Text of Joseph Biden's speechPage 2 of 2 -- Forty years ago, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, President Kennedy sent former Secretary of State Dean Acheson to Europe to seek support. Acheson explained the situation to French President de Gaulle. Then, he offered to show classified intelligence information as proof. De Gaulle said, "That's not necessary. I know President Kennedy. I know he would never mislead me on a question of war and peace." Would a single foreign leader react the same way today?
My friends, it doesn't have to be this way. America and the world deserve a president whose judgment they can trust. Americans are bigger and better than the past four years have led the world to believe. Americans know our military is the strongest on earth, but we are not arrogant. Americans are proud, not petty. Instead of dividing the world, we must unite it. Instead of bullying, we must build. Instead of walking alone, we must lead. It's only leadership if others follow. But let no enemy mistake our basic decency for lack of resolve. Americans will fight with every fiber of our being to protect our country and our people. When John Kerry is commander-in-chief, he will not hesitate to unleash the unparalleled power of our military, on any nation or group that does us harm -- without asking anyone's permission. This is man tested in combat, who will never send our sons and daughters into harm's way before exhausting every other option -- and giving them every tool they need. When John Kerry is president, military preemption will remain -- as it has always been -- an option, when we face a genuine, imminent threat. But John Kerry will build a true prevention strategy -- to defuse dangers long before the only choice is war. When John Kerry is president, our friends and allies will have no excuse to sit on the sidelines. And above all, when John Kerry is president, he will level with the American people. For he will inherit a nation and a world that will require him to ask much of us and our allies. I have no doubt this generation of Americans -- like every generation that has come before it -- will rise to the moment, for it longs to do great things. John Kerry is a student of history. He understands why we prevailed when our nation faced grave peril in the past. He understands that the terrorists may be beyond the reach of reason. We must defeat them. But hundreds of millions of hearts and minds are open to our ideas and our ideals. We must reach them. Just as Joshua's trumpets brought down the walls of Jericho -- just as American values brought down the Berlin Wall -- so will radical fundamentalism fall to the terrible, swift power of our ideas as well as our swords.
It is time to recapture the totality of America's strength. It is time to restore our nation to the respect it once had. It is time to reclaim America's soul. It is time to elect John Kerry the next president of the United States. |
