This speech has really, really ticked off the Democrats - which means, of course, that it is 100% correct:

We believe in the matchless value of every man, woman, and child. So we insist that the people of Israel have the right to a decent, normal, and peaceful life, just like the citizens of every other nation.

We believe that democracy is the only way to ensure human rights. So we consider it a source of shame that the United Nations routinely passes more human rights resolutions against the freest democracy in the Middle East than any other nation in the world.

We believe that religious liberty is fundamental to a civilized society. So we condemn anti-Semitism in all forms -- whether by those who openly question Israel's right to exist, or by others who quietly excuse them.

We believe that free people should strive and sacrifice for peace. So we applaud the courageous choices Israeli's leaders have made. We also believe that nations have a right to defend themselves and that no nation should ever be forced to negotiate with killers pledged to its destruction.

We believe that targeting innocent lives to achieve political objectives is always and everywhere wrong. So we stand together against terror and extremism, and we will never let down our guard or lose our resolve.

The fight against terror and extremism is the defining challenge of our time. It is more than a clash of arms. It is a clash of visions, a great ideological struggle. On the one side are those who defend the ideals of justice and dignity with the power of reason and truth. On the other side are those who pursue a narrow vision of cruelty and control by committing murder, inciting fear, and spreading lies.

This struggle is waged with the technology of the 21st century, but at its core it is an ancient battle between good and evil. The killers claim the mantle of Islam, but they are not religious men. No one who prays to the God of Abraham could strap a suicide vest to an innocent child, or blow up guiltless guests at a Passover Seder, or fly planes into office buildings filled with unsuspecting workers. In truth, the men who carry out these savage acts serve no higher goal than their own desire for power. They accept no God before themselves. And they reserve a special hatred for the most ardent defenders of liberty, including Americans and Israelis.

And that is why the founding charter of Hamas calls for the "elimination" of Israel. And that is why the followers of Hezbollah chant "Death to Israel, Death to America!" That is why Osama bin Laden teaches that "the killing of Jews and Americans is one of the biggest duties." And that is why the President of Iran dreams of returning the Middle East to the Middle Ages and calls for Israel to be wiped off the map.

There are good and decent people who cannot fathom the darkness in these men and try to explain away their words. It's natural, but it is deadly wrong. As witnesses to evil in the past, we carry a solemn responsibility to take these words seriously. Jews and Americans have seen the consequences of disregarding the words of leaders who espouse hatred. And that is a mistake the world must not repeat in the 21st century.

Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along. We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: "Lord, if I could only have talked to Hitler, all this might have been avoided." We have an obligation to call this what it is -- the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history.

Some people suggest if the United States would just break ties with Israel, all our problems in the Middle East would go away. This is a tired argument that buys into the propaganda of the enemies of peace, and America utterly rejects it. Israel's population may be just over 7 million. But when you confront terror and evil, you are 307 million strong, because the United States of America stands with you.

We know who it is who "quietly excuse them" - the people of the political left, who are always quick to point the finger of blame at the United States and Israel, as if the actions of free people defending themselves are in any way comparable to the actions of tyrants shedding the blood of innocents to further their own power. We also know who offers us "the false comfort of appeasement" - those same leftists, led now by their pied piper, Barack Obama, who sings a song of talk, talk, talk to those who only know how to kill, and who's only delight is in the death of Americans and Israelis. We know all this - and they know all this; and so they are angry at President Bush for once again has gently called them on their cowardice and folly.

It is a terrible thing these people on the left do - far worse than sinning, in my view, is to be an accessory to sin; to encourage sin, to make sin more likely. The brutes we fight against are bad men who we pray will repent of their ways - but such a repentance and such a change is made all the harder because there are those in our midst who encourage the evil doers in their wicked deeds...who see a Kennedy saying the war was hatched in Texas, a Reid saying the war is lost, an Obama promising to surrender in Iraq and say to themselves "our deeds are good, because they are bringing us victory". President Bush has been the rock of American and global resolve in this war, but he will leave office on January 20th, 2009 - it is our duty as patriots and as citizens of the larger world to see to it that his successor is a man with no illusions, and with the plain courage to see this noble fight to an honorable conclusion. With Bush followed by McCain, all will be well, no matter how hard the task proves - with Bush followed by Obama, all the work and sacrifice of the past 7 years will be in vain.

Cross Posted at Blogs for Victory

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