National Press Club Speech

National Review Online has the text of Senator Santorum's address to the National Press Club up.

Paradoxically, when we refuse to criticize anybody, we end up patronizing everyone, which is offensive to everyone and self-defeating. It makes a mockery of freedom of speech, and traps us in the discredited nonsense of moral equivalence. This war is not between two morally equivalent sides; it's a war between brutal totalitarian fascism and freedom. Our freedom, not just freedom for Iraqis and Afghans. We are the fascists’ prime target, and they intend to impose a brutal tyranny on those of us who survive their onslaught.

Islamic fascism is the great test of this generation. When we fail to fully grasp the nature of our enemy and the urgency of our victory, our own people become confused and divided, and the fascists are encouraged to believe that we’re afraid of them.

This has to stop. We have an obligation as leaders to articulate exactly what this threat is, and to defeat it. The American people have always rallied to the cause of freedom, once they understood what was at stake.

We had no problem branding communism an evil empire — it was.

We had no problem understanding that Nazism and fascism were evil racist empires — they were.

We must now bring the same clarity to the war against Islamic fascism.

Really too much to excerpt from...

Go read it all

Update: Tim Chapman writes that Rick is invaluable.

Conservatives may quibble with some of Rick Santorum’s policies here and there. But today, in a major policy speech speech at the National Press Club, Santorum demonstrated why he is an invaluable and irreplaceable member of the Senate GOP majority. In my opinion, there is no member of Congress who speaks with more precise moral clarity on the big issues of the day.