Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen: welcome. The American Enterprise Institute is honored to sponsor this address by President George W. Bush. His topic will be developments in Afghanistan.

The first five years of the struggle with Islamic fascism have been fought primarily on two fronts, on the eastern and western borders of Iran. In both Afghanistan and Iraq we have encountered terrible reversals, mayhem, and bloodshed. The sources of pandemonium have been the same: guerrillas of the deposed dictatorships, holy warriors, and foreign opportunists, armed with technology and a willingness to die for the death of innocents, intent on sowing anarchy as a prelude to tyranny. Our enemies have exhibited tremendous resilience and resourcefulness on both fronts. The question of the hour is whether we shall summon those same capacities of our own, sufficient to defeat them—beginning with the understanding that we are fighting two fronts of the same war.

George Bush knows what the answer to that question must be. Standing above the current political fray is the indisputable, towering fact of a President who has staked everything on doing what he believes necessary to protect America—a man who will not retreat.

Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States, George W. Bush.