[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 72 (Thursday, May 20, 2004)]
[House]
[Page H3405]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      WE WERE NOT AT WAR IN 2000?

  (Mr. PITTS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, one of the distressing things about this 
partisan election year is to hear our friends on the other side 
politicizing national security. One of my colleagues on the other side 
of the aisle said that we were not at war when President Clinton was in 
office, suggesting that it was President Bush's fault that we are at 
war today.
  I would like to ask, what would you call it then in the 1990s when 
terrorists attacked our country, not once, but four times? In 1993, 
they killed innocent Americans at the World Trade Center; in 1996, they 
killed Americans at the Khobar Towers; in 1998, they attacked two U.S. 
embassies in Africa; in 2000, they attacked a U.S. Naval vessel, the 
USS Cole, again killing Americans.
  Terrorists have been at war with us for years. We failed to admit it, 
despite the body bags.
  Then in 2001, 9/11 happened.
  We were at war long before President Bush came to Washington. All 
President Bush did was muster the courage and moral vision to admit it 
and fight back.
  These political games only cloud the true issue that we are at war, 
and the more we hesitate to fight it, the more aggressive our enemies 
become.

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