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Skriven 2006-06-23 23:34:32 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (060623b) for Fri, 2006 Jun 23
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Vice President's Remarks at a Luncheon for Congressional Candidate Dave
Mcsweeney
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For Immediate Release
Office of the Vice President
June 23, 2006

Vice President's Remarks at a Luncheon for Congressional Candidate Dave
Mcsweeney
Hilton Chicago
Chicago, Illinois



12:23 P.M. CDT

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Thank you. (Applause.) Thank you. Well, thank you,
David. I appreciate your kind words and that warm welcome. It's great to be
back in Chicago, a city I love to visit. I explained earlier to some
friends our daughter and her husband lived here for three years while she
went to school at the University of Chicago. And our oldest granddaughter
was born here. So we used to get here a lot and always -- always enjoy
coming back to a great city.

I've looked forward to the trip, and to joining all of you and the next
Congressman for the eighth district, Dave McSweeney. (Applause.) And I
bring good wishes to all of you from the President of the United States,
George W. Bush. (Applause.)

I'm delighted to join you in giving strong support to Dave in his campaign
for Congress. He has deep roots in this part of the country. He's a person
who clearly speaks with conviction. He's an active citizen, a common-sense
conservative. And he knows the issues, he understands the needs of the
eighth district, and he's perfectly in tune with the values of the people
who live here. This is the kind of man who belongs in the United States
Congress, and there's no doubt in my mind that Dave is on the road to
victory on the 7th of November. (Applause.)

It's important that we elect public servants like Dave because these are
times of incredible consequence for our nation. In the last five-and-a-half
years we've seen an unprecedented series challenges. We've experienced war,
national emergency, economic recession, corporate scandals, historic
natural disasters. And yet we've faced up to those changes -- challenges.
We've shown our strength as a people. And America is a stronger and a
better nation.

When the President and I came to office, we inherited an economy that was
heading into recession. But we took bold action to turn it around -- and
because we acted, the nation's economy today is healthy and vigorous -- and
in 2005 it grew faster than any other major industrialized nation in the
world.

Since August 2003, America has created over 5.3 million new jobs. The
national unemployment rate is 4.6 percent -- lower than the average rate of
the 1970s, the 1980s, or the 1990s. Productivity is strong. Household net
worth is at an all-time high.

The current expansion is also translating into higher than projected
federal revenues, as we knew would happen. There is no mystery to this.
Over the last several generations, there have been three major tax cuts in
the country -- in the 1960s under President Kennedy, in the 1980s under
President Reagan, and now under President Bush. All three resulted in
sustained growth, in new jobs, and new wealth across the country. The
evidence is in -- the best tax policy for America is found in the wisdom of
John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, and George W. Bush.

Yet even as revenue grows, we have a responsibility to be good stewards of
the taxpayer's dollar. Wise stewardship means taking a second look at the
way business has often been done in the Nation's Capital. We commend the
House of Representatives for passing a constitutional line-item veto, a
critical tool to help protect American taxpayers. And as the congressional
leadership has stated, we need reform in the way projects are earmarked for
funding. And we look forward to working with members on the Hill on earmark
reform. Government has a duty to spend taxpayer dollars wisely or not spend
them at all. Your next congressman understands this very well. He'll be a
strong voice for spending discipline, and we need more people like Dave
McSweeney in Washington, D.C. (Applause.)

We have a full agenda for 2006 and beyond, and President Bush understands
that every decision he makes will affect the lives of millions of Americans
far into the future. He's going to lead the effort on comprehensive
immigration reform, to make the system rational and get control of the
borders. And he will continue appointing solid judges like John Roberts and
Sam Alito to the federal bench. (Applause.)

Above all else, President Bush never loses sight of his most fundamental
duty -- to defend this nation and to protect our people.

There is still hard work ahead in the global war on terror, because we are
dealing with enemies who have declared an intention to bring great harm to
any nation that opposes their aims. And their prime targets are the United
States and the American people.

