For Immediate Release
November 12, 2003

Global Message

From President Bush at the Heritage Foundation, 11/11/03

We come to this Veterans Day in a time of war. Our men and women in uniform are warriors, and they are liberators. By their courage they keep us safe; by their honor they make us proud.

When we lose Americans in battle, we lose our best. And this time of brave achievement is also a time of sacrifice. For their families, there is terrible sorrow, and we pray for their comfort. For the Nation, there is a feeling of loss, and we remember and honor every name.

Two years into the war on terror, the will and resolve of America are being tested in Afghanistan and in Iraq. We will finish the mission we have begun, period. We are not only containing the terrorist threat, we are turning it back.

Our men and women are fighting terrorist enemies - thousands of miles away, in the heart and center of their power - so that we do not face those enemies in the heart of America.

Our men and women are fighting to secure the freedom of more than 50 million people who recently lived under two of the cruelest dictatorships on earth.

The work we are in is not easy, yet it is essential. The failure of democracy in Afghanistan and Iraq:

• would condemn every advocate of freedom in those two countries to prison or death, and extinguish the democratic hopes of millions in the Middle East;

• would provide new basis for the terrorist network and embolden terrorists and their allies around the world; and

• would convince terrorists that America backs down under attack - and more attacks on America would surely follow.

America believes that freedom is the right of every person, the hope of every culture, and the future of every nation in the Middle East. And we know, as Americans, that the advance of freedom is the surest path to peace.