The most presidential lorem ipsum in history.
I stand here knowing that my story is part of the larger American story, that I owe a debt to all of those who came before me, and that, in no other country on earth, is my story even possible. And when the first Muslim-American was recently elected to Congress, he took the oath to defend our Constitution using the same Holy Koran that one of our Founding Fathers - Thomas Jefferson - kept in his personal library. Today, America has a dual responsibility: to help Iraq forge a better future - and to leave Iraq to Iraqis. In the middle of the Cold War, the United States played a role in the overthrow of a democratically-elected Iranian government.
This year, in this election, we are called to reaffirm our values and our commitments, to hold them against a hard reality and see how we are measuring up, to the legacy of our forbearers, and the promise of future generations. This country is more generous than one where a man in Indiana has to pack up the equipment he's worked on for twenty years and watch it shipped off to China, and then chokes up as he explains how he felt like a failure when he went home to tell his family the news. For while Senator McCain was turning his sights to Iraq just days after 9/11, I stood up and opposed this war, knowing that it would distract us from the real threats we face. And throughout history, Islam has demonstrated through words and deeds the possibilities of religious tolerance and racial equality. For more than sixty years they have endured the pain of dislocation. On science and technology, we will launch a new fund to support technological development in Muslim-majority countries, and to help transfer ideas to the marketplace so they can create jobs.
For alongside our famous individualism, there's another ingredient in the American saga. This is a problem that's brought together churches and synagogues and mosques and people of all faiths as part of a grassroots movement. And it offends our conscience. America does not presume to know what is best for everyone, just as we would not presume to pick the outcome of a peaceful election.
When we send our young men and women into harm's way, we have a solemn obligation not to fudge the numbers or shade the truth about why they're going, to care for their families while they're gone, to tend to the soldiers upon their return, and to never ever go to war without enough troops to win the war, secure the peace, and earn the respect of the world. And so they need an assurance that somebody out there cares about them, is listening to them - that they are not just destined to travel down that long road toward nothingness. So I have known Islam on three continents before coming to the region where it was first revealed.
I am grateful to finish this journey with one of the finest statesmen of our time, a man at ease with everyone from world leaders to the conductors on the Amtrak train he still takes home every night. No single speech can eradicate years of mistrust, nor can I answer in the time that I have all the complex questions that brought us to this point.
Thank you.