Bush: "The most powerful weapon in our arsenal is the power of freedom" [View All]

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We need to "prevail not only in the battle of arms but in the battle of wills," he advised.

"The U.S. Congress had better make sure you have all the resources you need to do your job," he told the cadets, to great cheers.

"The most powerful weapon in our arsenal is the power of freedom," he said. "We see that power in the faces of jubilant Iraqis who held up an ink-stained finger after voting."

He sent the cadets on their way with words of encouragement and exhortation, ending his speech about 10:40.

The president then congratulated each of the 1,012 graduates as they received their diplomas, shaking hands, embracing and occasionally banging his chest against a graduate's chest.

Meanwhile:

An American armoured vehicle burns at Al Canal street, near Sadr city, Baghdad, Iraq, after a roadside bomb exploded next to a US military convoy, on Monday, May 26, 2008, police said. There was no immediate confirmation by the US army of the blast.


Iraqi men flee the site of a roadside bomb after it exploded, in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, May 26, 2008. A roadside bomb exploded near an Iraqi army checkpoint on the road to Baghdad international airport, wounding 5 people including one soldier and 4 civilians, police said.
(AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed)


A man grieves over the body of his son, a member of a neighbourhood patrol who was killed during clashes, in a hospital in Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) northeast of Baghdad May 25, 2008. Gunmen killed a policeman and a neighborhood patrol member during clashes in Baquba on Sunday, police said.
REUTERS/Stringer (IRAQ)


Iraqi boys swim in a pond by a house destroyed in recent fighting in the Shiite enclave of Sadr City in Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday, May 20, 2004. Iraqi military spokesman said Tuesday that Iraqi troops have moved into Baghdad's Shiite militia stronghold of Sadr City to seize control.
(AP Photo/Karim Kadim)




Mitch Bocik pauses in his home, Tuesday, May 6, 2008, in Holcombe, Wis. Bocik and his half-brother D.J. Engel served together in Iraq, where Bocik was injured by a roadside bomb.