For Immediate Release
January 22, 2004

Global Message

From President Bush's State of the Union address, 1/20/04

Hundreds of thousands of American servicemen and women are deployed across the world in the war on terror. They are making America more secure by bringing hope to the oppressed, and delivering justice to the violent.

Law enforcement personnel and intelligence officers are tracking terrorist threats; analysts are examining airline passenger lists; and the Homeland Security Department is patrolling our coasts and borders.

We face a choice: We can go forward with confidence and resolve, or we can turn back to the dangerous illusion that terrorists are not plotting and outlaw regimes are no threat to us.

More than two years have passed without an attack on American soil. It is tempting to believe that the danger is behind us. That hope is understandable, comforting -- and false.

The killing has continued in Bali, Jakarta, Casablanca, Riyadh, Mombasa, Jerusalem, Istanbul, and Baghdad. The terrorists continue to plot against America and the civilized world.

As part of the offensive against terror, we are also confronting the regimes that harbor and support terrorists, and could supply them with nuclear, chemical or biological weapons.

America is a nation with a mission, and that mission comes from our most basic beliefs. Our aim is a democratic peace -- a peace founded upon the dignity and rights of every man and woman.