[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 139 (Tuesday, October 16, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1899-E1900]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            REMARKS OF SECRETARY OF DEFENSE DONALD RUMSFELD

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. IKE SKELTON

                              of missouri

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, October 16, 2001

  Mr. SKELTON. Mr. Speaker, I am proud to share with the Members of the 
House the excellent remarks of Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld 
yesterday at the Memorial Service in Remembrance of Those Lost on 
September 11th. The fine statement is set forth as follows:

       We are gathered here because of what happened here on 
     September 11th. Events that bring to mind tragedy--but also 
     our gratitude to those who came to assist that day and 
     afterwards, those we saw at the Pentagon site everyday--the 
     guards, police, fire and rescue workers, the Defense 
     Protective service, hospitals, Red Cross, family center 
     professionals and volunteers and many others.
       And yet our reason for being here today is something else.
       We are gathered here to remember, to console and to pray.
       To remember comrades and colleagues, friends and family 
     members--those lost to us on Sept. 11th.
       We remember them as heroes. And we are right to do so. They 
     died because--in words of justification offered by their 
     attackers--they were Americans. They died, then, because of 
     how they lived--as free men and women, proud of their 
     freedom, proud of their country and proud of their country's 
     cause--the cause of human freedom.
       And they died for another reason--the simple fact they 
     worked here in this building--the Pentagon.
       It is seen as a place of power, the locus of command for 
     what has been called the greatest accumulation of military 
     might in history. And yet a might used far differently than 
     the long course of history has usually known.
       In the last century, this building existed to oppose two 
     totalitarian regimes that sought to oppress and to rule other 
     nations. And it is no exaggeration of historical judgment to 
     say that without this building, and those who worked here, 
     those two regimes would not have been stopped or thwarted in 
     their oppression of countless millions.
       But just as those regimes sought to rule and oppress, 
     others in this century seek to do the same by corrupting a 
     noble religion. Our President has been right to see the 
     similarity--and to say that the fault, the evil is the same. 
     It is the will to power, the urge to dominion over others, to 
     the point of oppressing them, even to taking thousands of 
     innocent lives--or more. And that this oppression makes the 
     terrorist a believer--not in the theology of God, but the 
     theology of self--and in the whispered words of temptation: 
     ``Ye shall be as Gods.''
       In targeting this place, then, and those who worked here, 
     the attackers, the evildoers correctly sensed that the 
     opposite of all they were, and stood for, resided here.
       Those who worked here--those who on Sept. 11 died here--
     whether civilians or in uniform,--side by side they sought 
     not to rule, but to serve. They sought not to oppress, but to 
     liberate. They worked not to take lives, but to protect them. 
     And they tried not to preempt God, but see to it His 
     creatures lived as He intended--in the light and dignity of 
     human freedom.
       Our first task then is to remember the fallen as they 
     were--as they would have wanted to be remembered--living in 
     freedom, blessed by it, proud of it and willing--like so many 
     others before them, and like so many today, to die for it.
       And to remember them as believers in the heroic ideal for 
     which this nation stands and for which this building exists--
     the ideal of service to country and to others.
       Beyond all this, their deaths remind us of a new kind of 
     evil, the evil of a threat and menace to which this nation 
     and the world has now fully awakened, because of them.
       In causing this awakening, then, the terrorists have 
     assured their own destruction. And those we mourn today, 
     have, in the moment of their death, assured their own triumph 
     over hate and fear. For out of this act of terror--and the 
     awakening it brings--here and across the globe--will surely 
     come a victory over terrorism. A victory that one day may 
     save millions from the harm of weapons of mass destruction. 
     And this victory--their victory--we pledge today.
       But if we gather here to remember them--we are also here to 
     console those who shared their lives, those who loved them. 
     And yet, the irony is that those whom we have come to console 
     have given us the best of all consolations, by reminding us 
     not only of the meaning of the deaths, but of the lives of 
     their loved ones.
       ``He was a hero long before the eleventh of September,'' 
     said a friend of one of those we have lost--``a hero every 
     single day, a hero to his family, to his friends and to his 
     professional peers.''
       A veteran of the Gulf War--hardworking, who showed up at 
     the Pentagon at 3:30 in the morning, and then headed home in 
     the afternoon to be with his children--all of whom he loved 
     dearly, but one of whom he gave very special care, because 
     she needs very special care and love.
       About him and those who served with him, his wife said: 
     ``It's not just when a plane hits their building. They are 
     heroes every day.''
       ``Heroes every day.'' We are here to affirm that. And to do 
     this on behalf of America.
       And also to say to those who mourn, who have lost loved 
     ones: Know that the heart of America is here today, and that 
     it speaks to each one of you words of sympathy, consolation, 
     compassion and love. All the love that the heart of America--
     and a great heart it is--can muster.

[[Page E1900]]

       Watching and listening today, Americans everywhere are 
     saying: I wish I could be there to tell them how sorry we 
     are, how much we grieve for them. And to tell them too, how 
     thankful we are for those they loved, and that we will 
     remember them, and recall always the meaning of their deaths 
     and their lives.
       A Marine chaplain, in trying to explain why there could be 
     no human explanation for a tragedy such as this, said once: 
     ``You would think it would break the heart of God.''
       We stand today in the midst of tragedy--the mystery of 
     tragedy. Yet a mystery that is part of that larger awe and 
     wonder that causes us to bow our heads in faith and say of 
     those we mourn, those we have lost, the words of scripture: 
     ``Lord now let Thy servants go in peace, Thy word has been 
     fulfilled.''
       To the families and friends of our fallen colleagues and 
     comrades we extend today our deepest sympathy and 
     condolences--and those of the American people.
       We pray that God will give some share of the peace that now 
     belongs to those we lost, to those who knew and loved them in 
     this life.
       But as we grieve together we are also thankful--thankful 
     for their lives, thankful for the time we had with them. And 
     proud too--as proud as they were--that they lived their lives 
     as Americans.
       We are mindful too--and resolute that their deaths, like 
     their lives, shall have meaning. And that the birthright of 
     human freedom--a birthright that was theirs as Americans and 
     for which they died--will always be ours and our children's. 
     And through our efforts and example, one day, the birthright 
     of every man, woman, and child on earth.

     

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