In the face of such enemies, we have to consider a few basic questions:
First, whether to confront them on our terms, or on their terms. Second:
whether to face them on their territory, or on our territory. And third:
whether to wage this war on offense or defense. America and the civilized
world have made our decision: Wherever terrorists operate, we will find
them where they dwell, stop them in their planning, bring them to justice,
and stay in the fight until the fight is won. (Applause.)

We remain on the offensive in Iraq, with a clear plan for victory. We can
expect further acts of violence and destruction by the enemies of freedom.
But progress has been steady -- and there should be no discounting the
hopeful signs in that part of the world. In less than two years' time the
Iraqi people have gained sovereignty, voted for a transitional government,
drafted a progressive, democratic constitution, then approved the document
in a national referendum, and elected a new national government under the
provisions of that constitution. The most recent election had a voter
turnout of more than 70 percent, as Iraqis defied the killers and the
car-bombers and went to the polls in huge numbers.

And Iraq now has a unity government that is committed to a future of
freedom and progress for all Iraqis. They have made a strong stand for
their own liberty; the U.S. is proud to be at their side.

Our coalition is also helping to build an Iraqi security force that is well
trained and well equipped. As that force grows in strength and the
political process continues to advance, we'll be able to decrease troop
levels without losing our capacity to defeat the terrorists.

There's a vigorous debate now taking place right now about the way forward
in Iraq. It's always good to have such a discussion, because it directly
involves the security of the nation -- the very issue that all of us care
about. Democrats and Republicans, obviously, are heavily engaged in the
debate, as it should be. We've reached the point where a number of well
known Democrats, including their most recent presidential nominee, talk
about setting a firm deadline for withdrawal. You might recall that Senator
Kerry was for the war before he was against it. (Laughter and applause.)
Somebody should do him a favor and tell him the election's over so he can
stop flip-flopping. (Applause.)

Seriously, Senator Kerry's prescription -- giving up and setting a hard
deadline -- is a terrible idea, and the Senate was correct in knocking it
down yesterday. It got 13 votes. (Applause.)

First, such a move would signal to the Iraqi people that America does not
keep its word. Second, it completely disregards the opinions of commanders
in charge of the war effort. Americans and our allies need to know that
decisions about troop levels will be driven by the conditions on the ground
and the judgment of our military commanders -- not by artificial timelines
set by politicians in Washington, D.C. (Applause.)

Another prominent Democrat, a friend of mine, Congressman Jack Murtha, was
on TV Sunday with his own plan for a withdrawal. He said that we can deal
with the Iraqi situation by redeploying forces to Okinawa. (Laughter.) The
Pacific Ocean is a long way from the Persian Gulf, obviously. But the most
troubling aspect of his proposal is this: He cited two previous instances
of American military withdrawal, and suggested they would be good models
for us to follow now. The first was America's exit from Beirut in 1983, and
the second is the withdrawal from Somalia in 1993.

I've known Jack Murtha for a long time. I worked closely with him when I
was Secretary of Defense and he chaired the defense appropriations
subcommittee. I respect him, but he's dead wrong on this issue. His
proposal is contrary to the national interest. And he draws exactly the
wrong lessons from the examples of Beirut and Somalia. If you look back at
the years before 9/11, you see case after case where terrorists hit America
-- and America failed to hit back hard enough. In Beirut terrorists killed
241 of our servicemen. In Somalia we had the killing of 19 Americans. In
both cases, the United States responded to the attacks by withdrawing our
forces. But by doing so, we simply invited more danger, because the
terrorists concluded that if they killed enough Americans, they could
change American policy. And they did. So they continued to wage attacks
against America and American interests. We had the bombing at the World
Trade Center in New York in 1993, the murders at the Saudi National Guard
training facility in Riyadh in 1995; the killings at Khobar Towers in 1996;
the simultaneous bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in
1998; the bombing on the USS Cole in 2000; and, ultimately, the events of
9/11, when we lost 3,000 Americans here at home.

