Bush: American Leadership Changing World for the Better

By Kathleen T. Rhem
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, July 14, 2004 -- The world is changing for the better because of
American leadership, President Bush told a crowd this morning in Waukesha, Wis.
He delivered a similar message at an afternoon event.

Bush cited terror-war successes in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Libya
and Iraq as proof that American ideals of liberty and hope are prevailing
throughout the world and making this country safer for its citizens.

Afghanistan had been the home base of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terrorist
network. "Now the terror camps are closed, democracy is rising, and the
American people are safer," Bush said during the earlier event.

He said Pakistan was "a safe transit point for terrorists on missions of
murder." Now, Bush said, the Pakistani government is working with the United
States to find terrorists in remote regions of Pakistan.

The Saudi Arabian government is doing more to track down terrorists operating
in that country, and Libya has given up its nuclear-processing equipment, the
president said.

And before America took action, "the dictator in Iraq was a threat – he was a
threat to us; he was a threat to the free world; he was a threat to the people
in the (Middle East) neighborhood; and he was a threat to his own people," Bush
said of Saddam Hussein. "That dictator is no longer a threat, and the American
people are safer."

In Iraq and Afghanistan, those countries' citizens are taking more
responsibility for their own security and need to know they can count on
America for support, Bush said.

"They want to live in freedom," he said, of Iraqi and Afghan citizens. "Their
moms and dads want their children to be able to grow up in a peaceful and free
society.

"They can count on us," he added. "That's what they need to hear."

Bush said the United States was right to take military action in Iraq even
though stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction haven't been discovered there.

"We removed a declared enemy of America who had the capability of producing
weapons of mass destruction," he said. "(Saddam) had that capability, and he
could have passed that capability to terrorists bent on acquiring them.

"After Sept. 11, that was a risk we could not afford to take," he added.

The president said the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, taught Americans a
lesson they must never forget. "It's a lesson I'll never forget," he said.
"America must confront threats before they fully materialize -- before it's too
late."

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NOTE: View the original version of this web page on DefenseLINK,
the official website of the U.S. Department of Defense, at
[url]http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Jul2004/n07142004_2004071404.html[/url].



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and information about America's response to the Sept. 11, 2001,
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at [url]http://www.dod.mil/transformation/[/url] to learn more
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