People can't imagine an enemy that would cut someone's head off before a video camera and spread it out across the world. But that has happened with the kind of enemy we are now facing.

There are elections in which everyone knows that 'the people have spoken' but they don't always know exactly what the people have said. This November's election was different. Not only did the people speak, they spoke clearly.

We are battling fanatics who kidnap and behead civilians and shoot fleeing children in the back. There can be no dialogue with such people, and the American people understand this.

We can be proud of our record as an international beacon of liberty. From fostering democracies in Eastern Europe to the stabilization of Iraq and Afghanistan, we have been true to that calling and helped spread freedom to oppressed peoples everywhere.

I have long believed taxpayers make better use of their money than the government ever could.

I am proud of the President's leadership. I am proud to support him in saying: Yes, we are going to do what is necessary now when it is less painful and less expensive.