[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 127 (Tuesday, September 16, 2003)]
[House]
[Page H8224]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            VICTORY'S PRICE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of 
January 7, 2003, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. DeLay) is recognized 
during morning hour debates.
  Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, a generation from now Iraq will either be a 
thriving democratic ally of the United States, or an enemy of 
unimaginable hatred, ruled by a violent government of, for, and by 
international terrorists.
  A generation from now the battle of Iraq, now the central component 
of the war on terror, will have succeeded or have failed. America will 
have won or lost; and our brave heroes who gave their lives there will 
have sacrificed for virtue or died in vain.
  The toppling of Saddam Hussein's status in Firdos Square will have 
been the dawn of an age of Middle East freedom and stability, or it 
will have been the cruel joke that ushered in an era of unspeakable 
terror in the region.
  There is no middle ground. Freedom and terrorism cannot co-exist. 
This struggle between good and evil will be decided by victory or 
surrender, in security or in shame.
  And the terrorists understand the stakes. That is why they swarmed 
like scorpions into Iraq. They know that their true enemy is not our 
weapons, but our own will. And thankfully, so does President George W. 
Bush. That is why he spoke to the Nation last week and announced his 
request for additional funds to prosecute the war.
  The question now before us is whether we realize, as the terrorists 
do, that the separate stand they are making in Iraq is the last best 
hope for their evil ideology.
  Mr. Speaker, our mission in Iraq is not related to the war on terror. 
It is the war on terror. The enemy has chosen to make his stand right 
there. And if victory is our aim, we must not yield until the last 
terrorist in Iraq is in a cell or in a cemetery. Whether it costs $87 
billion or $187 billion, our absolute victory in the war and the peace 
is worth any price, because without victory, there will be no survival.

                              {time}  1245

  If we are to take the war on terror seriously, we must spend what it 
takes to win. Critics and candidates may measure wars by the dollars 
that they cost, but the American people will measure this war, as we 
did in World War II and the Cold War, by the lives it saves, the evil 
it destroys and the freedom it preserves.

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