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President Bush Visits Troops in Iraq

明日
指点迷津
2024-11-29
8

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you for coming out to say hello. General, thank you for the introduction, I am honored to be at Camp Victory. ,AUDIENCE: Hoo-ah! ,THE PRESIDENT: Laura and I have been having a lot of Christmas parties at the White House, so I thought it would be kind of neat to change the scenery. ,AUDIENCE: Hoo-ah! ,THE PRESIDENT: And I would rather be with the men and women of the United States military than with anybody else. (Applause.) ,So as you can see I decided¹ to fly over, and in the spirit of the season we renamed Air Force One to Rudolph One. ,AUDIENCE: Hoo-ah ,THE PRESIDENT: Thanks for coming. I bring greetings from a proud and grateful nation -- Merry Christmas to you, happy holidays. Congratulations on your inspiring accomplishments² here in Iraq. And above all, thank you for volunteering to defend our country in a time of danger. ,AUDIENCE: Hoo-ah! ,THE PRESIDENT: This is a time of year to give thanks for our many blessings⁴ B- and the greatest blessing³ we have is freedom and the fact that we've got a United States military to defend that freedom. ,So General, thank you very much for your leadership. I'm proud to be with you again. I appreciate the leadership of General Austin, as well. Ambassador Crocker and Christine are with us today. I had the pleasure of meeting Sergeant⁵ -- Command Sergeant Major Lawrence Wilson; Command Sergeant Major Joe Allen; Major General Hammond -- (applause) -- put it together for Hammond. (Laughter.) ,AUDIENCE: Hoo-ah! ,THE PRESIDENT: Command Sergeant Major Gioia. ,AUDIENCE: Hoo-ah! ,THE PRESIDENT: Major General Oates. (Applause.) How about, have you ever heard of a guy named Redmore? (Applause.) ,Thanks for coming out. I am thrilled to be here with the diplomats⁶, embassy personnel who are so critical to our success. ,I want to thank the Iraqi citizens who are here with us today. I appreciate your courage. I know there are members of the coalition⁷ who are here with us. There have been a lot of troops from around the world who have come to help this young democracy survive and thrive. And so I want to thank the citizens of those country [sic] and the troops who have served here before us. ,This is my fourth trip to Iraq -- and you've probably heard I'm heading into retirement⁸ -- (laughter) -- so it's going to be my last trip as the President. But thanks to you, the Iraq we stand in tonight is dramatically freer, dramatically safer, and dramatically better than the Iraq we found eight years ago. ,AUDIENCE: Hoo-ah! ,THE PRESIDENT: And as a result of the sacrifices of our troops, America is safer, and America is more secure. ,AUDIENCE: Hoo-ah! ,THE PRESIDENT: I want to take you back to what life was like eight years ago here in Iraq. Iraq had a record of supporting terror, a record of developing and using weapons of mass destruction, was routinely firing at American military personnel, systematically⁹ violating United Nations resolution. Life for the Iraqi people was a nightmare, with Saddam Hussein torturing and murdering anyone who did not support his repressive rule. Iraq was a sworn enemy of the United States at the heart of the Middle East; the region was a serious threat to the us. ,After the attacks of September the 11th, 2001, America concluded we could not tolerate a regime like this in a pivotal region of the world. I gave Saddam Hussein a chance to peacefully resolve the question as to whether or not he had weapons of mass destruction. You might remember, I went to the United Nations, where a body said: disarm¹⁰, disclose, or face serious consequence. It was his choice to make. And he made the wrong choice. And so the United States military, with a vast coalition removed this man from power and the world is better off for it. (Applause.) ,AUDIENCE: USA! USA! USA! ,THE PRESIDENT: I doubt in his worst nightmares he ever would have dreamt that we'd be standing¹¹ in one of his palaces. ,AUDIENCE: Hoo-ah! ,THE PRESIDENT: Thanks to you, 25 million Iraqis are free. ,Thanks to you, Iraq is no longer sponsoring terror -- it is fighting terror. It's making American people safer as a result. ,The enemies of freedom in Iraq are determined¹², and this fight has been tough. Two years ago, the situation had grown dire¹³ -- the political process was frozen and sectarian violence was spiraling out of control. Some of you were here then/ ,Many said the mission was hopeless; many called for retreat. Retreat would have meant failure -- and failure is never an option. ,AUDIENCE: Hoo-ah! ,THE PRESIDENT: So instead of pulling troops out, we sent more troops in -- called the surge. And because of you and because of your courage, the surge is one of the greatest successes in the history of the United States military. ,AUDIENCE: Hoo-ah! ,THE PRESIDENT: Terrorists who once held safe havens¹⁴ across the country are being driven out of their strongholds. The political process that was once stalled is moving forward. Iraqi citizens once afraid to leave their homes are going back to school, and shopping in markets, and leading a more normal life. And American troops are returning home because of success.

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