For Immediate Release
April 10, 2003
President's Message to the Iraqi People
PRESIDENT BUSH: This is George W Bush, the President of the United States. At this moment, the regime of Saddam Hussein
is being removed from power, and a long era of fear and cruelty is ending. American and coalition forces are now
operating inside Baghdad – and we will not stop until Saddam’s corrupt gang is gone. The government of Iraq, and the
future of your country, will soon belong to you.
The goals of our coalition are clear and limited. We will end a brutal regime, whose aggression and weapons of mass
destruction make it a unique threat to the world. Coalition forces will help maintain law and order, so that Iraqis can
live in security. We will respect your great religious traditions, whose principles of equality and compassion are
essential to Iraq’s future. We will help you build a peaceful and representative government that protects the rights of
all citizens. And then our military forces will leave. Iraq will go forward as a unified, independent and sovereign
nation that has regained a respected place in the world.
The United States and its coalition partners respect the people of Iraq. We are taking unprecedented measures to spare
the lives of innocent Iraqi citizens, and are beginning to deliver food, water and medicine to those in need. Our only
enemy is Saddam’s brutal regime – and that regime is your enemy as well.
In the new era that is coming to Iraq, your country will no longer be held captive to the will of a cruel dictator. You
will be free to build a better life, instead of building more palaces for Saddam and his sons, free to pursue economic
prosperity without the hardship of economic sanctions, free to travel and speak your mind, free to join in the political
affairs of Iraq. And all the people who make up your country – Kurds, Shi’a, Turkomans, Sunnis, and others – will be
free of the terrible persecution that so many have endured.
The nightmare that Saddam Hussein has brought to your nation will soon be over. You are a good and gifted people – the
heirs of a great civilisation that contributes to all humanity. You deserve better than tyranny and corruption and
torture chambers. You deserve to live as free people. And I assure every citizen of Iraq: your nation will soon be free.
Thank you.