Transcript: President Bush's UN General Assembly Speech
Following is the text of the president's speech:
(begin text)
THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary (New York, New York) For
Immediate Release November 10, 2001
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
TO UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY
U.N. Headquarters New York, New York
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Mr. Secretary General, Mr. President,
distinguished delegates, and ladies and gentlemen. We meet in a hall
devoted to peace, in a city scarred by violence, in a nation awakened to
danger, in a world uniting for a long struggle. Every civilized nation
here today is resolved to keep the most basic commitment of civilization:
We will defend ourselves and our future against terror and lawless
violence.
The United Nations was founded in this cause. In a second world war, we
learned there is no isolation from evil. We affirmed that some crimes are
so terrible they offend humanity, itself. And we resolved that the
aggressions and ambitions of the wicked must be opposed early,
decisively, and collectively, before they threaten us all. That evil has
returned, and that cause is renewed.
A few miles from here, many thousands still lie in a tomb of rubble.
Tomorrow, the Secretary General, the President of the General Assembly,
and I will visit that site, where the names of every nation and region
that lost citizens will be read aloud. If we were to read the names of
every person who died, it would take more than three hours.
Those names include a citizen of Gambia, whose wife spent their fourth
wedding anniversary, September the 12th, searching in vain for her
husband. Those names include a man who supported his wife in Mexico,
sending home money every week. Those names include a young Pakistani who
prayed toward Mecca five times a day, and died that day trying to save
others.
The suffering of September the 11th was inflicted on people of many
faiths and many nations. All of the victims, including Muslims, were
killed with equal indifference and equal satisfaction by the terrorist
leaders. The terrorists are violating the tenets of every religion,
including the one they invoke.
Last week, the Sheikh of Al-Azhar University, the world's oldest Islamic
institution of higher learning, declared that terrorism is a disease, and
that Islam prohibits killing innocent civilians. The terrorists call
their cause holy, yet, they fund it with drug dealing; they encourage
murder and suicide in the name of a great faith that forbids both. They
dare to ask God's blessing as they set out to kill innocent men, women
and children. But the God of Isaac and Ishmael would never answer such a
prayer. And a murderer is not a martyr; he is just a murderer.
Time is passing. Yet, for the United States of America, there will be no
forgetting September the 11th. We will remember every rescuer who died in
honor. We will remember every family that lives in grief. We will
remember the fire and ash, the last phone calls, the funerals of the
children.
And the people of my country will remember those who have plotted against
us. We are learning their names. We are coming to know their faces. There
is no corner of the Earth distant or dark enough to protect them. However
long it takes, their hour of justice will come.
Every nation has a stake in this cause. As we meet, the terrorists are
planning more murder -- perhaps in my country, or perhaps in yours. They
kill because they aspire to dominate. They seek to overthrow governments
and destabilize entire regions.
Last week, anticipating this meeting of the General Assembly, they
denounced the United Nations. They called our Secretary General a
criminal and condemned all Arab nations here as traitors to Islam.
Few countries meet their exacting standards of brutality and oppression.
Every other country is a potential target. And all the world faces the
most horrifying prospect of all: These same terrorists are searching for
weapons of mass destruction, the tools to turn their hatred into
holocaust. They can be expected to use chemical, biological and nuclear
weapons the moment they are capable of doing so. No hint of conscience
would prevent it.
This threat cannot be ignored. This threat cannot be appeased.
Civilization, itself, the civilization we share, is threatened. History
will record our response, and judge or justify every nation in this
hall.
The civilized world is now responding. We act to defend ourselves and
deliver our children from a future of fear. We choose the dignity of life
over a culture of death. We choose lawful change and civil disagreement
over coercion, subversion, and chaos. These commitments -- hope and
order, law and life -- unite people across cultures and continents. Upon
these commitments depend all peace and progress. For these commitments,
we are determined to fight.
The United Nations has risen to this responsibility. On the 12th of
September, these buildings opened for emergency meetings of the General
Assembly and the Security Council. Before the sun had set, these attacks
on the world stood condemned by the world. And I want to thank you for
this strong and principled stand.
I also thank the Arab Islamic countries that have condemned terrorist
murder. Many of you have seen the destruction of terror in your own
lands. The terrorists are increasingly isolated by their own hatred and
extremism. They cannot hide behind Islam. The authors of mass murder and
their allies have no place in any culture, and no home in any
faith.
