Strategy for Victory

Wednesday, June 02, 2004
President Bush’s Strategy for Victory In the War on Terror


Today, the President discussed his strategy for victory in the larger War on Terror – describing a clash of political visions between terrorists who want to impose a future of darkness across the Middle East, and America’s vision of liberty and respect for human dignity.

Just as events in Europe determined the outcome of the Cold War, events in the Middle East will set the course of the War on Terror:

If the Middle East is abandoned to dictators and terrorists, it will be a constant source of violence and alarm – exporting killers of increasingly destructive power to attack America and other free nations.

If the Middle East grows in democracy, prosperity, and hope, the terrorist movement will lose its sponsors, lose its recruits, and lose the festering grievances that keep terrorists in business.

The stakes of this struggle are high – the future security and peace of our country – and success in this struggle is our only option. To make America safer, the President is pursuing a strategy that calls for:
1) Using every available tool to disrupt, dismantle, and destroy terrorists and their organizations;
2) Denying terrorists places of sanctuary and support and preventing the emergence of terrorist-controlled states;
3) Using all elements of national power to deny terrorists the chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons they seek; and
4) Working for freedom and reform in the broader Middle East, stopping the flow of recruits into the terrorist movement by offering a real and hopeful alternative.

All four elements of this strategy are being applied and tested in Iraq. America removed a state sponsor of terror with a history of using weapons of mass destruction. We now face al-Qaida associates like Zarqawi who seek to hijack Iraq’s future.

Our coalition is determined – and the Iraqi people have made it clear: Iraq will remain in the camp of freedom. As recent developments have shown, the Iraqi people are moving forward to achieve democracy.

Iraq now has a designated prime minister, along with a president and two deputy presidents, who will lead a government of 33 ministers that will take office immediately in preparation for transfer of full sovereignty on June 30. America and Great Britain are now working with the UN 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.

The United States and our allies, working with the United Nations, will help Iraq’s new government prepare for national elections by January of 2005.

Many brave Iraqis have stepped forward to fight for their own freedom, and they are working closely with US and coalition forces to disband illegal militia, defeat terrorists, and secure the safe arrival of Iraqi democracy.

The enemy knows the stakes as well as we do, and they will try to use violence to reverse gains made in Iraq. But our coalition is prepared, our will is strong, and neither Iraq’s new leadership nor the United States will be intimidated by thugs and assassins.
http://www.gop.com/news/read.aspx?ID=4258


All four elements are being tested in Iraq now at this time.

mkue