Sep/091
Address to the Nation Announcing Strikes Against Al Qaida Training Camps and Taliban Military Installations in Afghanistan
9-11-2001
George W. Bush
XLIII President of the United States: 2001-2009
Address to the Nation Announcing Strikes Against Al Qaida Training Camps and Taliban Military Installations in Afghanistan
October 7, 2001
[source: http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=65088# ]
We are joined in this operation by our staunch friend, Great Britain. Other close friends, including Canada, Australia, Germany, and France, have pledged forces as the operation unfolds. More than 40 countries in the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and across Asia have granted air transit or landing rights. Many more have shared intelligence. We are supported by the collective will of the world.
More than 2 weeks ago, I gave Taliban leaders a series of clear and specific demands: Close terrorist training camps; hand over leaders of the Al Qaida network; and return all foreign nationals, including American citizens, unjustly detained in your country. None of these demands were met. And now the Taliban will pay a price. By destroying camps and disrupting communications, we will make it more difficult for the terror network to train new recruits and coordinate their evil plans.
Initially, the terrorists may burrow deeper into caves and other entrenched hiding places. Our military action is also designed to clear the way for sustained, comprehensive, and relentless operations to drive them out and bring them to justice.
At the same time, the oppressed people of Afghanistan will know the generosity of America and our allies. As we strike military targets, we’ll also drop food, medicine, and supplies to the starving and suffering men and women and children of Afghanistan.
The United States of America is a friend to the Afghan people, and we are the friends of almost a billion worldwide who practice the Islamic faith. The United States of America is an enemy of those who aid terrorists and of the barbaric criminals who profane a great religion by committing murder in its name.
This military action is a part of our campaign against terrorism, another front in a war that has already been joined through diplomacy, intelligence, the freezing of financial assets, and the arrests of known terrorists by law enforcement agents in 38 countries. Given the nature and reach of our enemies, we will win this conflict by the patient accumulation of successes, by meeting a series of challenges with determination and will and purpose.
Today we focus on Afghanistan, but the battle is broader. Every nation has a choice to make. In this conflict, there is no neutral ground. If any government sponsors the outlaws and killers of innocents, they have become outlaws and murderers, themselves. And they will take that lonely path at their own peril.
I’m speaking to you today from the Treaty Room of the White House, a place where American Presidents have worked for peace. We’re a peaceful nation. Yet, as we have learned so suddenly and so tragically, there can be no peace in a world of sudden terror. In the face of today’s new threat, the only way to pursue peace is to pursue those who threaten it.
We did not ask for this mission, but we will fulfill it. The name of today’s military operation is Enduring Freedom. We defend not only our precious freedoms but also the freedom of people everywhere to live and raise their children free from fear.
I know many Americans feel fear today. And our Government is taking strong precautions. All law enforcement and intelligence agencies are working aggressively around America, around the world, and around the clock. At my request, many Governors have activated the National Guard to strengthen airport security. We have called up Reserves to reinforce our military capability and strengthen the protection of our homeland.
In the months ahead, our patience will be one of our strengths: patience with the long waits that will result from tighter security; patience and understanding that it will take time to achieve our goals; patience in all the sacrifices that may come.
Today those sacrifices are being made by members of our Armed Forces who now defend us so far from home, and by their proud and worried families. A Commander in Chief sends America’s sons and daughters into a battle in a foreign land only after the greatest care and a lot of prayer. We ask a lot of those who wear our uniform. We ask them to leave their loved ones, to travel great distances, to risk injury, even to be prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice of their lives. They are dedicated; they are honorable; they represent the best of our country. And we are grateful.
To all the men and women in our military, every sailor, every soldier, every airman, every coastguardsman, every marine, I say this: Your mission is defined; your objectives are clear; your goal is just; you have my full confidence; and you will have every tool you need to carry out your duty.
I recently received a touching letter that says a lot about the state of America in these difficult times, a letter from a fourth-grade girl with a father in the military: “As much as I don’t want my dad to fight,” she wrote, “I’m willing to give him to you.”
This is a precious gift, the greatest she could give. This young girl knows what America is all about. Since September 11, an entire generation of young Americans has gained new understanding of the value of freedom and its cost in duty and in sacrifice.
The battle is now joined on many fronts. We will not waver; we will not tire; we will not falter; and we will not fail. Peace and freedom will prevail.
