[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 75 (Tuesday, June 13, 2006)]
[House]
[Pages H3898-H3901]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        THE OFFICIAL TRUTH SQUAD

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 4, 2005, the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Price) is recognized 
for half the remaining time until midnight as the designee of the 
majority leader.
  Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity once 
again to come before the House. I want to thank the leadership and the 
conference for their providing us the opportunity to come and talk this 
evening for a while and share some views with the Members of the House 
about a very important topic.
  We have coined this on occasion the Official Truth Squad. This is the 
House Official Truth Squad, the Republican conference Official Truth 
Squad that grew out of a general frustration on the part of many 
Members of the freshmen class, 25, 26 strong, who are now about 18 
months into our first term in Congress.
  And after about 6 months, we met and shared conversation and thoughts 
about the House of Representatives and where we are going as a Nation. 
There was some real concern about what we sensed as the politics of 
division and the politics of deception that seemed to be practiced by 
many here in this Chamber and across the land, frankly.
  So we organized what we called the Official Truth Squad and come to 
the floor of the House on many occasions, as often as possible, at 
least try to do it at least once a week. We broadened that 
participation in the Official Truth Squad, Mr. Speaker, because I think 
other Members of the conference felt that was an appropriate thing to 
do, to try to bring some light, shed some light and truth on the issues 
that we talk about here in the United States House of Representatives, 
because it is so doggone important to make certain that we have truth 
and facts when we are talking about issues. Because if you don't have 
the right facts, the truth of the matter is, it is tough to get to the 
appropriate solution.

                              {time}  2245

  We have adopted a slogan or a quote that we like to call on by the 
late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan and he had a quote that he used 
often. He said everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but they are 
not entitled to their own facts, and I think that kind of crystallizes 
the genesis of the Official Truth Squad and why we felt it was so 
important to come to this floor and talk about various issues.
  So, Mr. Speaker, tonight is a topic that is extremely important, and 
it is a discussion that is important, and it is a topic that demands 
the truth.
  Tonight, we are going to talk a bit about the war on terror, and it 
is one of those areas where, yes, people can have their own opinions, 
and it is important but it is also important to make certain that we 
think and talk about the facts of the war on terror.
  I am going to be joined by a number of colleagues this evening, but I 
wanted to start off by outlining or by citing actions, events that have 
occurred in the war on terror. And many people have differing opinions 
as to when the war on terror actually began, when did the terrorism 
begin to threaten us. I think it probably was in 1979, and we will talk 
about that a little bit, but I want to just highlight a list of 
terrorist activities that I think bring real focus to the war on terror 
and that, Mr. Speaker, are terribly sobering, but I think they are 
important as we kick off this discussion about the war on terror.
  There are literally tens, if not hundreds, of events that one could 
cite as being associated with the acts of terrorism around the world, 
but I would like to just highlight a number of them here.
  I am going to go in chronological order. I am going to start in 1961 
when the first U.S. aircraft was hijacked on May 1, 1961.
  A number of events occurred over the next decade, but we all remember 
the Munich Olympic massacre on September 5, 1972.
  The ambassador to the Sudan was assassinated on March 2, 1973, U.S. 
ambassador to Sudan Cleo Noel. Other diplomats assassinated at the 
Saudi Arabian embassy in Khartoum.
  There was the attack and hijacking at the Rome airport in December, 
December 17, 1973.
  The United States ambassador to Cypress, Rodger Davies, and his Greek 
Cypriot secretary were shot and killed on August 19, 1974.
  Ambassador to Afghanistan was assassinated on February 14, 1979, and 
of course, the Iran hostage crisis began in November of 1979 when 
Iranian radicals seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran and took 66 American 
diplomats hostage, holding 53 of them for 444 days.
  Grand mosque seizure, November 20, 1979, in Mecca.
  U.S. installation bombing, August 31, 1981 in Ramstein, West Germany.
  Assassination of President Sadat, the Egyptian President, on October 
6, 1981.
  Murder of missionaries on December 4, 1981 in El Salvador.
  The bombing of the U.S. embassy in Beirut, April 18, 1983. Sixty-
three people, including the CIA's Middle East director, were killed. 
Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility.
  Naval officer assassinated in El Salvador on May 25, 1983.
  Bombing of the marine barracks, Beirut, October 23, 1983. There were 
simultaneous suicide truck bomb attacks made on American and French 
compounds in Beirut, killing 242 Americans and 58 French troops killed 
when a 400-pound device was deployed at a French base. The Islamic 
Jihad claimed responsibility.
  Facts, Mr. Speaker.
  Naval officer was assassinated in Greece, November 15, 1983.
  Kidnapping of an embassy official and the murder of political officer 
William Buckley in Beirut, Lebanon, March 16, 1984.
  Restaurant bombing in Spain, April 12, 1984. Eighteen U.S. servicemen 
were killed, 83 people injured.
  TWA hijacking June 14, 1985.
  Achille Lauro hijacking, October 7, 1985.
  Aircraft bombing in Greece, March 30, 1986.
  Berlin discotheque bombing, April 5, 1986, two U.S. soldiers killed 
and 79 American servicemen injured.
  Bus attack, April 24, 1987, 16 U.S. servicemen riding in a Greek air 
force bus near Athens were injured.
  Kidnapping of William Higgins on February 17, 1988. He was kidnapped 
and murdered by Iranian-backed Hezbollah.
  Naples USO attack on April 14, 1988.
  Attack on U.S. diplomat in Greece, June 28, 1988. Defense attache to 
the U.S. embassy in Greece was killed when a car bomb was detonated 
outside his home in Athens.
  Pan Am 103 bombing, December 21, 1988. Pan Am 103 was blown up over 
Lockerbie, Scotland, by a bomb believed to have been placed by Libyan 
terrorists, 259 people killed.
  And then of course, Mr. Speaker, the first World Trade Center 
bombing, February 26, 1993, when a car bomb, planted by Islamic 
terrorists, exploded in an underground garage leaving six people dead 
and 1,000 people injured.
  Something we oftentimes forget or very few people talk about, there 
was an attempted assassination on President Bush by Iraqi agents on 
April 14, 1993.
  Saudi military installation attacked November 13, 1995.
  Khobar Towers bombing June 25, 1996, in Dhahran, killing 19 U.S. 
military personnel, wounding 515 persons including 240 U.S. personnel.
  Empire State Building sniper attack in February of 1997.
  The murder of a U.S. businessmen in Pakistan, November 12, 1997.
  U.S. embassy bombings in east Africa. August 7, 1998, a bomb exploded 
at the rear entrance of the U.S. embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, killing 12 
U.S. citizens and 32 foreign service nationals

