're working toward the goal of a Palestinian state living side by side with Israel in peace. Prime Minister Sharon's plan to remove all settlements from Gaza and several from the West Bank is a courageous step toward peace. His decision provides an historic moment of opportunity to begin building a future Palestinian state. This initiative can stimulate progress toward peace by setting the parties back on the roadmap, the most reliable guide to ending the occupation that began in 1967. This success will require reform-minded Palestinians to step forward and lead and meet their roadmap obligations. And the United States of America stands ready to help those dedicated to peace, those willing to fight violence, find a new state so we can realize peace in the greater Middle East.

Some who call themselves realists question whether the spread of democracy in the Middle East should be any concern of ours. But the realists in this case have lost contact with a fundamental reality. America has always been less secure when freedom is in retreat. America is always more secure when freedom is on the march.

All our commitments in the Middle East--all of the four commitments of our strategy--are now being tested in Iraq. We have removed a state sponsor of terror with a history of using weapons of mass destruction. And the whole world is better off with Saddam Hussein sitting in a prison cell. We now lace Al Qaida associates like the terrorist Zarqawi, who seek to hijack the future of that nation. We are fighting enemies who want us to retreat and leave Iraq to tyranny so they can claim an ideological victory over America. They would use that victory to gather new strength and take their violence directly to America and to our friends. Yet our coalition is determined, and the Iraqi people have made clear: Iraq will remain in the camp of free nations.

The Iraqi people are moving forward in clear, steady steps, with our support, to achieve democracy. Iraq now has a designated Prime Minister, Ayad al-Alwai, a respected Iraqi patriot once targeted by Saddam Hussein's assassins. I spoke with the Prime Minister yesterday. He recognized the sacrifice of brave Americans who have given their lives in Iraq, and lie pledged that his country would be a friend and ally of America in peace.

Along with a President and two Deputy Presidents, Prime Minister al-Alwai will lead a government of 33 ministers, which take office immediately and begin preparing for the transfer of full sovereignty, by June the 30th. America and Great Britain are now working with the United Nations Security Council and Iraq's new leaders on a resolution that will endorse the sovereign government of Iraq and urge other nations to actively support it.