www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/10/20031003-4.html
Im here to herald the small businesses which are the strength of the economy of the United States of America. I appreciate your willingness to give me a chance to talk about our country. I traveled today with a man who you trained well, a person who serves in my Cabinet, in one of the most difficult jobs of all, Secretary of Health and Human Services. He represents our country with class and distinction, and that is Tommy Thompson. Today I also had the privilege of flying from Washington to Milwaukee with three members of the congressional delegation from the great state of Wisconsin: Jim Sensenbrenner, Tom Petri, and Paul Ryan. And its a chance for us to talk about issues of concern and one thing is clear, the three love the state of Wisconsin and they represent you well, and Im proud to call them friends, and I enjoy working with them. I enjoy working with them to try to change the tone in Washington, to elevate the discourse, to get rid of needless politics and partisan bickering and focus on the peoples business. They understand what Im talking about, and theyre good, strong leaders. I want to thank the members of the State House who have come today. Theres a lot of local officials here, starting with Scott Walker, the county executive. You dont know Bubeck at all, and I didnt either - maybe some of you do. The reason I herald him is because he is a soldier in the army of compassion. Hes one of these kind citizens who has decided to make a difference in other peoples lives. A lot of times we talk about the strength of America, and people automatically think about maybe the size of our wallet or the strength of our military. No, the strength of our country is the fact that weve got fantastic citizens who hurt when somebody hurts, who worry when somebody needs help. He understands that he employs a lot of really decent folks who care about the community in which they live. And hes assumed his responsibility as a CEO in this way: he offers paid leave to employees to go out and help in a neighborhood. Hes encouraged people to go tutor, so that if a child is having trouble learning to read, he or she can succeed in life. What Im telling you is, he is encouraging people of compassion by providing leave for those folks in their business. No, the strength of this country is the fact that when communities all across America, when we find somebody who hurts, there is some good soul willing to stand up and say, I love you. And I want to thank Roy for his leadership and encourage others who are CEOs in corporate America to encourage those whove heard the call to love a neighbor like youd like to be loved yourself to do so by good corporate policy. I want to review some of the challenges we faced, if we can kind of summarize the obstacles we overcome, youll see why Im such an optimistic person, because we have overcome a lot as a nation. First of all, the market - stock market began a decline in March of 2000. That affected a lot of citizens, because we are slowly but surely becoming an ownership society in America. More and more people are owning equities or bonds as a result of 401ks or pension plans. They affect their pocketbooks, they affect their - obviously, their wealth. In early 2001, we had a recession, three-quarters of negative growth. We acted, and Congress - with the Congress, we acted by passing tax relief. And by far, the vast majority of economic historians would say that as a result of the tax relief, the recession was shallow because we started coming out after three-quarters. Some would say, well, maybe the recession should have run its course, maybe it should have been deep, and you shouldnt have had the tax relief. Shallow recession was good because fewer people were laid off, fewer people hurt, fewer people were worried about their - about their future. And then we were attacked on September the 11th, 2001, and that hurt us. See, we grew up in a time when we thought oceans could protect us, that there may have been threats overseas, but we could pick or choose which threats to deal with because we were invulnerable here in America. All of a sudden, it became apparent to all of us that an enemy could hurt us at home, an enemy that hates what we stand for.
September the 11th not only affected us in the pocketbook, it changed the strategic vision of our country, that we just couldnt see threats gathering overseas and ignore them, that we had to deal with them before they came to hit us. The realities of September the 11th changed the way America must view threats. I vowed on September the 11th - after September the 11th, that I would do everything in my power, with a great country, to hunt down those who killed Americans, plotted against Americans, and bring them to justice. Thanks to a lot of brave Americans and coalition friends, were dismantling al Qaeda, person by person. It doesnt matter how long it takes, we will complete the job, for the security of our country. I also put a doctrine out after September the 11th, 2001, that said, if you harbor a terrorist, if you house a terrorist, if you feed a terrorist, you are just as guilty as the terrorist, and we have upheld that doctrine. The Taliban was a regime which allowed for the al Qaeda to train, it gave them safe haven. At the same time, by the way, one of the most barbaric regimes in the history of mankind. The United States led a coalition to not only uphold that doctrine, but to free the people of Afghanistan. We believe strongly in this country that freedom is not Americas gift to the world, we believe strongly that freedom is Gods gift to every individual in the world. Thanks to the United States and our coalition, the Afghan people are free from the Taliban, America is more secure, and young girls - many young girls for the first time now go to school. We not only acted to make our country more secure, to do our duty to deal with threats or the potential threats, but at the same time we freed people. I made it clear that we wanted to work with the international community, we want to enforce the United Nations resolutions that time and time again had called for Mr. Saddam Hussein to disclose and destroy weapons of mass destruction. David Kay and his team reported to the Congress about three months of investigations into the regime of Saddam Hussein and his weapons programs. By the way, it was completed under incredibly difficult circumstances. It states that Saddam Husseins regime had a clandestine network of biological laboratories. He had advanced design work done on prohibited long-range missiles. The report summarized the regimes efforts this way, and I quote Dr. Iraqs WMD programs spanned more than two decades, involved thousands of people, billions of dollars and it was elaborately shielded by security and deception operations that continued even beyond the end of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Kays team discovered what the report calls, Dozens of WMD related program activities and significant amounts of equipment that Iraq concealed from the United Nations during the inspections that began in late 2002. Kay found systematic destruction of evidence of the illegal activities. Extensive work remains to be done on his biological, chemical and nuclear programs. But these findings already make clear that Saddam Hussein actively deceived the international community, was in clear violation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1441 and was a danger to the world. A free Iraq, a peaceful Iraq will help change an area of the world that needs peace and freedom. A peaceful Iraq and a free Iraq is part of our campaign to rid the world of terror. And thats why the thugs in Iraq still resist us, because they cant stand the thought of free societies. Whats taking place in Iraq is the evolution of a society, to be democratic in nation - nature, a society in which the people are better off. He was charged with going to Baghdad to help the Iraqis develop a police force. And in a very quick period of time - remember, weve been there for about four months-plus. Over 37,000 Iraqis now are patrolling the streets of Baghdad to make it a safer place. The reason I bring this up is...
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