One of the constitutional duties of the President is to be commander-in-chief. The government's constitutional responsibility is to protect its citizens from threats both foreign and domestic. On September 11, 2001, our nation was attacked by radical Islamic terrorists. On September 12th, Americans had a different view of the world.  President Bush rightly labeled the Axis of Evil to include Iran, Iraq, and North Korea. We will continue to deal with these countries and their surrogates in the future.
 

Tom believes that we must aggressively defend our freedom. Our soldiers and their leaders do a fine job under difficult circumstances. We must supply them with needed munitions. Tom understands that the battle will be fought somewhere, and it must end in victory.  There are many definitions of victory, all of which require the expenditure of blood and treasure. We will pay the price for our Freedom, and we should support those around the world who clamor for their freedom. 
 

Today, we have a volunteer military that is professional and under great stress. In Korea and Vietnam, America had a conscripted military. The American public has little stomach for prolonged conflict and nation-building is not the role for our military. If we are nation-building, then politicians owe it to the American people to say just that and suffer the political consequences. 
 

Going forward from today. We must leave Iraq to its own people, Sunni, Shia, and Kurd, to govern and secure. The sooner we can remove our troops the better. Commanders in Iraq recognize this and we are leaving. We must assist the Afghan people in creating security, but we cannot do this with our military alone. We have assisted Afghanistan for more than eight years militarily, without a political solution. We must support our commander's decisions on the ground in their request for resources. If we deny their requests, we must understand that the objectives will not be achieved. All actions have consequences. A frank public discussion of the potential consequences of troop removal from Afghanistan should occur. 
 

Tom does not believe the United States should be the world's policeman. Nor should we attempt to occupy land and build an empire. Tom believes that we need to let other nations take the lead and focus upon our domestic security.  The nuclear threat from both North Korea and Iran will affect America in the coming years.