Thank you. May God continue to bless America.
Aug/080
Chavez’s Big Grab
hugo chavez
Is this why people love this guy? I just don’t get the love affair that people of free nations have with socialism. Chavez has already seized control over American companies when we built up their oil infrastructure and their telecommunications for their country. Now they are doing the same, not just to our European allies, but our friends to the south as well. How can we put up with someone like this? We should take action against him, with a coalition of the countries that Chavez has disgraced. Not necessarily military action but the first steps toward it. We could blockade his shipping ports, stop trades, and help the people in Venezuela that protest this dictator. We are too wrapped up in not wanting to look bad to the rest of the world, and most of the rest of the world is sympathetic to growing socialist countries like Venezuela. Even with that, we must not let him continue to use his military to force private companies, from other countries that put their time and money into Venezuela, out of the country.
Chavez’s Big Grab
By INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Wednesday, August 20, 2008 4:20 PM PT
http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=304125139898165Socialism: Venezuela’s seizure of Cemex assets Monday is more than a typical nationalization of resources. Its vindictive manner has much to do with the firm’s Mexican headquarters. It’s a message to others in the region.Like a quasi-military conquest, Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez marched in troops to “take back” four Cemex cement plants in the dead of night as part of his nationalization of cement announced in April. “It was time,” he said Tuesday, calling it one of his “steps toward socialism.”
Chavez then popped out fireworks as red T-shirted mobs, judges and politicians headed to the plants and cheered their “victory.”
Why was Cemex “defeated”? Because last April, Mexico’s Cemex told Chavez its plants were worth $1.3 billion, based on standard norms of value. Chavistas said no dice, and after driving their stock price down in Caracas trade, offered $800 million tops.
The Venezuelans, of course, had the last word, and moved into their clownish conquest even before Chavez’s 90-day negotiation period expired.
For Latin Americans, this is something of a wake-up call. No longer will Latin American companies be exempt from Chavez’s power plays. In fact, a Latin American company might now expect even worse treatment than the western ones Chavez has grabbed.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon, no stranger to public quarrels with Chavez over free markets, complained that Chavez’s takeover amounted to discrimination against the Mexican company. He noted that Venezuela had paid two other cement firms — Holcie of Switzerland and Lafarge of France — fair prices for their assets. So the Mexican company was ripped off, which “we cannot understand,” Calderon said, calling for more talks.
The sooner Mexico recognizes the obvious, the better.
Chavez’s vindictive treatment of a Mexican company has more to do with his loathing of Mexico, and the capitalist development path it has pursued, than it does with price. Successful Latin American companies ought to expect particularly harsh treatment from Chavez if they succeed. There already are many signs of this.
For one, the last time Chavez made a show of troops and flags was when he seized Exxon Mobil’s assets in 2007. Like Exxon, Cemex is a foreign company, and the amounts expropriated — about $1 billion in Exxon’s case and $1.3 billion in Cemex’s — are comparable.
Second, like Exxon, Cemex is a big company that has resisted being kicked around by a petty dictator. Cemex reportedly has told Chavez that it would see him in international court.
As global companies, both Exxon and Cemex know their responses to Chavez are being watched closely by other dictators. They must defend their shareholders, an alien notion to Chavez.
Still, it goes even beyond that. Mexico’s Cemex, like U.S.-based Exxon, is known for its advanced technology, state of the art operations, fiscal transparency and high profitability. For any company this is remarkable. But for a Mexican company it is especially so.
Chavez not only cannot stand Mexico, he also cannot stand the idea of a successful, world-class Latin American company like Cemex providing an example to the region. Rather than leave them alone, he’s not only trying to rub their presence out with nationalization, he’s also tricked up bogus charges of tax evasion and environmental damage — something no nationalized firm has avoided.
Chavez has nationalized telecommunications, electricity, farms, iron, steel, oil and banks over two years in a bid to end private property and turn Venezuela into Cuba. All of the nationalized firms have since gone from profitability to losses.
The prosperity and better life Cemex’s jobs represent for its 67,000 workers as well as the superior product it delivers to its customers directly challenges Chavez’s claim to ideological dominance in the region.
As we said, Cemex likely will defend itself in court. But Mexico’s government will have to toughen up and prepare to confront a predator challenging the success of its private sector on more than just this front. Chavez’s wrath against Mexico is particularly strong.