If we follow Congressman Murtha's advice and withdraw from Iraq the same
way we withdrew from Beirut in 1983 and Somalia in 1993, we will simply
validate the al Qaeda strategy and guarantee more terrorist attacks in the
future.

In the decade prior to 9/11, this country spent more than two trillion
dollars on national security. Yet we lost nearly 3,000 Americans at the
hands of 19 men armed with box cutters and airline tickets. In the case of
al Qaeda we are not dealing with large armies we can track, or uniforms we
can see, or men with territory of their own to defend. Their preferred
tactic, which they boldly proclaim, is to slip into this country, to blend
in among the innocent, and to kill without mercy and without restraint.
They have intelligence and counterintelligence operations of their own.
They take their orders from overseas. They are using the most sophisticated
communications technology they can get their hands on.

The enemy also has a set of clear objectives. The terrorists want to end
all American and Western influence in the Middle East. Their goal in that
region is to seize control of a country, so they have a base from which to
launch attacks and wage war against governments that do not meet their
demands. The terrorists believe that by controlling one country, they will
be able to target and overthrow other governments in the region, and
ultimately to establish an authoritarian empire that encompasses a region
from Spain, across North Africa, through the Middle East and South Asia,
all the way to Indonesia.

They have made clear, as well, their ultimate ambition: to arm themselves
with chemical, biological and even nuclear weapons; to destroy Israel; to
intimidate all Western countries; and to cause mass death here in the
United States.

In pursuit of those objectives, they have carried out a number of attacks
since 9/11 -- in Casablanca, Jakarta, Mombassa, Bali, Riyadh, Baghdad,
Istanbul, Madrid, London, Sharm al-Sheikh, and elsewhere. Here in the U.S.,
we have not had another 9/11. (Applause.)

Obviously, no one can guarantee that we won't be hit again. But the
relative safety of these years was not an accident. We've been protected by
sensible policy decisions by the President, by decisive action at home and
abroad, by the round-the-clock efforts on the part of people in the armed
forces, law enforcement, intelligence, and homeland security. (Applause.)

Unless somebody thinks the threat has gone away and does not exist, they
ought to look at their morning newspaper. We've had two weeks ago, of
course, in Toronto, a 17-man cell arrested by the Canadians plotting
attacks against civilian targets. And of course, this morning the Attorney
General held a press conference which I was watching as I came in on the
plane to Chicago to announce the arrest of seven individuals in a cell in
Miami, plotting among other things an attack on the Sears Tower here in
Chicago. It is a very real threat. There are still people out there who are
trying to do everything they can to kill Americans. We have to defend
ourselves against that threat.

The President has made a number of decisions since 9/11 that are designed
to do exactly that. One of those is the terrorist surveillance program some
of you have heard recently referred to as the domestic surveillance program
by the press corps. It is not domestic surveillance. This is a program
that's targeted upon communications one end of which is outside the United
States, and one end of which, we believe, is affiliated with al Qaeda. It
is a good program.

There's another program that has been in the papers this morning that deals
with finances, that is referred to -- or I will refer to it as a the
terrorist finance tracking program, that allows us to track the movements
of funds internationally that are al Qaeda-related and al Qaeda-affiliated.

Now, the President has been criticized. We've been criticized, the
administration on the terrorist surveillance program -- may also be
criticized on the financial program by our opponents. Russ Feingold, the
senator from Wisconsin, has called for the censure of the President over
the terrorist surveillance program. The fact of the matter is that these
are good, solid sound programs. They are conducted in accordance with the
laws of the land. They are -- they're carried in a manner that is fully
consistent with the constitutional authority of the President of the United
States. They are absolutely essential in terms of protecting us against
attacks. And I am personally persuaded that they are absolutely -- have
been absolutely essential in the fact that we have not been hit again since
9/11.

The thing that I find most disturbing about these stories -- even though
these programs have been briefed to the Congress, and they are conducted in
a way to guarantee and safeguard the civil liberties of the American
people, what I find most disturbing about these stories is the fact that
some of the news media take it upon themselves to disclose vital national
security programs, thereby making it more difficult for us to prevent
future attacks against the American people. That offends me. (Applause.)

