For Immediate Release
March 27, 2003

Global Message

48 nations have joined America in Operation Iraqi Freedom - nations that understand the terrible threat we face from weapons of mass destruction and refuse to live in a future of fear, at the mercy of terrorists and tyrants.

Our military is making good progress in Iraq; yet this war is far from over. As they approach Baghdad, our fighting units are facing the most desperate elements of a doomed regime.

Day by day, Saddam Hussein is losing his grip on Iraq; day by day, the Iraqi people are closer to freedom. We cannot predict the final day of the Iraqi regime, but the day of reckoning for the Iraqi regime is drawing near.

The world is getting a clearer view of the Iraqi regime and the evil at its heart. In the ranks of that regime are men whose idea of courage is to brutalize unarmed prisoners. They wage attacks while posing as civilians. They use real civilians as human shields. They pretend to surrender, then fire upon those who show them mercy. This band of war criminals has been put on notice: the day of Iraq's liberation will also be a day of justice.

Our enemy in this war is the Iraqi regime, not the people who have suffered under it. As we bring justice to a dictator, today we started bringing humanitarian aid in large amounts to an oppressed land.

Protecting innocent civilians is a central commitment of our war plan. We are treating Iraqi prisoners of war according the highest standards of law and decency. Doctors are working to save the lives of the wounded, including Iraqi soldiers.

Iraqis are a good and gifted people. They deserve better than a life spent bowing before a dictator. The people of Iraq deserve to stand on their feet as free men and women - the citizens of a free country.

The goal of a free and peaceful Iraq unites our Coalition. We have no ambition in Iraq except the liberation of its people. We ask no reward except a durable peace. And we will accept no outcome short of complete and final success.