Transcript: Bush Speaks About War on Terror

This is our danger, but not our fate.

BUSH: America has the resources and the strength and the resolve to overcome this threat. We are waging a broad and unrelenting war against terror and an active campaign against proliferation. We refuse to live in fear.

We are making steady progress. To protect our people, we’re staying on the offensive against threats within our own country. We’re using the Patriot Act to track terrorist activity and to break up terror cells. Intelligence and law enforcement officials are sharing information as never before. We’ve transformed the mission of the FBI to focus on preventing terrorism.

Every element of our homeland security plan is critical, because the terrorists are ruthless and resourceful, and we know they’re preparing to attack us again.

It’s not possible to guarantee perfect security in our vast, free nation. But I can assure our fellow Americans, many fine professionals in intelligence and national security and homeland security and law enforcement are working around the clock, doing everything they can to protect the country. And we’re grateful to them all.

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To overcome the dangers of our time, America’s also taking a new approach in the world. We’re determined to challenge new threats, not ignore them or simply wait for future tragedy.

BUSH: We’re helping to build a hopeful future in hopeless places instead of allowing troubled regions to remain in despair and explode in violence. Our goal is a lasting, democratic peace in which free nations are free from the threat of sudden terror.

Our strategy for peace has three commitments.

First, we are defending the peace by taking the fight to the enemy. We will confront them overseas so we do not have to confront them here at home.

(APPLAUSE)

We are destroying the leadership of terrorist networks in sudden raids, disrupting their planning and financing, and keeping them on the run. Month by month, we are shrinking the space in which they can freely operate by denying them territory and the support of governments.

Second, we are protecting the peace by working with friends and allies and international institutions to isolate and confront terrorists and outlaw regimes.

America is leading a broad coalition of nations to disrupt proliferation. We’re working with the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency and other international organizations to take action in our common security.

BUSH: The global threat of terrorism requires a global response. To be effective, that global response requires leadership, and America will lead.

(APPLAUSE)

Third, we are extending the peace by supporting the rise of democracy, and the hope and progress that democracy brings as the alternative to hatred and terror, in the broader Middle East.

In democratic and successful societies, men and women do not swear allegiance to malcontents and murderers. They turn their hearts and labor to building better lives.

And democratic governments do not shelter terrorist camps, or attack their peaceful neighbors. When justice and democracy advance, so does the hope of lasting peace.

We have followed this strategy, defending the peace, protecting the peace and extending the peace for nearly three years. We have been focused and patient, firm and consistent, and the results are all now clear to see.

Three years ago, the nation of Afghanistan was the home base of Al Qaida, a country ruled by the Taliban, one of the most backward and brutal regimes of modern history. Schooling was denied girls, women were whipped in the streets and executed in a sports stadium, millions lived in fear.

BUSH: With protection from the Taliban, Al Qaida and its associates trained, indoctrinated and sent forth thousands of killers to set up terror cells in dozens of countries, including our own.

Today Afghanistan is a world away from the nightmare of the Taliban. That country has a good and just president, boys and girls are being educated, many refugees have returned home to rebuild their country, and a presidential election is scheduled for this fall. The terror camps are closed and the Afghan government is helping us to hunt the Taliban and terrorists in remote regions.

Today, because we acted to liberate Afghanistan, a threat has been removed and the American people are safer.