This nation is pursuing a clear and a necessary course of action against
the terrorists. We are absolutely determined to prevent attacks before they
occur, and so we're working with other countries to break up terror cells,
to track down terrorist operatives, and to put heavy pressure on their
ability to organize and plan attacks. The work is difficult. It's often
perilous, and there is much yet to do. But we have made tremendous progress
against this enemy that dwells in the shadows.

Second, we are determined to deny safe haven to the terrorists. Since the
day our country was attacked, we have pursued the Bush Doctrine: Any person
or government that supports, protects, or harbors terrorists is complicit
in the murder of the innocent, and will be held to account. (Applause.)

Third, we are working to halt the proliferation of weapons of mass
destruction, and to keep those weapons out of the hands of killers.

Fourth, we are determined to deny the terrorists control of any nation,
which they could use as a home base and staging ground for terrorist
attacks against the United States or others. That's why we continue to
fight Taliban remnants and al Qaeda forces in Afghanistan. That is why we
are working with President Musharraf to oppose and isolate the terrorist
element in Pakistan. And that is why we are fighting the remnants of Saddam
Hussein's regime and the al Qaeda-affiliated terrorists in Iraq.

Because our coalition has stood by our commitments to the Afghan and Iraqi
peoples, some 50 million men, women, and children who lived under dictators
now live in freedom. Afghanistan is a rising democracy, with the first
fully elected government in its 5,000-year history. Iraq has the most
progressive constitution and the strongest democratic mandate in the entire
Arab world. The people now on duty in that part of the world, our men and
women in uniform, have done an absolutely outstanding job for all of us.
(Applause.)

So, ladies and gentlemen, it is critically important that we keep these
issues of national security at the top of the agenda in this election year.
The President and I welcome the discussion, because every voter in America
needs to know where the President and I stand and where Dave McSweeney
stands, as well as how the leaders of the Democratic Party view the war on
terror. (Applause.)

Their leader in the Senate, Harry Reid, boasted publicly of his efforts to
kill the Patriot Act. The Chairman of the Democratic Party, Howard Dean,
said the capture of Saddam Hussein would not make America safer. And those
prominent Democrats who now advocate a sudden withdrawal from Iraq are
counseling the very kind of retreat that has been tried in the past and
would only heighten the danger to the United States. For the sake of our
security, this nation must reject any strategy of resignation and defeatism
in the face of terrorist enemies. (Applause.)

We have to face the simple truth. The enemies that struck America are
weakened and fractured, but they are still lethal and still desperately
trying to find ways to kill Americans. They hate us, they hate our country,
and they hate the liberties for which we stand. They have contempt for our
values. They doubt our strength and our resolve. We have a duty to act
against them as effectively as we possibly can. Either we are serious about
fighting this war or we are not. As long as George W. Bush is leading this
nation, we are serious, and we will not let down our guard. (Applause.)

Ladies and gentlemen, in these five-and-a-half years we've been through a
great deal as a nation. Yet with each test, the American people have
displayed the true character of our country. We have built ourselves an
economy and a standard of living that are the envy of the world. We have
faced dangers with resolve. And we have been defended by some of the
bravest men and women this nation has ever produced. And when future
generations look back on our time, they will know that we met our moment
with courage and clear thinking. And they will know that America became a
better nation -- stronger, more prosperous, and more secure -- under the
leadership of our President, George W. Bush. (Applause.)

We'll continue making progress for the American people -- and it's vital we
have strong partners like Dave McSweeney in the Congress of the United
States to help us. (Applause.) The President and I have tremendous
confidence in Dave. Send him to Washington and you'll have a congressman
who speaks for your interests and your values each and every day. I'm proud
to join you in supporting Dave's campaign. He'll do a fantastic job, and
the President and I look forward to working with him beginning in January.

Thank you very much. (Applause.)

END 12:45 P.M. CDT

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