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To leave Afghanistan as a playground for terrorists and adventurers was simply not possible anymore.

It has never demonstrated any desire to provide humane treatment to captured Americans. If anything, the murders of Nicholas Berg and Daniel Pearl declare al Qaeda's intentions to kill even innocent civilian prisoners.

The very idea of freedom incites fear in the hearts of terrorists across the world.

For many terrorists, carrying out an attack allowed them to become the heroes of their own story.

No one argues that we should have imposed a dictatorship in Afghanistan having liberated the country. Similarly, we weren't about to impose a dictatorship in Iraq having liberated the country.

I want to be very clear: whenever it is possible to capture a suspected terrorist, it is the unqualified preference of the administration to take custody of that individual so we can obtain information that is vital to the safety and security of the American people.

We aren't using Guantanamo Bay anymore to take additional terrorists. That was the perfect facility to be able to use to extract information from people to keep the American people safe.

In short, the hunt for bin Laden could not have been accomplished without every form of American intelligence-gathering.