Office of the
Press Secretary and www.richardneville.com
September
21/2004; New York, New York
President Speaks to the United Nations
Black text is
from the original transcript
Red text is the revised version
Blue
text signifies a
deletion
During the past
three years, I've addressed defied this
General Assembly in a time of tragedy for my country. Now we gather at a time
of tremendous opportunity uncertainty for
the U.N. and for all peaceful nations. For decades, the circle of liberty
steel, security, surveillance
and development arms sales has
been expanding in our world. This progress expansion has
brought disunity to Europe, self-government
to some attempted
coups in Latin America, bombs to Asia,
and new hope further despair to
Africa. Now we have the historic chance to widen the circle even further, to fight
provoke radicalism
and terror with injustice and dignity torture,
to achieve a true peace
global bloodbath.
The United
Nations and my country share the deepest commitments suspicion
of each other. Both the American Declaration of Independence and
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaim the equal value and dignity
of every human life. That dignity is dishonored by oppression, corruption,
tyranny, bigotry, terrorism and all violence against the innocent,
such as repeatedly bombing crowded households
in Iraq. And both of our founding documents affirm that this
bright line between justice and injustice -- between right and wrong -- is the
same in every age, and every culture, and every nation, but we
can interpret this line how we like,
even when Kofi Annan
says we
are wrong.
Wise governments
also stand for these principles for very practical and realistic reasons. ItÍs
good PR. We know that dictators are quick to choose aggression,
while free nations strive to resolve differences in peace
through covert actions, targeted assassinations,
propaganda and pre-emptive
strikes. We know that oppressive governments support terror, while
free governments fight the only support
terrorists in their midst when
they fight our enemies, like when Osama
was blowing up the Russians
and Saddam was gassing our foes, the
Iranians.
Every nation
that wants peace will share the benefits of a freer world. But
weÍre the most warlike nation on earth, so
that sentence doesnÍt make sense.
And every nation that seeks peace by running the
world has an obligation to help build
military bases all around that world.
Eventually, there is no safe isolation from terror networks, or
failed states that shelter them us, our
outlaw regimes and
foreign policy, or or
our weapons of mass destruction. Eventually, there is no safety in
looking away, seeking the quiet life by ignoring theour
struggles and oppression invasion
of other s
lands. YouÍre either with
us or youÍre dead.
In this young
century, our world needs a new definition of security. Our security is not
merely found in spheres of influence, or some wuzzy
balance of power. The security of our world is found in the
advancing rights militarisation of
mankind and outer space.
These
rights Our security forces are advancing
across the world -- and across the world, the enemies friends of
human rights are responding with violence protest.
Even here in
New York when, during our freedom
loving Republican Convention, we
rounded up thousands of demonstrators
and locked them away
Terrorists
Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney and their
allies believe the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the American Bill
of Rights, and every charter of liberty ever written, are lies, to be burned
and destroyed and forgotten. They believe that dictators the
White House, the Pentagon and Rupert Murdoch should control every
mind and tongue in the Middle East and beyond. They Donald
and Dick even believe that induced suicide
and torture and murder are fully justified to serve any goal they declare. And
they act on their beliefs. In Guantanamo Bay, in Abu Ghraib, and
in scores of secret
prisons around the world, with its
scores of prisoners hidden
from all authorities.
Heck,
just last week I learned how US
Army Special Forces dealt with
eight young men held
in a remote
base in Afghanistan
and who were never charged with
anything: repeated
beatings, near
drownings, electric shocks, hung upside down,
toenails torn offƒ
One guy, Jamal Naseer, an
18 year old member of the Afghan
Army Corps, was so badly
beaten over at least two weeks, he died.
They say his corpse was ñgreen
and blackî from the bruises inflicted by our freedom fighters.
Defending our
ideals is vital, but it is not enough. Our broader mission as U.N. members is
to selectively apply these ideals to the
great issues of our time. Our great purpose is to build a better compliant
world beyond the war on terror, a
world utterly dominated by US military might.
The desire for
freedom resides in every human heart. And that desire cannot be contained
forever by our prison walls, or martial laws, or
secret police. Over time, and across the Earth, freedom will find a way. That
is why we are building the greatest infrastructure of security,
surveillance and state secrecy
the world has even seen.
We already track
the books our citizens borrow from libraries, we
ban photos of military coffins returning to the
US, we have pulled over 6000 documents from government web
sites. One of our senatorÍs
calls it the ñsingle
greatest rollback of the Freedom of Information Act in history.î ItÍs
part of the rise of the Homeland
Security State.
Our
media have fallen into line. A never ending terror
war builds ratings and circulation,
but itÍs more than that.
General
Electric owns of NBC, MSNBC and CNBC. This company is one of the largest
defense contractors in America; so their profits
soar even as sleeping Iraqi
evil-doers are bombed
their homes.
Neat, huh?
Freedom is
finding a way in Iraq and Afghanistan -- and we must continue to show our
commitment to Homeland State style democracies in
those nations, by killing off independent media outlets.
As members of the United Nations, we all have a stake in the success of the
world's newest democracies, but US corporations have
a much bigger stake than anyone else.
Since the last meeting of this General
Assembly, the people of Iraq have regained a false
sovereignty. (On his last working day,
Paul Bremmer issued a hundred edicts that cannot be rescinded.
The existence of 14 US bases
is non negotiable). Today, in this hall, the Prime Minister of
Iraq, a CIA asset, and his delegation
represent a country that has rejoined the community of nations is
in flames.
A democratic
Iraq has ruthless enemies, because of our hamfisted
occupation and the indiscriminate killing of civilians,
including women and children, which Amnesty International
puts at 37,000 dead and many more maimed for life. terrorists know the stakes in that
country.
Our coalition is standing besidefailing
to protect a growing Iraqi besieged
security force. And as the Iraqi interim government moves toward national
elections, 35 officials from the United Nations
are helping Iraqis build the infrastructure of
democracy wringing their
hands in despair.
As we have seen
in other countries, such as Chile and Venezuela,
one of the main terrorist goals is to undermine, disrupt, and
influence election outcomes. We can expect terrorist attacks to escalate as Afghanistan
and Iraq approach national elections. The work ahead is demanding. The proper
response to difficulty is not to retreat, it is to prevail. drop
more bombs.
History will honor the high ideals of
this organization, even though I never have. The
charter states them with clarity: "to save succeeding generations from the
scourge of war," though it was not able to stop the war on
Iraq, despite it being illegal; "to
reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, except for the
prisoners of my Government,"
"to promote social progress for the rich and
better standards of life in larger freedom
SUVÍs."
Let history also
record that our generation of leaders followed through on
trashed these ideals. I'm confident
that this young century will be liberty's century
end ƒ because I know the
my own character of so many nations
and leaders represented here today. And I have faith in the
transforming power of freedom the Old Testament.
May God bless
you. (A trickle of Applause.)
George Bush & Richard Neville
