[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 120 (Friday, September 14, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9459-S9460]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        USE OF FORCE TO DEFEND AMERICA AGAINST TERRORIST ATTACKS

  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, we are now learning that the terrorists 
who attacked our Nation this week may have been planning their hideous 
crimes for years.
  In their evil and painstaking calculations, the terrorists clearly 
tried to anticipate every possible obstacle they might encounter.
  But there is one obstacle they overlooked; that is, the courage of 
the American people, and our fierce determination to defend the people 
and values we cherish.
  It was that courage and determination that appears to have given the 
passengers aboard the plane that crashed near Pittsburgh the strength 
to resist their murderers and prevent an even greater tragedy.
  It is that same courage and determination that is at the heart of 
this resolution we pass today.
  Tuesday, from the window of my office in the Capitol, I watched thick 
black smoke rise from the Pentagon and fill the sky over Arlington 
Cemetery.
  The graves in that hallowed ground remind us that Americans have 
faced great evil before and defeated it.
  By passing this resolution, we are saying we are prepared to confront 
evil again and to defeat it again.
  We are saying that the Congress of the United States--Democrats and 
Republicans stand with the President as our Commander in Chief.
  We are authorizing the President to use force against the terrorists 
who attacked America on September 11, and any nation, organization, or 
person that aids or harbors them.
  As a result of our actions today, we know that our men and women in 
uniform may be forced to confront a new kind of enemy--an enemy whose 
actions are constrained neither by conscience, nor the rules of war.
  We also know that whatever they are called to do, they will do it 
well and with honor. And we know this: They will prevail.
  This is the gravest responsibility we can undertake as elected 
leaders.
  That is why our Constitution calls on the President and the Congress 
to act together on decisions to employ our armed forces to defend our 
Nation.
  By passing this resolution, we reaffirm our belief in our 
Constitution as the foundation and strength of our democracy.
  By providing specific statutory authorization and by requiring 
continuing consultation between the President and the Congress, we also 
underscore the importance of the War Powers Resolution. Only by 
standing together, can we stand strong and defeat this threat.
  As I have said before, what happened on Tuesday was not simply an 
attack against America. It was a crime against democracy, and decency. 
It was a crime against civilization itself.
  Americans have been deeply touched this week by the support we have 
received from friends throughout the world. From the gates of 
Buckingham Palace, to the halls of the United Nations and NATO, to the 
streets of Moscow and beyond, the grief displayed by our friends has 
helped to make our own grief more bearable.
  We thank the family of nations for standing with us in these early 
days of this battle against terrorism. Even more, we thank them for 
their commitment to stand with us in the days ahead.
  I am confident we will continue to stand together, and defeat this 
most insidious of threats, wherever and whenever it arises.
  We will be fierce in the defense of our ideals. We will make whatever 
material or physical sacrifice that is required of us to punish those 
who attacked our nation, and to prevent future attacks.
  But we will not sacrifice the ideals that built this nation and have 
sustained us for more than two centuries.
  Just as we are united against the terrorists and their co-
conspirators who carried out the attacks on our nation, we must also be 
united against acts of hate against innocent Arab-Americans and 
Muslims.
  The madmen who carried out these crimes despise our values of liberty 
and justice for all.
  By maintaining our commitment to those ideals now, we send a powerful 
message to those who committed this evil that they have not won, and 
they will not win this war. They have broken our hearts, but not our 
will.

[[Page S9460]]

  The terrorists hoped to bring us to our knees. Let us defy them by 
standing together on our feet as one nation, indivisible.
  Yes, we saw evil this week. But we have also seen great strength. We 
have seen it in the heroic men and women working day and night in the 
wreckage of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
  We have seen it in the countless Americans in cities across the 
country who waited hours to donate blood.
  And we have seen it in the men and women who may have prevented even 
greater destruction through their bravery aboard that doomed flight.
  That is the strength of America--the one obstacle the terrorists did 
not anticipate, and the one that will be their undoing.
  I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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