Bush Vows 'Justice Will Be Done'

In the most important speech of his political career, President George W. Bush vowed to wage war on terrorism, calling on American citizens and their foreign allies to unite in an intensive effort to eradicate the “global terror network” responsible for last Tuesday’s attacks on United States.

Appearing confident and resolute, Bush addressed both Houses of Congress and the nation last night, pledging the full resources of the government to find and punish terrorists and those countries that harbor them.

“Tonight we are a country awakened to danger and called to defend freedom,” Bush said from the U.S. Capitol last night. “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.”

Bush praised the country’s efforts to unite and recover, saying last week’s hijackings and crashing of four passenger jets that killed over 6,000 in New York City, and hundreds more in Washington DC and Pennsylvania, did not weaken the country’s resolve.

“My fellow citizens, for the last nine days, the entire world has seen for itself the state of our union—and it is strong,” Bush said emphatically.

In his 30-minute speech, Bush tried to provide answers to questions lingering in the minds of Americans, such as who was responsible for the attacks, why they were carried out and how the U.S. will respond.

In his most far reaching statements this week, Bush directly implicated Saudi millionaire Osama bin Ladin and his terrorist network al-Qaeda for masterminding last week’s attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C., calling those involved, “enemies of freedom [who have] committed an act of war against our country.”

“These terrorists kill not merely to end lives, but to disrupt and end a way of life,” Bush said. “With every atrocity, they hope that America grows fearful, retreating from the world and forsaking our friends.”

But Bush saidthe terrorists will not succeed in their mission.

“They are the heirs of all the murderous ideologies of the twentieth century,” Bush said. “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, and Nazism, and totalitarianism. And they will follow that path all the way, to where it ends—in history’s unmarked grave of discarded lies.”

Bush also condemned Afghanistan’s Taliban government for harboring bin Laden, calling on the fundamentalist Islamic regime to immediately turn over leaders of the al-Qaeda group to U.S. authorities, as well as to close all terrorist training camps operating in the country.

“The United States respects the people of Afghanistan. . . but we condemn the Taliban regime,” Bush said. “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.”

Bush flatly rejected the Taliban’s offer to negotiate on any of the U.S.’s demands, saying that Afghanistan will face military consequences if it does not comply.

“These demands are not open to negotiation or discussion,” Bush said. “The Taliban must act and act immediately. They will hand over the terrorists, or they will share in their fate.”

Bush emphasized, however, that the al-Qaeda network will not be the only target of the new U.S. war on terrorism, and that the “civilized world” will rally to target anyone who supports terrorist activity.

“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 disruption and defeat of the global terror network,” he said.

On the homefront, Bush announced the creation of a new cabinet level position, naming Penn. Gov. Thomas J. Ridge ’67 Director of Homeland Security, dedicated to stopping the roots of terrorist activity in the U.S.

Bush also reassured the world’s Muslim community that the U.S. does not equate Islam with terorism, instead calling the terrorists “traitors to their own faith, trying, in effect, to hijack Islam itself.”

In recent days, a spate of violence directed against Muslim, Arab and South Asian Americans has swept the U.S., in misguided attempts at retaliation for the attacks.

“The enemy of America is not our many Muslim friends; it is not our many Arab friends,” Bush said. “Our enemy is a radical network of terrorists, and every government that supports them.”

Last night, Bush declared that the U.S. would not back down from that enemy.

“The course of this conflict is not known, yet its outcome is certain,” Bush said. “We will meet violence with patient justice—assured of the rightness of our cause, and confident of the victories to come.”

--Staff writer Imtiyaz H. Delawala can be reached at delawala@fas.harvard.edu.