President Bush, aboard an aircraft carrier steaming home from war, said Thursday night “the United States and our allies have prevailed” against Saddam Hussein and will confront any nation tied to terrorists. “Major combat operations in Iraq have ended,” MAY 5, 2003

Vice President Dick Cheney visited the former hometown of his boss Friday, raising $300,000 for next year’s re-election drive and offering a rousing defense of the administration’s policies on the economy and on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. “In Afghanistan, the Taliban regime brutalized an entire population and harbored al Qaeda, and that regime is no more,” Cheney told a friendly crowd. Nov 8, 2003

Transcript: Vice Presidential Debate
Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio
October 5, 2004

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv…bate_1005.html

CHENEY: Gwen, we’ve never let up on Osama bin Laden from day one. We’ve actively and aggressively pursued him. We’ve captured or killed thousands of al Qaeda in various places around the world and especially in Afghanistan. We’ll continue to very aggressively pursue him, and I’m confident eventually we’ll get him.

The key to success in Afghanistan has been, again, to go in and go after the terrorists, which we’ve done, and also take down the Taliban regime which allowed them to function there, in effect sponsors, if you will, of the al Qaeda organization.
John Edwards, two and a half years ago, six months after we went into Afghanistan announced that it was chaotic, the situation was deteriorating, the warlords were about to take over.

Here we are, two and a half years later, we’re four days away from a democratic election, the first one in history in Afghanistan. We’ve got 10 million voters who have registered to vote, nearly half of them women.

That election will put in place a democratically elected government that will take over next December.

We’ve made enormous progress in Afghanistan, in exactly the right direction, in spite of what John Edwards said two and a half years ago. He just got it wrong.

The fact is, as we go forward in Afghanistan, we will pursue Osama bin Laden and the terrorists as long as necessary. We’re standing up Afghan security forces so they can take on responsibility for their own security. We’ll keep U.S. forces there — we have about 16,000 there today — as long as necessary, to assist the Afghans in terms of dealing with their security situation.

But they’re making significant progress. We have President Karzai, who is in power. They have done wonders writing their own constitution for the first time ever. Schools are open. Young girls are going to school. Women are going to vote. Women are even eligible to run for office. This is major, major progress. There will be democracy in Afghanistan, make no doubt about it. Freedom is the best antidote to terror.

The only viable option for winning the war on terrorism is the one the president has chosen, to use the power of the United States to aggressively go after the terrorists wherever we find them and also to hold to account states that sponsor terror.

Now that we’ve captured or killed thousands of al Qaeda and taken down the regimes of Saddam Hussein and the Taliban, it’s important that we stand up democratically elected governments as the only guarantee that they’ll never again revert to terrorism or the production of deadly weapons.