Contact: White House, Office of the Press Secretary, 202-456-2580

CRAWFORD, Texas, Aug. 20 /Standard Newswire/ -- As Prepared for Delivery

Today President Bush will deliver remarks to the Veterans of Foreign Wars National Convention in Orlando, Florida.  The President will summarize the important steps that have been taken in the last seven years to wage the war on terror and better protect the American people. 

The President will focus on three key accomplishments: Providing unprecedented support for our veterans; modernizing our military to reflect the needs of the war on terror; and creating a more unified, integrated intelligence community.

Following are excerpts from the President’s remarks, as prepared for delivery:

On providing unprecedented support for our veterans:

When the history of the last eight years is written, it will show how closely and effectively my Administration and the VFW have worked together on behalf of America’s veterans.

My budget includes nearly 94 billion dollars for the Department of Veterans Affairs – nearly double the funding for veterans when I took office.

We have committed more than 5.5 billion dollars to modernizing and expanding VA facilities – so more veterans can get care where they live.  We recognize our duty to provide for those returning home from the frontlines today:  My Administration implemented recommendations from Senator Dole and Secretary Shalala to help our wounded warriors build lives of hope, promise, and dignity.  We are investing hundreds of millions of dollars to develop new treatments for conditions like traumatic brain injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Earlier this year, I was pleased to sign a piece of legislation that the VFW has long championed – a GI Bill for the 21st century.  This legislation will expand education benefits for our Nation's veterans.  And it will make it easier for veterans to transfer those benefits to their spouses and children, as I called for in my State of the Union Address earlier this year.  Our military families serve alongside their loved ones – and they will always have our full support.

On our strategy for winning the global war on terror: 

Over the past seven and a half years, I have seen the VFW's devotion to our men and women in uniform.  You understand that our men and women in uniform deserve our full support because they are defending America in our Nation’s first war of the 21st century.  That war reached our shores on September the 11th, 2001.  On that day, 19 men armed with box cutters brought killing and carnage to our homeland.  We are at war against determined enemies.  And we must not rest until that war is won.   

This war cannot be won, however, if we treat terrorism primarily as a matter of law enforcement.  Law enforcement is an essential part of our strategy – but our strategy cannot be limited to law enforcement alone.  After the first World Trade Center attack in 1993, our law enforcement community succeeded in tracking down several of the killers, prosecuting them, and putting them behind bars.  But eight years later, al Qaida terrorists came back to finish the job.  The lesson of this experience is: In this war, we must use all assets of national power to keep the pressure on the enemy, keep the terrorists on the run, and keep the American people safe from harm. 

On transforming our military to reflect the needs of the war on terror:

To ensure we have the capabilities to prevail in Iraq, Afghanistan, and wherever the terrorists make their stand, we have transformed the United States military.  We have more than doubled funding for our Special Operations Command – so our forces can hunt down terrorists where they hide.  We have increased the number of unmanned aerial vehicles in our arsenal.  And we are moving American forces from Cold War garrisons in Europe and Asia – so they can deploy rapidly anywhere in the world.  We are increasing the size of our ground forces, and making our troops more lethal and more agile – so they can remain on the offense against the enemy.  America’s future leaders must always remember that the war on terror will be won on the offense – and that is where America’s military must stay. 

On creating a more integrated intelligence community to help protect the American people:

As we take the fight to the enemy overseas, we are also defending the homeland.  Nearly seven years have passed without another attack on our soil.  That is not for lack of trying on the part of the terrorists.  Our intelligence and law enforcement professionals have worked with our allies to stop major al Qaida attacks – including a plot to blow up transatlantic flights from London and a plan to strike the tallest skyscraper in Los Angeles.  We owe these fine professionals our thanks.  And we owe them something more – the tools and resources they need to do their jobs.

Since Nine-Eleven, we have given America's defenders the tools they will need to defend us in this new era:

We formed a new Department of Homeland Security.  We overhauled our Nation's intelligence community.  We shifted the FBI’s focus from investigating terrorist attacks to preventing them.  We passed the Patriot Act, and tore down the "wall" that once prevented law enforcement and intelligence officers from sharing vital information.  We created a new National Counterterrorism Center.  We established a program at the CIA to interrogate key terrorist leaders captured in the war on terror.  And we worked with Congress to pass legislation that allows our intelligence professionals to quickly and effectively monitor terrorist communications. 

This Administration has used all these tools to stop new attacks.  And these tools will be available for future Administrations to protect the American people for years to come. 

On the transformative power of liberty:

The people in this room understand the benefits of liberty because you have fought to defend it, and bring it to others.  As young men, many of you battled the forces of Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan on the battlefields of World War Two.  In those days, it would have been hard for you to imagine that the enemies you were fighting would become some of America's closest friends.  But six decades later, Germany and Japan are strong democracies – and they are two of America’s closest allies.  In your own lifetimes, many of you have seen firsthand the power of liberty to transform societies, and yield the peace that we all desire.  Your experiences in the last century give us confidence that the power of freedom is unstoppable.  If Americans maintain confidence in our ideals in this new century, freedom will prevail once again.