[[Page H3899]]

and 247 Kenyan citizens. Almost simultaneously a bomb detonated in 
Tanzania, killing 7 foreign service nationals, 3 Tanzanian citizens and 
injuring 1 U.S. citizen and 76 Tanzanians.
  It is sobering, Mr. Speaker.
  Attack on USS Cole. October 12, 2000, a small dinghy carrying 
explosives rammed the destroyer USS Cole killing 17 sailors.
  Manila bombing in December 2000.
  Philippines hostage incident, May 2001.
  And then the attack on September 11, 2001, on the U.S. homeland, four 
planes, two colliding with the twin towers in New York, one crashing in 
a field in southern Pennsylvania and one crashing into the Pentagon, 
3,025 United States citizens and other nationals killed.
  Mr. Speaker, you can have opinions about what is going on here, but 
you cannot dispute the facts. That the war on terror should have begun 
long ago. The terrorism has plagued our Nation for years. This is a 
long, long battle, and it is a real war.
  So to talk about some of those facts tonight I am pleased to be 
joined by some very good friends and colleagues. Representative Eric 
Cantor is the deputy majority whip from the State of Virginia, and he 
joins us this evening to talk a little bit about the war on terror and 
to share some perspective during this week when we have had actually 
some very, very good news and some very good facts come out on the war 
on terror.
  I am pleased to yield to my good friend from Virginia (Mr. Cantor).
  Mr. CANTOR. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Georgia, and Mr. 
Speaker, I want to commend the gentleman for his meticulous research in 
recounting the numerous incidents of terrorist acts against American 
citizens over the last several decades, and I think that the gentleman 
makes a point that will really be the focal point, the central point of 
the debate of the floor of this House on Thursday, and that is, that 
the war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan and all of the other incidents 
that the gentleman speaks of is part of a greater war against 
terrorists.
  I want to respond to a statement that was made earlier from a 
colleague from the other side of the aisle. He ended his remarks by 
mentioning the war in Iraq and portraying it as a vicious war we should 
never have been in anyway.
  I think, Mr. Speaker, that the gentleman from Georgia has just laid 
out the facts as they are. We did not ask for this war. The terrorists 
started this war. We must respond in order to secure our citizenry, in 
order to secure America.
  I would, however, like to pick up from where the gentleman left off 
and the fact that we have experienced some victories over the last 
week, one in which we saw the killing of Zarqawi who was a leader in a 
terrorist activity in Iraq against American citizens and others, and it 
demonstrated, Mr. Speaker, that we are making progress, that we are 
able to penetrate and begin to dismantle this terrorist infrastructure 
that frankly has identified Iraq as the front in their war against 
America.
  I would also like to call the House's attention, Mr. Speaker, to 
another victory that we experienced last week.
  On June 8, which was Thursday, Mr. Speaker, the guided missile 
destroyer USS Cole joined two Iwo Jima Expeditionary Strike Group on 
their way to the Middle East. This marked the USS Cole's first return 
to Middle Eastern waters since the October 12, 2000, surprise terrorist 
attack on the ship while it refueled in Aden Harbor, Yemen.
  On a somber note, this viscous, unprovoked terrorist attack by al 
Qaeda terrorists on this U.S. warship claimed the lives of 17 U.S. 
sailors. Among these brave sailors was Hull Maintenance Technician 2nd 
Class Kenneth Eugene Clodfelter who was a constituent of mine.
  His loss will forever be felt and his service never forgotten by any 
of us, by the citizens of his home county, Hanover County, Virginia, 
and in fact, the entire Nation.
  It is a fitting tribute that the ship on which Kenneth served and 
gave his life returns to those same waters, reborn, resilient and again 
ready to bring the fight to the enemy, the Islamic fascist terrorists 
who seek only death and oppression.
  Mr. Speaker, I believe this statement by the USS Cole's newest 
commanding officer, Commander Bradley Roberson, says it best, and 
Commander Roberson said: ``We draw strength from this being a very 
stout and resolute hull. The crew reflects that and the fighting spirit 
of the navy. I think the ship symbolizes America, its determination, 
its fortitude and the resolve that we will be around no matter what.''
  Mr. Speaker, I would also like to take a moment to commend and honor 
the thousands of Virginian National Guard and Reserve soldiers, 
sailors, airmen and marines who have served in our struggle to rid the 
world of Islamic-fascist terror.
  As we speak, more than 1,000 brave men and women in dozens of Army 
Reserve, Army National Guard, Marine Corps Reserve, Navy Reserve, Air 
National Guard units from central Virginia continue in this struggle.
  So, Mr. Speaker, I would again like to thank the gentleman from 
Georgia for his leadership, not only on the Official Truth Squad, but 
on this very, very important topic of the war against the terrorists, a 
war against an enemy that frankly harbors a view of the world very 
different from those of us in this country and one in which we will not 
stand down.
  Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his 
comments and his keen perspective and dedication to the support of our 
men and women in the military who are waging this incredibly important 
battle and incredibly important war. Thank you so much for your 
participation tonight in bringing a little light, a little vision and a 
little truth to the discussion.
  We are also joined tonight by Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn from 
Tennessee who is almost a regular on the Official Truth Squad that 
brings some truth and light to so many topics, and she has a clear 
vision as well and a great perspective on the importance of truth in 
this discussion but also the importance of waging this war on terror, 
and I am happy to yield to my good friend from Tennessee.

