Remarks in Wilmington, Ohio

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, Nov 8, 2004

The 9/11 Commission report said America is safer but not yet safe. We're making progress. Afghanistan is an ally in the war on terror. Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are making raids and capturing terrorist leaders. Lybia is dismantling its weapons programs. The army of a free Iraq is fighting for freedom. Al Qaida no longer controls Afghanistan. We've shut down their camps. We are systematically destroying the Al Qaida network across the world. More than three-quarters of its key leaders and associates have been brought to justice, and the rest of them know we're on their trail.

And we are making progress because we have a great United States military. I want to thank those who wear the uniform who are here. I want to thank the military families who are here. And I want to thank the veterans who have set such a great example for those who wear the uniform. And I want to assure you, we will keep our commitment that I have made to our troops and to their families.

That's why in September of 2003, I went to the United States Congress and asked for $87 billion of important supplemental funding. That's money that went to our troops in combat in Iraq and in Afghanistan. It was important, really important. My opponent, on national TV, said prior to that vote, "'It would be irresponsible to vote against funding for the troops." And then he started to go down in the polls, and he voted against funding for our troops.

Audience member. Boo-o-o!

The President. And then he entered the flip-flop ball of fame by saying this: "'I actually did vote for the 87 billion, right before I voted against it." I haven't spent a lot of time in the coffee shops around here, but I bet you a lot of people don't talk that way. [Laughter]

They kept pressing him. He's given a lot of explanations about the 87--voting against the 87 billion, but I think the most revealing of all was when he said, "'The whole thing was a complicated matter." My fellow Americans, there is nothing complicated about supporting our troops in combat.

The problem with Senator Kerry's record on national security are deeper than election-year reversals. Twenty years--for 20 years, on the largest national security issues of the time, he has been consistently wrong. During the cold war, Senator Kerry was critical, was against President Ronald Reagan's policy of peace through strength. Well, history has shown that Senator Kerry was wrong and President Ronald Reagan was right.

When former President Bush assembled an international coalition to drive Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait, Senator Kerry voted against the use of force to liberate Kuwait. History has shown that Senator Kerry was wrong and former President Bush was right.

One year after the bombing of--the first bombing of the World Trade Center, the Senator proposed massive cuts in our intelligence budgets, so massive that his colleague from Massachusetts, Ted Kennedy, opposed them. Well history has shown that Senator Kerry was wrong--and we've got to be fair about it--Senator Kennedy was tight. [Laughter]