[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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