[Reader-list] Bush's speech from yesterday

[Rana Dasgupta]

The speech comes straight from some kind of sci-fi
inter-galactic battle scene where the american leader
rouses his hi-tech ranks to destroy the aliens.  In
this instance, there's also a hint of impotence since
the swift victory that you get when you have american
grit and american technology on your side is denied to
him here.  

The spectacular war (the war of the spectacle) is the
one he knows well how to fight.  The one that is
demanded of him here doesn't make such a good movie -
or such a good speech.  Still there are [literally]
lots of trumpets and flags.

R


WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush's address Thursday to
a joint session of Congress, as transcribed by
eMediaMillWorks Inc.: 

Mr. Speaker, Mr. President Pro Tempore, members of
Congress, and fellow Americans: 

In the normal course of events, presidents come to
this chamber to report on the state of the Union.
Tonight, no such report is needed. It has already been
delivered by the American people. 

We have seen it in the courage of passengers who
rushed terrorists to save others on the ground.
Passengers like an exceptional man named Todd Beamer.
And would you please help me welcome his wife Lisa
Beamer here tonight? 

We have seen the state of our Union in the endurance
of rescuers working past exhaustion. 

We've seen the unfurling of flags, the lighting of
candles, the giving of blood, the saying of prayers in
English, Hebrew and Arabic. 

We have seen the decency of a loving and giving people
who have made the grief of strangers their own. 

My fellow citizens, for the last nine days, the entire
world has seen for itself the state of union, and it
is strong. 

Tonight, we are a country awakened to danger and
called to defend freedom. Our grief has turned to
anger and anger to resolution. Whether we bring our
enemies to justice or bring justice to our enemies,
justice will be done. 

I thank the Congress for its leadership at such an
important time. 

All of America was touched on the evening of the
tragedy to see Republicans and Democrats joined
together on the steps of this Capitol singing ''God
Bless America.'' 

And you did more than sing. You acted, by delivering
$40 billion to rebuild our communities and meet the
needs of our military. Speaker Hastert, Minority
Leader Gephardt, Majority Leader Daschle and Senator
Lott, I thank you for your friendship, for your
leadership and for your service to our country. 

And on behalf of the American people, I thank the
world for its outpouring of support. 

America will never forget the sounds of our national
anthem playing at Buckingham Palace, on the streets of
Paris and at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate. 

We will not forget South Korean children gathering to
pray outside our embassy in Seoul, or the prayers of
sympathy offered at a mosque in Cairo. 

We will not forget moments of silence and days of
mourning in Australia and Africa and Latin America. 

Nor will we forget the citizens of 80 other nations
who died with our own. Dozens of Pakistanis, more than
130 Israelis, more than 250 citizens of India, men and
women from El Salvador, Iran, Mexico and Japan, and
hundreds of British citizens. 

America has no truer friend than Great Britain. 

Once again, we are joined together in a great cause. 

I'm so honored the British prime minister has crossed
an ocean to show his unity with America. 

Thank you for coming, friend. 

On Sept. 11, enemies of freedom committed an act of
war against our country. Americans have known wars,
but for the past 136 years they have been wars on
foreign soil, except for one Sunday in 1941. Americans
have known the casualties of war, but not at the
center of a great city on a peaceful morning. 

Americans have known surprise attacks, but never
before on thousands of civilians. 

All of this was brought upon us in a single day, and
night fell on a different world, a world where freedom
itself is under attack. 

Americans have many questions tonight. Americans are
asking, ''Who attacked our country?'' 

The evidence we have gathered all points to a
collection of loosely affiliated terrorist
organizations known as al-Qaida. They are some of the
murderers indicted for bombing American embassies in
Tanzania and Kenya and responsible for bombing the USS
Cole. 

Al-Qaida is to terror what the Mafia is to crime. But
its goal is not making money. Its goal is remaking the
world and imposing its radical beliefs on people
everywhere. 

The terrorists practice a fringe form of Islamic
extremism that has been rejected by Muslim scholars
and the vast majority of Muslim clerics; a fringe
movement that perverts the peaceful teachings of Islam


The terrorists' directive commands them to kill
Christians and Jews, to kill all Americans and make no
distinctions among military and civilians, including
women and children. 

This group and its leader, a person named Osama bin
Laden, are linked to many other organizations in
different countries, including the Egyptian Islamic
Jihad, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. 

