[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 131 (Tuesday, September 23, 2003)]
[House]
[Page H8406]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      SERIOUSNESS IN THE SPOTLIGHT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of 
January 7, 2003, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. DeLay) is recognized.
  Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I just would like to start by saying that 
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, in fighting World War II, did not tell the 
American people how long it was going to take or what it was going to 
cost; all he told them was that we were going to win.
  Ronald Reagan did not tell the American people how long it would take 
or what it would cost to defeat communism; he just told the American 
people we were going to win.
  This week, two items on the agenda will give Members of both parties 
the opportunity to show the American people just how serious they are 
about winning the war on terror. In the coming days, we will hold 
hearings on the President's supplemental spending request for military 
and democracy-building operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.
  And also this week, the House will likely debate the conference 
report on the Homeland Security spending bill.
  Since September 11, some have tried to split homeland security from 
national security, as if they were two separate issues. But the war on 
terror cannot be won if we employ such flawed logic. Homeland security 
and national security are one and the same, and only by accepting this 
fundamental fact can we hope to defeat terrorism.
  Whether we like it or not, we have to fight this war on terror. Our 
choice is whether to fight it in the streets of Baghdad, or in the 
streets of Brooklyn.
  Critics of the President's policy suggest that spending billions on 
civil defense without aggressively fighting the terrorists everywhere 
they live and plan will, in and of itself, make America safer. But in 
this war, with an enemy that acknowledges no rules of engagement, we 
should not have to rely on responding to their actions; they should be 
responding to ours. And today in Afghanistan and Iraq, they are.
  Here at home, the President's comprehensive security policy has made 
America a safer and better prepared Nation than ever before. Our 
intelligence and law enforcement communities foil terrorist plots every 
month. Our enemies, those here and around the world, are on the run, 
killed or captured, hiding in caves, or sitting in cells.
  And the comprehensive security policy of the Bush doctrine is the 
reason for our success in the war on terror and our only hope for 
seeing that war through to ultimate victory.
  If the President's critics do not like this policy, then it is time 
for them to either propose their own or get out of the way.

                              {time}  1245

  In the hearings and debate, the President's critics once and for all 
will finally reveal either alternative war policy or their basic 
unfitness for wartime leadership.

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