Suggested statement for the President on the topic of national security...
"Today, we face a crisis that has tested and will continue to test our truest convictions. Will we choose to meet the challenge and face our declared enemies where they meet, where they gather and where they have chosen to engage us abroad? Or will we retreat from this struggle and refrain from facing the responsibilities that this moment in our nation’s history demands? It shall not be easy to overcome a committed enemy that has sworn to die in pursuit of their villainous aims at destroying the United States and Western democracies. America though cannot simply shy away from this confrontation or choose an isolationist path toward security. Our enemy will not tire or be altered by diplomacy or reason. Our enemy must be overcome and vanquished. We must defeat them where we find them and not allow them to plot or pursue their terrorist ambitions. Nothing less than Liberty itself hinges on our decision. We must commit all of the forces necessary to conquer these terrorists because the stakes are far too great to even contemplate the prospect of inaction. Islamic extremists have twisted a noble religion in an effort to enforce, through terror, their own narrow religious doctrines and fascist political aspirations. My administration is fully committed to confronting the challenge exactly as it has emerged. The terrorists have signaled their intentions very specifically, and we must take them at their word and respond accordingly. We will be resolute and shall not cower from the mission. If our mission in Iraq to defend and bolster an emerging democracy is lost or if we neglect to follow through as required, the entire region will be lost to Islamic fascism, and we will have sacrificed our greatest opportunity to defeat a major terrorist enclave and also assist in the spreading of Liberty to the greater Middle East. If there must be conflict with those who have declared war against us, let it be abroad where we strive to meet the challenge and defeat our enemies. Let it be our American generation that faces this critical challenge and brings lasting security to our citizens. We did not seek out this conflict, but we cannot turn away or retreat from our responsibilities either. There are those among us, while they may be committed patriots, who still do not understand the full extent of the evil which threatens us. They would have us retreat to our own shores and prepare here for the battles to come and hope that our enemies will be content with foreign prizes of conquest. But we do not face an enemy who will ever be contented or satisfied with simple pursuits on distant battlefields. Our enemies have attacked us here and plot to do so again. The terrorists are not rational and have no desire for justice or righteousness. They seek to conquer and convert their subjects to their brand of Islam by force. When faced with such an enemy who’s so aim is our conquest, we have no other path open to us but conquest ourselves. We dare not risk giving such an enemy even a partial victory. We must win every battle and vanquish such an enemy entirely. And so we shall."
