WASHINGTON, 18 May 2003 — President Bush paid tribute to American troops killed and wounded in the Iraq war and praised the vast capabilities of the US military. But he said the recent suicide bombings in Saudi Arabia are “a stark reminder that the war on terror continues.”
“The enemies of freedom are not idle, and neither are we,” Bush said in his weekly radio address yesterday. “Our government is taking unprecedented measures to defend the homeland. And from Pakistan to the Philippines, to the Horn of Africa, we are hunting down Al-Qaeda killers.”
Eight troops who fought in Iraq joined the president in the Oval Office for the speech’s taping Friday.
“All of them were wounded in battle and are recovering from their injuries,” he said. “All of them have earned the respect and the gratitude of our nation.”
Bush noted that yesterday was Armed Forces Day, which was created in 1949 to replace separate observances by the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps to honor service members.
“Americans are proud of every man and woman who has faced the risks of war in the cause of freedom,” he said. “Many still face dangerous duty in Iraq and Afghanistan as they provide order and stability in liberated countries. Many are fighting on other fronts in the war against terror, and some brave Americans have given their lives to protect our country and to keep the peace.”
Bush said US military successes in Afghanistan and Iraq had cut off sources of terrorist funding and “made certain that no terrorist network will gain weapons of mass destruction from Saddam Hussein’s regime.”
“These two battles were important victories in the larger war on terror. Yet the terrorist attacks this week in Saudi Arabia, which killed innocent civilians from more than half a dozen countries, including our own, provide a stark reminder that the war on terror continues,” Bush said.
