[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 104 (Tuesday, September 7, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8830-S8831]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
COMMITTEE ON PRESENT DANGER
Mr. KYL. Mr. President, I wish to remark on something Senator
Lieberman and I had been hoping to launch and then discuss in a little
more detail, a subject on all of our minds, and that is the kind of
challenge we face as the leading country in the world in this current
war on terrorism.
I am very pleased that Senator Lieberman has joined with me and
others, or I with him--I think he was the first and I was the second,
to put it that way, to correct the record--in a reinstitution of the
Committee on Present Danger. This is the third iteration of that
committee, twice begun during the cold war--during the first stages of
the cold war and then the later stages of the cold war--to ensure that
America understood and was willing to face the threat of Communists and
communism in a way that would result ultimately in victory.
There were times in the beginning of the war where I think there was
an inadequate appreciation of the nature of that threat and how long a
struggle it would be and how we prepared and how Americans would have
to persevere in order to win that cold war, and then at a midpoint in
the war when it seemed as if detente and acceptance of a permanent
status of communism was really the only way the United States could
ensure we would have peace in the future began to creep into our policy
in so many ways that, again, the committee was formed and, under new
leadership, said there is an evil in the world--communism--and we
cannot coexist in it. In the end, it will have to face its demise, and
we will have to win.
President Reagan embodied that spirit in calling the Soviet Union
``the evil empire,'' in both saying and doing that which enabled people
to appreciate there could be a winner and a loser against communism,
that it was a failed idea, and that we in the United States and the
West generally could defeat it, and we did.
Along comes the war against the Islamic radicals who have committed
terrorism across the globe, most recently in Russia. But on 9/11, all
of the previous attacks of those terrorists who were brought into focus
had been treated as a matter of law enforcement. On 9/11, President
Bush understood that something much greater was at stake, an
existential threat to the United States specifically and to our
civilization generally that had to be met with firm resolve because the
enemy was not content to seek some kind of peace negotiations or
extract some temporary commitments, but rather by its own declarations
was in a fight to the finish: Either they win or we win; either they
die or we die.
This existential threat would have to be faced by a nation that was
willing to engage in the fight as long as it took with whatever it
took, regardless of the costs, because nothing more or less than our
survival was at stake.
So this third iteration of the Committee on Present Danger was
formed. Senator Lieberman and I have been honored to be the honorary
chairmen of this effort, to remind Americans and to educate the rest of
the world to the seriousness of this threat, to the fact that this is a
war, and in war everyone must make sacrifices.
We send brave young men and women to do military missions that could
cost their lives. A couple of my colleagues were on the floor earlier
lamenting the cost of this war and the casualties among those who have
served. Indeed, each one of us grieves for each one of those
casualties, and the families and friends of all involved.
But the President has reminded us that in this case our security is
not free and that sacrifices will have to be made.
The point of this committee is to remind everyone what is at stake,
how difficult the battle will be, how, although we Americans are
generally very impatient people who see a problem, want to get on it,
solve it and move on, in this case, as with other wars, we have to be
in it until the end, whatever the cost. In this case, like the cold war
specifically, it is probably going to be a long conflict that will test
our patience and our resolve, but that in the end ironically it is
patience and resolve demonstrated to the enemy that are most likely to
create the condition for our victory.
In this case, being in some respects a battle of ideas and resolve,
if the enemy views us to be a weak horse, as Osama bin Laden has called
us, then they will be emboldened to continue the battle and to bring it
to the United States. On the other hand, if they view us as a strong
horse, then they may appreciate the fact that in the end they cannot
prevail. That will, more than anything else, permit us to win this war.
So with Senator Lieberman, I point out to my colleagues that in the
ensuing weeks we will be engaged in this discussion in an effort to lay
out all of the facts about the enemy that we face and the kind of war
that we are going to have to be prepared to fight and the sacrifice
that is going to be required not just of the men and women whom we
place in harm's way for their military mission but the people involved
in all of the other contexts of this battle, whether it be military,
intelligence, law enforcement, and even right at home. There are many
things Americans can do to help win this war.
My last point is simply this: The best thing that Americans can do to
win
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this war is to demonstrate our resolve not only to the enemy but also
to our friends and allies, and most importantly to the people in harm's
way, our men and women in the military and others who we have put on
the front lines of the battle, to demonstrate to them that as a nation,
while we may have some disagreements about the specifics of how we
proceed with this conflict, we are united as a people in believing one
main thing, and that is that the battle is worth it. So that whatever
casualties do exist no one ever need be in doubt, be it the families,
the friends, the colleagues in arms, or the service men and women, that
their sacrifice was worth the price, whatever that price is.
If we ever begin to create the idea that this is not a war worth
winning, that it is not a war worth sacrifice by Americans, then we
will have done a great disservice not only to our overall war effort,
because the enemy will surely pick up those signals, but also to the
families and to the people in the military who are laying their lives
on the line. They must continue to know that all of us believe this is
a sacrifice worth making and that their sacrifice will not have been in
vain.
I hope as time goes on, in debating the nuances of how we proceed
with this conflict, all of my colleagues, Republicans and Democrats and
everyone else in this great Nation, will understand the importance of
reaffirming to those we have put in harm's way that whatever sacrifice
they make, it is worth the sacrifice for the security of the people
back home, for the opportunities they are creating for others and for
the defeat of this insidious foe. That is something we will be talking
about, especially as we move into the final phase of this legislative
session and fund our homeland security effort, reform our intelligence
community and our congressional oversight of that community, and do
whatever we can do right now to help win this war, that we ensure that
all Americans understand how they can contribute to the victory. Right
now their biggest contribution can be to support the effort so the
people who we have sent in harm's way will appreciate that their
sacrifices, whatever they may be, are not in vain.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Virginia.
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