[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 72 (Thursday, May 20, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5895-S5896]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
COMMITMENT TO NATIONAL SECURITY
Mrs. HUTCHISON. Madam President, we just heard a wonderful talk by
the President of the United States. He talked about our commitment and
reminded us once again that our commitment to winning in Iraq is
everything. There is no alternative. The President talked about the
commitment of winning the war on terrorism.
That means we must stabilize Iraq. We must begin to show the people
in the Middle East what freedom, free enterprise, economy and jobs can
do, and an educational system that includes boys and girls, giving them
hope for the future.
He reminded us of the commitment we must make to see the war on
terrorism through. This is not going to be a war that goes exactly the
way it was planned. Name for me a war that did. Name for me a war that
we said, Here is what is going to happen, and it happens just that way.
This is war. We have been attacked. Thousands of Americans have been
killed by fanatics. Nick Berg was assassinated on videotape in a brutal
manner by terrorism. This will continue to happen if we lose our
resolve. There is only one way that we can lose; that is, for America
not to see this through.
It means winning the immediate war. It means stabilizing Iraq and
Afghanistan. It means sowing the seeds of freedom and representative
government in those countries to show how it can be done where people
have not lived in freedom for years. We must see it through. But it
means more than just the next year in which we have the big important
war on terrorism that we see evolve before our eyes. It means we are
going to have to stick with it for 25 or 30 years because it is going
to take that long to show education can give children hope for the
future, so you will not be able to brainwash a child to think life is
not worth living, that the best thing one could do with their life is
to give it up by killing other people in a suicide bomb.
The only way to warp children to believe a suicide bomb is their best
hope in life is by failing to give them an education. An education
gives them hope for a future, for a job, for a family, for a quality of
life that is worth living.
The President of the United States is laser-beam focused. He is
focused on winning the war on terrorism for the security of the
American people and for the ability for freedom to live throughout the
world. If America does not carry the beacon and the flag for freedom in
the world, who will? Who has the capacity and the will to do it? If
freedom dies in America, it will not flourish for very long anywhere
else on Earth. That is why the President is so focused on the security
of our country by finding and winning the war on terrorism.
We see people wringing their hands, asking, What can we do. We see
the assassination of Nick Berg on videotape and we ask, What can we do
to get out of this. We can make sure the violent death of Nicholas Berg
is not in vain, that the hundreds of Americans who have died in this
cause do not die in vain, that they are dealing with an America that
has the leadership to stand up for our country and our security and our
freedom and see it through. That is what the President of the United
States is doing for our country today. We must not lose focus.
I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record an article by
David Brooks from the New York Times.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
[From the New York Times, May 18, 2004.]
In Iraq, America's Shakeout Moment
(By David Brooks)
There's something about our venture into Iraq that is
inspiringly, painfully, embarrassingly and quintessentially
American.
No other nation would have been hopeful enough to try to
evangelize for democracy across the Middle East. No other
nation would have been naive enough to do it this badly. No
other nation would be adaptable enough to recover from its
own innocence and muddle its way to success, as I suspect we
are about to do.
American history sometimes seems to be the same story
repeated over and over again. Some group of big-dreaming but
foolhardy adventurers head out to eradicate some evil and to
realize some golden future. They get halfway along their
journey and find they are unprepared for the harsh reality
they suddenly face. It's too late to turn back, so they
reinvent their mission. They toss out illusions and adopt an
almost desperate pragmatism. They never do realize the utopia
they initially dreamed about, but they do build something
better than what came before.
This basic pattern has marked our national style from the
moment British colonists landed on North American shores.
Overly optimistic about the conditions they would find, the
colonists were woefully undercapitalized, underequipped and
underskilled. At Jamestown, there were three gentlemen and
gentlemen's servants for every skilled laborer. They didn't
bother to plant enough grain to see them through the winter.
But they learned and adapted. Settlement companies were
compelled to send more workers, along with axes, chisels,
scythes, millstones and seeds. Eventually the colonies
thrived.
Centuries later, it was much the same. The guides who aided
and fleeced the pioneers who moved West were struck by how
clueless many of them were about the wilderness they were
entering. Their diaries show that many thought they could
establish genteel New England-style villages in short order.
They leapt before they looked, faced the shock of reality,
adapted and cobbled together something unexpected.
And it is that way today. We are tricked by hope into
starting companies, beginning books, immigrating to this
country and investing in telecom networks. The challenges
turn out to be tougher than we imagined. Our excessive
optimism is exposed. New skills are demanded. But nothing
important was ever begun in a prudential frame of mind.
Hope begets disappointment, and we are now in a moment of
disappointment when it comes to Iraq. During these shakeout
moments, the nay-sayers get to gloat while the rest of us
despair, lacerate ourselves, second-guess those in charge and
look at things anew. But this very process of self-criticism
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is the precondition for the second wind, the grubbier, less
illusioned effort that often enough leads to some acceptable
outcome.
Today in Iraq local commanders seem to be allowed to try
anything. We are allowing former Baathists to man a Falluja
Brigade to police their own city. We are pounding Moktada al-
Sadr while negotiating with him. There is talk of moving up
elections so when an Iraqi official is assassinated, he is
not seen as a person working with the U.S., but as a duly
elected representative of the Iraqi people.
Some of these policies seem incoherent, but they may work.
And back home a new mood has taken over part of the political
class. The emerging responsible faction has no time now for
the witless applause lines the jeering jackdaws on left and
right repeat to themselves to their own perpetual self-
admiration and delight. Even in a political year, most
politicians do not want this country to fail.
There are, for example, members of Congress from both
parties who feel estranged from this administration. They
feel it does not listen to their ideas. But in this troubled
hour, they are desperate to help. If but a call were made,
they would burst forth with intelligent suggestions: about
Iraq, about political tactics, about getting additional
appropriations.
Remember, the most untrue truism in human history is that
there are no second acts in American life. In reality, there
is nothing but second acts. There are shakeout moments and
redundantly, new beginnings. The weeks until June 30 are
bound to be awful, but we may be at the start of a new
beginning now.
Mrs. HUTCHISON. I yield the remainder of my time to the Senator from
New Mexico.
Mr. DOMENICI. How much time do I have?
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. There is 12 minutes remaining.
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