The conspiracies of terror are being answered by an expanding global
coalition. Not every nation will be a part of every action against the
enemy. But every nation in our coalition has duties. These duties can be
demanding, as we in America are learning. We have already made
adjustments in our laws and in our daily lives. We're taking new measures
to investigate terror and to protect against threats.
The leaders of all nations must now carefully consider their
responsibilities and their future. Terrorist groups like al Qaeda depend
upon the aid or indifference of governments. They need the support of a
financial infrastructure, and safe havens to train and plan and
hide.
Some nations want to play their part in the fight against terror, but
tell us they lack the means to enforce their laws and control their
borders. We stand ready to help. Some governments still turn a blind eye
to the terrorists, hoping the threat will pass them by. They are
mistaken. And some governments, while pledging to uphold the principles
of the U.N., have cast their lot with the terrorists. They support them
and harbor them, and they will find that their welcome guests are
parasites that will weaken them, and eventually consume them.
For every regime that sponsors terror, there is a price to be paid. And
it will be paid. The allies of terror are equally guilty of murder and
equally accountable to justice.
The Taliban are now learning this lesson -- that regime and the
terrorists who support it are now virtually indistinguishable. Together
they promote terror abroad and impose a reign of terror on the Afghan
people. Women are executed in Kabul's soccer stadium. They can be beaten
for wearing socks that are too thin. Men are jailed for missing prayer
meetings.
The United States, supported by many nations, is bringing justice to the
terrorists in Afghanistan. We're making progress against military
targets, and that is our objective. Unlike the enemy, we seek to
minimize, not maximize, the loss of innocent life.
I'm proud of the honorable conduct of the American military. And my
country grieves for all the suffering the Taliban have brought upon
Afghanistan, including the terrible burden of war. The Afghan people do
not deserve their present rulers. Years of Taliban misrule have brought
nothing but misery and starvation. Even before this current crisis, 4
million Afghans depended on food from the United States and other
nations, and millions of Afghans were refugees from Taliban
oppression.
I make this promise to all the victims of that regime: The Taliban's days
of harboring terrorists and dealing in heroin and brutalizing women are
drawing to a close. And when that regime is gone, the people of
Afghanistan will say with the rest of the world: good riddance.
I can promise, too, that America will join the world in helping the
people of Afghanistan rebuild their country. Many nations, including
mine, are sending food and medicine to help Afghans through the winter.
America has air-dropped over 1.3 million packages of rations into
Afghanistan. Just this week, we air-lifted 20,000 blankets and over 200
tons of provisions into the region. We continue to provide humanitarian
aid, even while the Taliban tried to steal the food we send.
More help eventually will be needed. The United States will work closely
with the United Nations and development banks to reconstruct Afghanistan
after hostilities there have ceased and the Taliban are no longer in
control. And the United States will work with the U.N. to support a
post-Taliban government that represents all of the Afghan people.
In this war of terror, each of us must answer for what we have done or
what we have left undone. After tragedy, there is a time for sympathy and
condolence. And my country has been very grateful for both. The memorials
and vigils around the world will not be forgotten. But the time for
sympathy has now passed; the time for action has now arrived.
The most basic obligations in this new conflict have already been defined
by the United Nations. On September the 28th, the Security Council
adopted Resolution 1373. Its requirements are clear: Every United Nations
member has a responsibility to crack down on terrorist financing. We must
pass all necessary laws in our own countries to allow the confiscation of
terrorist assets. We must apply those laws to every financial institution
in every nation.
We have a responsibility to share intelligence and coordinate the efforts
of law enforcement. If you know something, tell us. If we know something,
we'll tell you. And when we find the terrorists, we must work together to
bring them to justice. We have a responsibility to deny any sanctuary,
safe haven or transit to terrorists. Every known terrorist camp must be
shut down, its operators apprehended, and evidence of their arrest
presented to the United Nations. We have a responsibility to deny weapons
to terrorists and to actively prevent private citizens from providing
them.
These obligations are urgent and they are binding on every nation with a
place in this chamber. Many governments are taking these obligations
seriously, and my country appreciates it. Yet, even beyond Resolution
1373, more is required, and more is expected of our coalition against
terror.
