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Been there, heard that Rallying the NationBy Rick Horowitz
(The president's speech -- an alternate transcript.)
Good evening. Please be seated.
I'm pleased to visit Fort Bragg, "Home of the Airborne and Special Operations Forces." It's an honor and a photo-op to be surrounded by so many courageous men and women, and I thank you for your service. Feel free to interrupt me with applause whenever you feel like it. That's the whole point of having you here.
The troops at Fort Bragg and across the world are fighting a global war on terror. Anyone who looks at a globe knows that Iraq is part of it, about two inches to the right of Egypt. As your commander in chief, I have personally looked at that globe many times, and I have come to this conclusion: It's a small world after all.
September 11th. September 11th. September 11th.
The terrorists who attacked us and the terrorists we face share a sentence cleverly designed to make you think they're the same people. There is only one course of action against such a sentence: careful listening. As your commander in chief, I've gotten away with this kind of sentence many times in the past, and I'm betting you won't notice this time either.
This nation will not wait to be attacked again. We will take the fight to Osama bin Saddam, and we will prevail.
The work in Iraq is difficult and it is dangerous. Like most Americans, I see the images of violence and bloodshed. And like most Americans, I can turn off the TV anytime I want to. I certainly don't read the newspapers.
Our progress in Iraq has been uneven, which isn't the same thing as saying it's been odd. Our coalition continues to spread freedom and democracy from one end of Iraq to the other. Some 30 nations have troops in Iraq, and those are 49 of the bravest soldiers you'll ever meet.
Feel free to interrupt me with applause.
Today, Iraq has more than 160,000 security forces trained and equipped for a variety of missions. In the months ahead, we hope to add "fighting" to that list. Until then, however, America will help the Iraqis defend themselves against the murderous followers of Saddam bin Zarqawi.
Our strategy can be summed up this way: As the Iraqis stand up, they get shot down. Better them than us.
September 11th. September 11th. September 11th.
Some Americans ask me, "If completing the mission is so important, why don't you send more troops?" I say, "More troops from where? We can't make our recruiting quotas as it is!"
If our commanders on the ground say we need more troops, I will find those troops, and I will send them to Iraq, along with replacements for those commanders.
We will stay in Iraq as long as we are needed and not a day longer. Twelve years, tops.
This is a time of testing. The radical Talibaathists are trying to shake our will, just as they tried to do before. They will fail, because America will never forget the lessons of September 11th, not on my watch. The main lesson is that my poll numbers go up whenever I mention September 11th, even if Iraq had absolutely nothing to do with it.
We fight today because terrorists want to attack our country and kill our citizens, and Iraqistan is where they're making their stand.
We fight today because we can keep coming up with new reasons to justify being there.
And we fight today because if we leave today, it'll be an even bigger mess than it already is.
America has done difficult work before. But Americans have always held firm. We know that when the work is hard, the proper response is not retreat, it is applause.
I'm still waiting.
After September 11th, I told the American people that the road ahead would be difficult, and that we would prevail. Well, it has been difficult -- and we are prevailing. Some question how I can request time on all the major networks for a speech that basically repeats what I've been saying for more than a year, that lays out no new plans and offers no new strategies for success.
To these people I say, "Go fly a flag."
Posted 7/1/05. See behind the headlines right here at "Rick's"! (Have you told your friends?)
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Rick Horowitz
