[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 125 (Thursday, September 11, 2003)]
[House]
[Pages H8213-H8214]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      SO COMMITTED AND SO RESOLVED

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. DeLay) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, today the United States is a Nation in 
mourning. And yet, Mr. Speaker, even as we grieve, we fight. Even as 
our hearts burst with compassion, our souls burn with resolve. Because 
today the United States is also a Nation at war.
  We are at war for the survival of our Nation and the cause of 
freedom. And we are at war against the evil that planned and executed 
the attacks we coldly remember today. That evil we fight today is the 
same evil mankind

[[Page H8214]]

has always fought, the violent lie that with enough brute force, human 
cruelty can subdue human freedom.
  In the 2 years since we declared war on this new, old enemy, the 
United States has not suffered a major terrorist event on our soil. 
Thousands of terrorists have been brought to justice by our law 
enforcement community and thousands more have had justice brought to 
them by the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines.
  Even so, after 2 years, two successful military campaigns, and 50 
million liberated Afghanis and Iraqis, our dangerous days are still 
just beginning.
  Winston Churchill, in a similar moment at the dawn of the Second 
World War, braced his countrymen by saying: ``We have before us an 
ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many months 
of struggle and suffering.'' But he would not yield. He understood that 
in the face of evil, mankind's only option was to wage war by land, 
sea, and air. He understood that its only objective was victory. 
Victory at all costs. Victory in spite of all terrorists, however long 
and hard the road may be.
  The moral defiance Churchill voiced that day, Americans fired within 
ourselves that moment 2 years ago when we realized we were at war. 
Today our Armed Forces are deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq because we 
are resolved to wage this war for human liberty to its end.
  We know now the lesson of 9/11, that freedom and terrorism cannot 
coexist. This battle will be decided by our victory or by our 
surrender, in security or in shame.
  America will have won or lost, and the brave heroes we mourn today, 
those who gave their lives in New York, Pennsylvania, the Pentagon, 
Afghanistan, Iraq, and around the world over the last 2 years, will 
have either sacrificed for virtue or died in vain.
  The question, then, before the American people today after 2 armed 
years of struggle in the face of a relentless evil is whether our will 
is as powerful as our weapons.
  This September 11, let us reaffirm our commitment to freedom and our 
resolve to end global terrorism everywhere its merciless hatred lurks. 
For if we stand together so committed and so resolved, we shall 
overcome. And even now as we look back on the day America came to know 
evil, we can by the grace of God also look forward to the day America 
will come to know evil's defeat.

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