We're asking for a comprehensive commitment to this fight. We must unite
in opposing all terrorists, not just some of them. In this world there
are good causes and bad causes, and we may disagree on where the line is
drawn. Yet, there is no such thing as a good terrorist. No national
aspiration, no remembered wrong can ever justify the deliberate murder of
the innocent. Any government that rejects this principle, trying to pick
and choose its terrorist friends, will know the consequences.
We must speak the truth about terror. Let us
never tolerate outrageous conspiracy
theories concerning the attacks of September the 11th; malicious
lies that attempt to shift the blame away from the terrorists,
themselves, away from the guilty. To inflame ethnic hatred is to
advance the cause of terror.
The war against terror must not serve as an excuse to persecute ethnic
and religious minorities in any country. Innocent people must be allowed
to live their own lives, by their own customs, under their own religion.
And every nation must have avenues for the peaceful expression of opinion
and dissent. When these avenues are closed, the temptation to speak
through violence grows.
We must press on with our agenda for peace and prosperity in every land.
My country is pledged to encouraging development and expanding trade. My
country is pledged to investing in education and combatting AIDS and
other infectious diseases around the world. Following September 11th,
these pledges are even more important. In our struggle against hateful
groups that exploit poverty and despair, we must offer an alternative of
opportunity and hope.
The American government also stands by its commitment to a just peace in
the Middle East. We are working toward a day when two states, Israel and
Palestine, live peacefully together within secure and recognize borders
as called for by the Security Council resolutions. We will do all in our
power to bring both parties back into negotiations. But peace will only
come when all have sworn off, forever, incitement, violence and
terror.
And, finally, this struggle is a defining moment for the United Nations,
itself. And the world needs its principled leadership. It undermines the
credibility of this great institution, for example, when the Commission
on Human Rights offers seats to the world's most persistent violators of
human rights. The United Nations depends, above all, on its moral
authority -- and that authority must be preserved.
The steps I described will not be easy. For all nations, they will
require effort. For some nations, they will require great courage. Yet,
the cost of inaction is far greater. The only alternative to victory is a
nightmare world where every city is a potential killing field.
As I've told the American people, freedom and fear are at war. We face
enemies that hate not our policies, but our existence; the tolerance of
openness and creative culture that defines us. But the outcome of this
conflict is certain: There is a current in history and it runs toward
freedom. Our enemies resent it and dismiss it, but the dreams of mankind
are defined by liberty -- the natural right to create and build and
worship and live in dignity. When men and women are released from
oppression and isolation, they find fulfillment and hope, and they leave
poverty by the millions.
These aspirations are lifting up the peoples of Europe, Asia, Africa and
the Americas, and they can lift up all of the Islamic world.
We stand for the permanent hopes of humanity, and those hopes will not be
denied. We're confident, too, that history has an author who fills time
and eternity with his purpose. We know that evil is real, but good will
prevail against it. This is the teaching of many faiths, and in that
assurance we gain strength for a long journey.
It is our task -- the task of this generation -- to provide the response
to aggression and terror. We have no other choice, because there is no
other peace.
We did not ask for this mission, yet there is honor in history's call. We
have a chance to write the story of our times, a story of courage
defeating cruelty and light overcoming darkness. This calling is worthy
of any life, and worthy of every nation. So let us go forward, confident,
determined, and unafraid.
Thank you very much.
(end text)
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-THe eXTReMiST
Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid?
shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?
-Amos 3:6
The great day of the LORD is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even
the voice of the day of the LORD: the mighty man shall cry there
bitterly.
That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of
wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of
clouds and thick darkness,
A day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities,
and against the high towers.
And I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men,
because they have sinned against the LORD: and their blood shall be
poured out as dust, and their flesh as the dung.
-Zephaniah 1:14-17
Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and
no man regarded;
But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof:
I also will laugh at your calamity;
I will mock when your fear cometh;
When your fear cometh as desolation,
and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind;
when distress and anguish cometh upon you.
Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer;
they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:
For that they hated knowledge,
and did not choose the fear of the LORD:
They would none of my counsel:
they despised all my reproof.
Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled
with their own devices. For the turning away of the simple shall slay
them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.
-Proverbs 1:24-32
