Remarks to the Reserve Officers Association

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, Oct 2, 2006

September 29, 2006

Thanks, Captain Smith, for your kind introduction. Thank you all for being here, and thank you for the warm welcome. I am honored to stand with the men and women of the Reserve Officers Association. For more than 80 years, this organization has stood up for America and its citizen soldiers, and I appreciate your contribution to our country. We're safer because you stand ready to put on the uniform. I am grateful for your service, and I am proud to be your Commander in Chief.

I want to speak to you today about the struggle between moderation and extremism that is unfolding across the broader Middle East. At this moment, terrorists and extremists are fighting to overthrow moderate governments in the region so they can take control of countries and use them as bases from which to attack America and from which to impose their hateful ideology. This is the challenge of our time. This is the call of a generation, to stand against the extremists and support moderate leaders across the broader Middle East, to help us all secure a future of peace.

This week in Washington, I met with two courageous leaders who are working for peace, President Karzai of Afghanistan and President Musharraf of Pakistan. These leaders understand the stakes in the struggle, in the ideological struggle of the 21st century. They understand the stakes from a personal perspective as well, since the extremists have tried to assassinate them. They are courageous people. They have seen the destruction that terrorists have caused in their own country, and they know this, that the only way to stop them is to work together and to stay on the offense. By standing with brave leaders like these, we are defending civilization itself and we're building a more peaceful world for our children and grandchildren.

I appreciate very much the Ambassador from Afghanistan, Ambassador Jawad, and Ambassador Durrani from Pakistan for joining us here today. Thank you all for coming. I appreciate members of my administration who have joined us. I appreciate people wearing the uniform who have joined us. I appreciate those from Walter Reed who have joined us, and from Bethesda. I thank you for your sacrifice.

I also want to thank those from Walter Reed who are--and Bethesda who are giving you the help you need to recover from your wounds. It gives me great comfort to be able to tell the loved ones of those who wear our uniform that if you get hurt, you will receive first class, compassionate care from the United States military. And so for the healers who are here, thank you for doing your duty and providing these brave folks the help they need to recover.

Earlier this month, our Nation marked the fifth anniversary of the September the 11th, 2001, terrorist attacks. We paused on that day to remember the innocent people who were killed that day. We paused to remember the rescue workers who rushed into burning towers to save lives. After 9/11, I stood in the well of the House of Representatives and declared that every nation, in every region, had a decision to make: Either you were with us, or you stood with the terrorists. Two nations, Afghanistan and Pakistan, made very different decisions with very different results.

Five years ago, Afghanistan was ruled by the brutal Taliban regime. Under the Taliban and Al Qaida, Afghanistan was a land where women were imprisoned in their own homes, where men were beaten for missing prayer meetings, where girls couldn't even go to school. What a hopeless society that was, under the rule of these hateful men. Afghanistan was the home to terrorist training camps. Under Al Qaida and the Taliban, Afghanistan was a terrorist safe haven. It was a launching pad for the horrific attacks that killed innocent people in New York City on September the 11th, 2001.

After 9/11, America gave the leaders of the Taliban a choice. We told them that they must turn over all of the leaders of Al Qaida hiding in their land. We told them they must close every terrorist training camp and hand over every terrorist to appropriate authorities. We told them they must give the United States full access to the terrorist training camps so they could make sure they were no longer operating. We told them these demands were not up for negotiation, and that if they did not comply immediately and hand over the terrorists, they would share in the same fate as the terrorists.

I felt these were reasonable demands. The Taliban regime chose unwisely--so within weeks after the 9/11 attacks, our coalition launched Operation Enduring Freedom. By December 2001, the Taliban regime had been removed from power, hundreds of Taliban and Al Qaida fighters had been captured or killed, and the terrorist camps where the enemy had planned the 9/11 attacks were shut down. We did what we said we were going to do. We made our intentions clear. We gave the Taliban a chance to make the right decision. They made the wrong decision, and we liberated Afghanistan.

The liberation of Afghanistan was a great achievement, and for those of you who served in that effort, thank you. I thank you on behalf of America, and the Afghan people thank you. But we knew it was only the beginning of our mission in Afghanistan. See, the liberation was only the start of an important mission to make this world a more peaceful place. We learned the lesson of the 1980s, when the United States had helped the Afghan people drive the Soviet Red army from Kabul and then decided our work was finished and left the Afghans to fend for themselves.