THE
PRESIDENT: Today our nation mourns those who lost their lives in the
mining accident in West Virginia. We send our prayers and heartfelt
condolences to the loved ones whose hearts are broken. We ask that the
good Lord comfort them in their time of need.
I want to thank the Governor of West Virginia for showing such
compassion, and I want to thank those who risked their lives to save
those miners for showing such courage. May God bless the good people of
West Virginia.
I just finished an important meeting, a briefing with members of my
national security team, a briefing hosted by Secretary Don Rumsfeld and
General Pete Pace. We spent time talking about this war on terror, the
global war on terror. And to make sure that my team understood the
progress we've made and the challenges ahead, the Secretary asked three
of our commanders to join in the briefing: Generals Abizaid, Casey and
General Dempsey.
I want to tell the American people that I am most impressed by the
caliber of these generals. They are smart, they are capable, they are
visionary and they're working hard to win this global war. We also were
able to speak to one of our fine ambassadors, Ambassador Khalilzad, from
Baghdad, as well.
During our briefing we talked about the areas of concern in this
global war on terror, recognizing that the enemy, which has an ideology
of hate and a desire to kill, lurks in parts around the world. I assured
the generals that this administration would do everything in our power
to bring these enemies to justice.
We also spent time talking about the two major fronts in this war on
terror, and that would be Iraq and Afghanistan. In Iraq, 2005 was a year
of progress toward meeting our goal of victory. If you really think
about it, there was three important elections that took place, and in an
atmosphere that some predicted wouldn't yield democracy. We had the
January elections, we had the constitution elections, we had elections
last December when nearly 11 million people defied the terrorists to
vote. The turnout in that country was 70 percent. Part of our strategy
for defeating the enemy in Iraq is for there to be a viable political
process. And when 70 percent of the people show up to vote, that's a
good sign. See, people are saying, I want to participate in the
democratic process. The Iraqis showed great courage.
Now, we look forward to the process, obviously, moving on. The
formation of a unity government is going to be important to the
stability of the future of Iraq. Before that happens, obviously you've
got to finish counting the votes. And that's going to happen over the
next couple of weeks. And then the government -- they're beginning to
form the government under their new constitution. It takes a two-third
vote of the parliament for certain top officials to assume office. And
to form this inclusive government, the Iraqi leaders must compromise and
negotiate and build consensus, and this is going to take some time.
What the American people will see during the weeks ahead is a
political process unfold; that people will be making decisions not based
upon who has got the biggest gun, but who has got the capacity to rally
the will of the people. And that's positive. Democracies are an
important part of our winning the war on terror. Democracies yield an
ideology that is based on an ideology that says, people are free -- free
to choose. The ideology of the enemy says, a few people will choose, and
if you don't like what we tell you to believe in, we'll kill you, or --
or treat you harshly.
And I want the American people to remember what life was like for the
poor people in Afghanistan under the Taliban. The Taliban had no hopeful
vision. They're vision was, if you don't agree with us, we'll take you
in the public square and whip you. They're vision was, women don't have
rights. They're vision was a dark and dim vision, which stands in stark
contrast to the vision based upon freedom and democracy.
The second part of our strategy is to -- in Iraq, a strategy for
victory, is to train the Iraqis so they can take the fight against the
few who would stop the progress of many. And during this election, we
were briefed about the security forces during the election. The
commanders talked about more than 215,000 Iraqi soldiers and police that
secured the country. That was an increase, by the way, of 85,000 since
January of 2005. General Casey labeled the performance of the troops as
superb.
Before the elections there was a number of joint operations to lay
the groundwork for a peaceful election. The Iraqis were in the lead on
election day. In other words, they were responsible for the security of
the elections. We were in a position to help them, but they were
responsible for securing the voting booths. And they did a fine job. The
number of attacks during the election were down dramatically. They
performed. And that's part of our calibrating whether or not the Iraqi
troops are becoming more capable. Numbers are one thing, but the ability
to perform is another. And during these elections, the Iraqi troops
showed our commanders on the ground and showed the American people that
they're becoming more and more capable of performing their duty to
provide security to the Iraqi people.
Now, you've got to understand that just because the elections went
forward that doesn't mean these Saddamists, Zarqawi types are going to
lay down their arms. They're not. There will still be violence. And
there will still be some who believe that they can affect the political
outcome of Iraq through violent means. We understand that. And we're
going to stay on the offense against these - "we" being coalition
forces, as well as the Iraqi forces. But the recent elections have
served as a real defeat for the rejectionists, and the Saddamists and al
Qaeda types. Sunni Arabs who had boycotted the process, joined the
process. And as they did so, those who want to stop the progress of
freedom are becoming more and more marginalized inside of Iraq.
So in 2006, the mission is to continue to hand over more and more
territory and more and more responsibility to Iraqi forces. A year ago
there was only a handful of Iraqi army and police battalions ready for
combat, ready to take the lead; today, there are more than 125 Iraqi
combat battalions fighting the enemy, and 50 of those are in the lead.
That's progress. And it's important progress, and it's an important part
of our strategy to win in Iraq. And as these forces become more
battle-hardened and take the lead, we're going to see continued
confidence in the Iraqi people of the Iraqis being able to defend
themselves, and that's important. And as we see more of these Iraqi
forces in the lead, we'll be able to continue with our desire, our
stated strategy that says as Iraqis stand up, we'll stand down.