There are thousands of these terrorists in more than
60 countries. 

They are recruited from their own nations and
neighborhoods and brought to camps in places like
Afghanistan, where they are trained in the tactics of
terror. They are sent back to their homes or sent to
hide in countries around the world to plot evil and
destruction. 

The leadership of al-Qaida has great influence in
Afghanistan and supports the Taliban regime in
controlling most of that country. In Afghanistan we
see al-Qaida's vision for the world. Afghanistan's
people have been brutalized, many are starving and
many have fled. 

Women are not allowed to attend school. You can be
jailed for owning a television. Religion can be
practiced only as their leaders dictate. A man can be
jailed in Afghanistan if his beard is not long enough.


The United States respects the people of Afghanistan -
after all, we are currently its largest source of
humanitarian aid - but we condemn the Taliban regime. 

It is not only repressing its own people, it is
threatening people everywhere by sponsoring and
sheltering and supplying terrorists. 

By aiding and abetting murder, the Taliban regime is
committing murder. And tonight the United States of
America makes the following demands on the Taliban. 

Deliver to United States authorities all of the
leaders of al-Qaida who hide in your land. 

Release all foreign nationals, including American
citizens you have unjustly imprisoned. Protect foreign
journalists, diplomats and aid workers in your
country. Close immediately and permanently every
terrorist training camp in Afghanistan. And hand over
every terrorist and every person and their support
structure to appropriate authorities. 

Give the United States full access to terrorist
training camps, so we can make sure they are no longer
operating. 

These demands are not open to negotiation or
discussion. 

The Taliban must act and act immediately. 

They will hand over the terrorists, or they will share
in their fate. 

I also want to speak tonight directly to Muslims
throughout the world. We respect your faith. It's
practiced freely by many millions of Americans and by
millions more in countries that America counts as
friends. Its teachings are good and peaceful, and
those who commit evil in the name of Allah blaspheme
the name of Allah. 

The terrorists are traitors to their own faith,
trying, in effect, to hijack Islam itself. 

The enemy of America is not our many Muslim friends.
It is not our many Arab friends. Our enemy is a
radical network of terrorists and every government
that supports them. 

Our war on terror begins with al-Qaida, but it does
not end there. 

It will not end until every terrorist group of global
reach has been found, stopped and defeated. 

Americans are asking, ''Why do they hate us?'' 

They hate what they see right here in this chamber: a
democratically elected government. Their leaders are
self-appointed. They hate our freedoms: our freedom of
religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote
and assemble and disagree with each other. 

They want to overthrow existing governments in many
Muslim countries such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia and
Jordan. They want to drive Israel out of the Middle
East. They want to drive Christians and Jews out of
vast regions of Asia and Africa. 

These terrorists kill not merely to end lives, but to
disrupt and end a way of life. With every atrocity,
they hope that America grows fearful, retreating from
the world and forsaking our friends. They stand
against us because we stand in their way. 

We're not deceived by their pretenses to piety. 

We have seen their kind before. They're the heirs of
all the murderous ideologies of the 20th century. By
sacrificing human life to serve their radical visions,
by abandoning every value except the will to power,
they follow in the path of fascism, Nazism and
totalitarianism. And they will follow that path all
the way to where it ends in history's unmarked grave
of discarded lies. 

Americans are asking, ''How will we fight and win this
war?'' 

We will direct every resource at our command - every
means of diplomacy, every tool of intelligence, every
instrument of law enforcement, every financial
influence and every necessary weapon of war - to the
destruction and to the defeat of the global terror
network. 

Now this war will not be like the war against Iraq a
decade ago, with a decisive liberation of territory
and a swift conclusion. It will not look like the air
war above Kosovo two years ago, where no ground troops
were used and not a single American was lost in
combat. 

Our response involves far more than instant
retaliation and isolated strikes. Americans should not
expect one battle, but a lengthy campaign unlike any
other we have ever seen. It may include dramatic
strikes visible on TV and covert operations secret
even in success. 

We will starve terrorists of funding, turn them one
against another, drive them from place to place until
there is no refuge or no rest. 

And we will pursue nations that provide aid or safe
haven to terrorism. Every nation in every region now
has a decision to make: Either you are with us, or you
are with the terrorists.