By The Associated Press
Excerpts of remarks delivered by President Bush to the nation Sunday night.
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"We have exposed terrorist front groups, seized terrorist accounts, taken new measures to protect our homeland, and uncovered sleeper cells inside the United States. And we acted in Iraq, where the former regime sponsored terror, possessed and used weapons of mass destruction, and for 12 years defied the clear demands of the United Nations Security Council. Our coalition enforced these international demands in one of the swiftest and most humane military campaigns in history."
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"Since America put out the fires of September the 11th, and mourned our dead, and went to war, history has taken a different turn. We have carried the fight to the enemy. We are rolling back the terrorist threat to civilization, not on the fringes of its influence, but at the heart of its power."
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"The terrorists thrive on the support of tyrants and the resentments of oppressed peoples. When tyrants fall, and resentment gives way to hope, men and women in every culture reject the ideologies of terror, and turn to the pursuits of peace. Everywhere that freedom takes hold, terror will retreat."
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"Though their attacks are localized, the terrorists and Saddam loyalists have done great harm. They have ambushed American and British service members who stand for freedom and order. They have killed civilian aid workers of the United Nations who represent the compassion and generosity of the world. They have bombed the Jordanian embassy - the symbol of a peaceful Arab country. And last week they murdered a respected cleric and over a hundred Muslims at prayer - bombing a holy shrine and a symbol of Islam's peaceful teachings."
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"Terrorists in Iraq have attacked representatives of the civilized world, and opposing them must be the cause of the civilized world. Members of the United Nations now have an opportunity, and the responsibility, to assume a broader role in assuring that Iraq becomes a free and democratic nation."
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"The people of Iraq are emerging from a long trial. For them, there will be no going back to the days of the dictator - to the miseries of humiliation he inflicted on that good country. For the Middle East and the world, there will be no going back to the days of fear - when a brutal and aggressive tyrant possessed terrible weapons.
"And for America, there will be no going back to the era before September the 11th, 2001 - to false comfort in a dangerous world. We have learned that terrorist attacks are not caused by the use of strength - they are invited by the perception of weakness."
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"Fellow citizens: We have been tested these past 24 months, and the dangers have not passed. Yet Americans are responding with courage and confidence. We accept the duties of our generation. We are active and resolute in our own defense. We are serving in freedom's cause - and that is the cause of all mankind."
