Bush sees preserving freedom greatest challenge, Cheney says

The following are excerpts of Vice President Dick Cheney’s speech to the Republican National Convention as prepared for delivery last night at Madison Square Garden in New York:

Mr. Chairman, delegates, distinguished guests, and fellow Americans: I accept your nomination for vice president of the United States. …

Tonight, I will talk about this good man and his fine record leading our country. And I may say a word or two about his opponent. I am also mindful that I have an opponent of my own.

People tell me that [Democratic vice-presidential nominee] Senator [John] Edwards got picked for his good looks, his sex appeal, and his great hair. I say to them — how do you think I got the job? …

As President Bush and I were sworn into office, our nation was sliding into recession, and American workers were overburdened with federal taxes. Then came the events of September 11th, which hit our economy very hard.

So President Bush delivered the greatest tax reduction in a generation, and the results are clear to see. Businesses are creating jobs. People are returning to work. Mortgage rates are low, and homeownership in this country is at an all-time high. The Bush tax cuts are working. …

These have been years of achievement, and we are eager for the work ahead. And in all that we do, we will never lose sight of the greatest challenge of our time: preserving the freedom and security of this nation against determined enemies.

Since I last spoke to our national convention, Lynne and I have had the joy of seeing our family grow. We now have a grandson to go along with our three wonderful granddaughters, and the deepest wish of my heart and the object of all my determination is that they, and all of America’s children, will have lives filled with opportunity … and that they will inherit a world in which they can live in freedom, in safety, and in peace.

Four years ago, some said the world had grown calm, and many assumed that the United States was invulnerable to danger. That thought might have been comforting; it was also false. Like other generations of Americans, we soon discovered that history had great and unexpected duties in store for us.

September 11th, 2001, made clear the challenges we face. On that day, we saw the harm that could be done by 19 men armed with knives and boarding passes. America also awakened to a possibility even more lethal: this enemy, whose hatred of us is limitless, armed with chemical, biological, or even nuclear weapons.

Just as surely as the Nazis during World War Two and the Soviet communists during the Cold War, the enemy we face today is bent on our destruction. As in other times, we are in a war we did not start, and have no choice but to win. Firm in our resolve, focused on our mission, and led by a superb commander in chief, we will prevail.

The fanatics who killed some 3,000 of our fellow Americans may have thought they could attack us with impunity — because terrorists had done so previously. But if the killers of September 11th thought we had lost the will to defend our freedom, they did not know America — and they did not know George W. Bush.

From the beginning, the president made clear that the terrorists would be dealt with — and that anyone who supports, protects, or harbors them would be held to account.

In a campaign that has reached around the world, we have captured or killed hundreds of Al Qaeda. In Afghanistan, the camps where terrorists trained to kill Americans have been shut down, and the Taliban driven from power.

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