Trip Notes by Date

January 8

Dana Perino
Assistant to the President and Press Secretary

Full Note

January 9

Dana Perino
Assistant to the President and Press Secretary

Full Note

January 10

Ed Gillespie
Counselor to the President

Full Note

January 11

Ed Gillespie
Counselor to the President

Full Note

January 12

Stephen Hadley
Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs

Full Note

January 13

Bill McGurn
Assistant to the President for Speechwriting

Full Note

January 14

Dana Perino
Assistant to the President and Press Secretary

Full Note

January 15

Dana Perino
Assistant to the President and Press Secretary

Full Note

January 15

Joshua Bolten
White House Chief of Staff

Full Note

January 16

George W. Bush
President of the United States

Ask the White House Transcript

 

Remarks from Abu Dhabi

Biography

Bill McGurn

Assistant to the President for Speechwriting

 

 

The Emirates Palace Hotel

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We arrived in Abu Dhabi late Sunday morning, and were surprised to find it was raining. After a lavish lunch, the motorcade took us to the fabled Emirates Palace Hotel. The place looks like something out of a dream ... my room literally has about as much floor space as my house ... and the atrium, under a dome said to be as large as St. Paul's in London, is something to behold. The floors are all marble with beautiful inlay, the bathrooms have a giant tub you have to climb up steps to get to, and our hosts have left platters of chocolates, cookies, and dates. The best description is what I hear people whispering: Everything that looks like it's gold, is.

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Middle East Trip

A Message of Freedom

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In this hotel, the President gave the only formal speech of the trip. The nuts and bolts of a speech delivered abroad are sometimes different from a speech given at home. For this one, we had a draft to him by Monday that had gone through the usual staffing. But we had changes all the way – here tweaking the language on Lebanon, there updating the section on the Holy Land to reflect developments from the meetings with Prime Minister Olmert or President Abbas, here again sharpening the message to the people of Iran.

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On yesterday's flight to Bahrain, Ed Gillespie, Steve Hadley, and I went up to the President’s cabin to talk about the quote at the end of the speech from an Arab American named Ameen Rihani, discussing the Statue of Liberty. I first found the quote in Michael Oren's book "Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East: 1776 to the Present." Oren notes that Bartholdi originally designed what became the Statue of Liberty for the Suez Canal, and when we looked up the books in his footnotes, one had a picture of that design -- which we showed the President. If I remember correctly, Bartholdi later denied any connection between the two, probably afraid of being accused of just recycling an old plan. But when you see the picture of the original plan, it looks almost exactly like Lady Liberty – except that the light comes out of the crown instead of the torch.

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The subject of today’s speech was the President’s freedom agenda, and he discussed some of the progress that has been made, as well as some of the setbacks. The President noted that some of his countrymen do not believe that the Arabs are fit for freedom -- and that this was the same thing critics said about the Japanese after World War II. His point was not just that these critics were wrong about Japan. His point is that Asia is a much freer and more hopeful place because America kept its faith in freedom -- and stuck with them as countries worked out their problems and moved to democracy. The message to the people of the Middle East is that if you are wondering what America’s plans for the future are and whether we are in it for the long haul, look at how we worked with our partners in Asia. And the result of our perseverance in the Pacific has been an increase in the lasting stability that only freedom can deliver.

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The significance of today’s event was partly the venue. The President used the opportunity to say the same thing here on Arab soil that he has said on American soil: Freedom works, and nations of this region need to open up and trust their people. He also didn't shy away from letting our friends know that it's not helpful when, for example, you hold an election but the opposition guy finds himself in jail. He reminded leaders here that if they are sincere about helping the Palestinians achieve a state of their own, they have to work to accept a place for Israel in this region. And he spoke clearly about the threat to the region posed by an Iran that foments terror and refuses to come clean on its nuclear ambitions. Like most foreign crowds, people here did not interrupt with applause during the speech but clapped at the end.

Anyway, it's good to have the speech over. And there's a nice reward. As a rule, I've found that those times when I'm spending a lot of time in a room and could use the extra space – like when I'm traveling with my family – the smaller and more disappointing the accommodations. By contrast, those times when I get a suite the size of a small city, I'm by myself and staying for only a few hours. But I have a small treat tonight. Since I'm not on the list for the official dinner tonight, it leaves me a few free hours that will allow me to become more closely acquainted with all the amenities that a $3 billion hotel has to offer.