President Bush's address to the Nation in front of a joint session of Congress, with Tony Blair in attendence:
The terrorists' directive commands them to kill Christians and Jews, to kill all Americans and make no distinctions among military and civilians, including women and children. This group and its leader, a person named Osama bin Laden, are linked to many other organizations in different countries, including the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan.
There are thousands of these terrorists in more than 60 countries. (snip)
Our war on terror begins with al Qaeda, but it does not end there.
It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated.
Americans are asking "Why do they hate us?"
They hate what they see right here in this chamber: a democratically elected government. Their leaders are self-appointed. They hate our freedoms: our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other.
They want to overthrow existing governments in many Muslim countries such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. They want to drive Israel out of the Middle East. They want to drive Christians and Jews out of vast regions of Asia and Africa.
These terrorists kill not merely to end lives, but to disrupt and end a way of life. With every atrocity, they hope that America grows fearful, retreating from the world and forsaking our friends. They stand against us because we stand in their way. (snip)
We will direct every resource at our command -- every means of diplomacy, every tool of intelligence, every instrument of law enforcement, every financial influence, and every necessary weapon of war -- to the destruction and to the defeat of the global terror network.
Now, this war will not be like the war against Iraq a decade ago, with a decisive liberation of territory and a swift conclusion. It will not look like the air war above Kosovo two years ago, where no ground troops were used and not a single American was lost in combat.
Our response involves far more than instant retaliation and isolated strikes. Americans should not expect one battle, but a lengthy campaign unlike any other we have ever seen. It may include dramatic strikes visible on TV and covert operations secret even in success.
We will starve terrorists of funding, turn them one against another, drive them from place to place until there is no refuge or no rest.
And we will pursue nations that provide aid or safe haven to terrorism. Every nation in every region now has a decision to make: Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists.
From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime. Our nation has been put on notice, we're not immune from attack. We will take defensive measures against terrorism to protect Americans. Today, dozens of federal departments and agencies, as well as state and local governments, have responsibilities affecting homeland security.
Read the whole thing. Also, you can listen to the speech. We can go and kill terrorists willy nilly across the globe, but we have to stop the nations that harbor and support them.
Cross posted at the Pirate's Cove
Posted by William Teach at August 18, 2005 10:44 PM | TrackBackI was thinking just yesterday about the whole "need to understand the terrorists" pile of s***.
2 reasons to understand them, and only 2:
1. Before they've carried out an attack, understand them so we can prevent the attack;
2. After they've carried out an attack, or we know specific plans they have for carrying one out, understand them so we can hunt them down and kill them.
Posted by: Jeff H at August 19, 2005 08:51 AMI had been getting tired of the same old tired "Iraq has nothing to do with the GWoT" stuff from the Left, and I thought back to that speech. They want to ignore Saddam's serious support of terrorism. Better to start with Iraq, then work our way around the ME. And kill terrorists.
Posted by: William Teach at August 19, 2005 01:52 PM"Our war on terror begins with al Qaeda, but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated. "
This is a great point, but how can this be done? Terrorist are everywhere, even in Amereica, are we supposed to go to war with every country? Say we win our war in Iraq, what then? Is the war on terrorism something that can never be won or is it Instead an ongoing battle. Our war in Iraq will not stop terrorism, maybe delay it, but not stop it. Taking away Iraq as the center of terroism will only cause another country to become the headquarters. We need to work on strengthening our own country and its borders so that the next time someone plans on attacking us we can stop them before they ever make it into our country. I believe terrorism is something that needs to be stopped. However I think we need to take care of the terrorist inside our own country first, fighting them from the inside out.