Joe Biden, U.S. Senator for Delaware

July 29, 2004

SEN. BIDEN: My name is Joe Biden and I'm a Democrat. (Cheers, applause.) Nearly 100 years ago, a great Irish poet, William Butler Yeats, told us that the world has changed, it has changed utterly; a terrible beauty has been born.

Tonight our country stands at the hinge of history, and America's destiny is literally at stake, but we can shape that destiny if we seize the opportunities before us. And Americans must decide who they trust the most to shape that destiny.

The overwhelming obligation of the next president is clear: make America stronger, make America safer, and win the death struggle between freedom and radical fundamentalism. (Cheers, applause.) This struggle reached our shores on September 11th, 2001 and delivered this generation of Americans to this moment of awesome destiny. After 9/11, I believed, and I still do, that if we exercised the full measure of our power, including our ideas as well as our ideals, we could unite not only this nation but the world in a common cause. (Applause.)

9/11 was a moment of profound pain, but also of enormous opportunity. Americans stood in blood lines for hours, even though they knew no more blood was needed. The French ran a headline, "We Are All Americans Now." (Cheers, applause.) Imagine, imagine if Franklin Roosevelt or John Kennedy had been president and how they would have seized that moment.

Imagine if this president had spoken to the nation and the world and summoned that sense of solidarity. Imagine if he had said, "It is time for all who are able to do something for America. I'm calling for a new program of national service and an energy policy that will liberate us from the suffocating grip of the Middle East." (Applause.) And imagine if he said, "And I call -- I call on our allies to join us in a compact for freedom, because we are always stronger, safer, better, more secure together than we are alone." Just imagine, had he said that. (Applause.)

I do not question the motives of this administration, but I profoundly disagree with their judgments. And I believe history will judge this generation well and this administration harshly for the mistakes it has made. I believe this generation will look and wonder why this administration has squandered the opportunities that were before it.

Today we are rightly content in the example of our power, but we have forgotten the power of our example. (Applause.) And for all of America's great might, we are more alone in the world than ever before. As a result, we are less secure than we could or we should be. Our allies and our friends, the international organizations we've built over the past half-century, they do not hold us down; they help us share the burden of leadership.

And we were told by this administration we would pay no price for going it alone, but that is obviously wrong. Because we waged a war in Iraq virtually alone, we are responsible for the aftermath virtually alone.

(Applause.)

And the price is clear. Nearly 90 percent of the troops and the casualties are American. And because the intelligence was hyped to justify going to war, America's credibility and security have suffered a terrible blow.

Forty years ago, during the Cuban missile crisis, President Kennedy sent former secretary of State Dean Acheson to Europe to seek support. And Acheson explained the situation to President DeGaulle. He then offered to show President DeGaulle classified information as proof of what he said. And you know what DeGaulle did? He raised his hand and said, quote, "That is not necessary. I know President Kennedy, and I know he would never mislead me on a question of war and peace." (Cheers; applause.)

I ask you -- I ask you, would a single world leader today answer the same way?

AUDIENCE: No!

SEN. BIDEN: My friends, it doesn't have to be this way. America and the world deserve a president whose judgment they can trust. Americans are bigger and better than the past four years have led the world to believe about us. Americans know our military is the strongest on Earth, but we are not arrogant. Americans are proud, but we are not petty. Instead of dividing the world, we must unite it. Instead of bullying the world, we must build. And instead of walking alone, we must lead. (Cheers; applause.)

It is only -- it is only -- it is only leadership if someone follows, and no one is following. (Cheers; applause.)

But let no -- but let no friend or foe mistake our basic decency for a lack of resolve. Americans will fight with every fiber in their being to protect our country and our people. And John Kerry, when he is commander in chief, will not hesitate to unleash the awesome power of our military on any nation or group that does us harm, and without asking anyone's permission.

This is a man whose judgment can be trusted. This is a man tested in combat, who will never send our sons and daughters to war before exhausting every other alternative. (Cheers; applause.)

And then, if he must, he will not send them without giving them every tool necessary to win. (Cheers, applause.)

When John Kennedy is -- when John Kerry is president, military preemption will remain, as it has always been, an option. But John Kerry will build a true prevention strategy to defuse dangers long before the only option is war. When John Kerry is president, our friends and allies will have no excuse to remain on the sidelines. And above all, when John Kerry is president, he will level with the American people, for he will inherit a world and a nation that will require him to ask much of us and of our allies. (Scattered applause.)

And, ladies and gentlemen, listen to me. I have not a single doubt that this generation of Americans will rise to whatever is asked of them. They will rise to the moment, for as long as we are here they desire to do great things. And John Kerry, as a student of history, understands why we prevailed when our nation faced grave peril in the past. He understands that the terrorists may be beyond our reach and we must defeat them, but he also understands that hundreds of millions of hearts and minds are open to our ideas and our ideals, and we must reach them as well. (Cheers, applause.)

Ladies and gentlemen, our friends on the other side love to quote the Bible. Just as Joshua's trumpets brought down the walls of Jericho, just as American values brought down the Berlin Wall, so will radical fundamentalists fall to the terrible, swift power of our ideas as well as our swords. (Cheers, applause.)

My fellow delegates, it's time to recapture the totality of America's strength. It's time to restore our nation to the respect it once had. It's time to reclaim America's soul. It's time to elect John Kerry president of the United States of America. (Cheers, applause.)

Thank you. (Cheers, applause.)