The commanders have recently determined that we can reduce our combat
forces in Iraq from 17 to 15 brigades. And the reason they were able to
do so is because the Iraqis are more capable. The adjustment is
underway. This adjustment will result in a net decrease of several
thousand troops below the pre-election baseline of 138,000 U.S. troops
in Iraq. The decrease comes in addition to a reduction of about 20,000
troops who were in Iraq to assist with security during the December
elections.
Later this year, if Iraqis continue to make progress on the security
and political sides that we expect, we can discuss further possible
adjustments with the leaders of a new government in Iraq. But my
decisions will be based upon conditions on the ground and the
recommendation of our commanders, not based by false political
timetables in Washington, D.C. I'm not going to let politics get in the
way of doing the right thing in Iraq, and the American people have got
to understand that.
We've also got the opportunity to change our composition of our
forces inside Iraq. In 2006, we expect Iraqis will take more and more
control of the battle space, and as they do so, we will need fewer U.S.
troops to conduct combat operations around that country. More of our
forces will be dedicated to training and supporting the Iraqi units. In
the coming year, we will continue to focus on helping Iraqis improve
their logistics and intelligence capabilities so more Iraqi units can
take the fight and can sustain themselves in the fight.
We're also going to spend a lot of time on police training. An
important part of our strategy is not only to have a competent Iraqi
army, but police forces that are capable of earning the confidence of
the Iraqi citizens. To restore security, Iraq has got to have capable
police forces. And the recent reports of abuses by some of the Iraqi
police units are troubling, and that conduct is unacceptable. Our
commanders understand that, the Secretary understands that, and I know
that.
To stop such abuses and increase the professionalism of the Iraqi
police, General Dempsey, who is in charge of training, and others are
working with the Iraqis to continue making adjustments in the way the
forces are trained. First, we're going to work with the Iraqi government
to increase the training Iraqi police recruits receive in human rights
and the rule of law, so they understand the role of the police in a
democratic society.
Second, we're training Iraqi police with a program that has been
effective with the Iraqi army. In other words, when we find something
that works, we'll do it. And if we find something that's not working, we
change -- and that is to embed coalition transition teams inside Iraqi
special police units. Embedding our folks inside Iraqi army units has
worked. One reason why these Iraqi units are better able to take the
lead is because they've worked side-by-side with American specialists
and experts, some of our best troops. So we're going to embed these type
of soldiers with the Iraqi police forces, as well.
These transition teams will be made up of our officers, as well as
noncommissioned officers. The coalition teams will go in the field with
the police; they'll provide real-time advice and important assistance on
patrol and during operations. And between operations they're going to
train the Iraqi officers; they're going to help them become increasingly
capable and professional so they can serve and protect all the Iraqi
people without discrimination.
As we train not only the soldiers, but the police, our special units
will continue hunting down al Qaeda and their affiliates. See, al Qaeda
thinks they can use Iraq as a safe haven from which to launch attacks.
That's their stated objective. I'm not making this up. Nobody in -- this
is what Zawahiri and Zarqawi discussed. They said, let's drive America
out of Iraq so we can use Iraq as a safe haven. We're going to train
Iraqis, we'll train their army and train their police, and at the same
time, we've got some of the finest soldiers ever on the hunt to bring
Zarqawi and his buddies to justice.
The second front is in Afghanistan. The second major front in this
global war against these terrorists is in Afghanistan, where we've made
steady progress on the road to democracy. Karzai got elected; there's a
sitting parliament. It's amazing how far Afghanistan has come from the
days of the Taliban. General Abizaid told us in our briefing that new
democracy is being increasingly defended by a capable Afghan army and
police. The Afghan national army is now nearly 27,000 soldiers who are
trained and equipped. General Abizaid tells us these soldiers are tough
in battle. They want to defend their homeland. There are some 55,000
Afghan police officers on the beat. They're taking the fight to the
enemy. They're working side-by-side with coalition forces to protect
this new democracy.
They're receiving a lot of international support through the NATO
Alliance. The NATO-led international security assistance force has now
about 9,000 troops in the country that represents all 26 NATO allies and
10 non-NATO nations. In other words, the international community is
stepping up. Like they have in Iraq, they're stepping up in Afghanistan,
as well. In 2006, the force levels will increase by up to another 6,000
forces, to a total of approximately 15,000 personnel. In other words,
you're going to see in 2006 an increase of international force inside of
Afghanistan.
As NATO takes on a larger role in Afghanistan and as the capability
of Afghan forces continues to grow, the United States will reduce force
levels in Afghanistan from 19,000 to 16,500 this year. In other words,
our strategy has been to provide a strong commitment to provide
stability so democracy can flourish. And then as others, including
Afghan troops, as well as NATO troops, step in, we step back. We're
going to continue to conduct anti-terrorist operations in Afghanistan,
as well. This is a part of a global war against the terrorist network.
I said after September the 11th we would do everything in our power
to bring justice to the enemy that attacked the American people, and I
meant it. And part of chasing down the Taliban and al Qaeda is to find
them where they hide. And just like in Iraq, we're going to have our
special forces stay on the hunt. And we'll continue training at the same
time.
There's a lot of work to be done in this war on terror, but the
American people can be rest assured this administration understands the
task, and understands the challenges, and understands our obligation to
protect you, to protect the American people.
During the past year we lost some really good folks who wore the
uniform of the United States of America. We pray for their loved ones.
We pray for the comfort of those who had a sorrowful holiday season
because a seat at the table was empty. And we vow to those that we will
complete our mission: We will lay that foundation of peace for
generations to come; that we'll do our duty to protect this country by
not only bringing justice to an enemy that wants to do us harm, but by
spreading freedom and democracy.
Thank you very much.