                              {time}  2300

  Mrs. BLACKBURN. I thank the gentleman from Georgia for yielding. He 
is so appropriate in his remarks this evening as we talk about the big 
picture of what is happening with the war on terror and reminding us 
that this is not something that happened last week, last month, last 
year, or just within the last decade. This is something that started 
happening four decades ago and has grown more and more and more 
repetitive in attacks and actions and outward expressions of aggression 
as we have moved through the past four decades.
  Yes, what has happened is we have moved from responding to these 
terrorist attacks as acts of civil disobedience to getting to the point 
after September 11 that we said, no, this is not just civil 
disobedience, this is an act of war. This is now a global war on terror 
and, indeed, it is important, it is imperative that we win in the 
battles in Afghanistan and that we win in the battles in Iraq. And as 
the gentleman from Georgia has mentioned, this is not something that is 
going to be quick and easy. This is going to be a long fight and a long 
struggle.
  We must be certain that we all realize that our enemy is not an enemy 
that is located in one single place. There are terrorist cells all 
around the globe. At this point, yes, indeed, primarily they are drawn 
into Iraq because of the battle that is there, and that is one of the 
reasons it is important that we fight and that we win.
  As the gentleman from Georgia knows, Mr. Speaker, we are winning. And 
we hear this from our men and women in uniform. We hear it from them in 
the stories that they recount to us. We hear it from their families. 
And we are very, very grateful to every one of these families and every 
man and woman in uniform who stands and fights and who understands the 
mission of why we fight.
  Mr. PRICE of Georgia. If the gentlewoman will yield.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. I would be glad to yield to the gentleman.
  Mr. PRICE of Georgia. A couple of points you make are so important 
for this discussion. One is about the quality and nature of our enemy. 
It is unlike any enemy we have ever faced because it is not an enemy 
who is attaining ground or territory. This is an

[[Page H3900]]

enemy that hates us because of who we are, what we are, and what kind 
of government we have. They clearly have stated that democracy is their 
enemy. It is not a territory.
  And you mentioned about the troops being behind our actions virtually 
100 percent. I was so heartened to see the President in Baghdad earlier 
today in the tape we saw and the welcome he received from our U.S. 
troops. It was just incredibly moving to see our President visit our 
troops there and to visit the new government in Iraq.
  I yield back.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Indeed, it is heartening to see that. And what a 
source of encouragement for those men and women in uniform to be in 
their day working in Baghdad and all of a sudden they receive the news 
that their Commander in Chief has flown through the night to come and 
say thank you to them for that work; thank you for what they are doing 
for this country.
  And as the gentleman just mentioned, we fight because we have an 
enemy that would destroy what this country is built on. It would 
destroy what we stand for. It is imperative that we win so that we 
continue with America as we know America, so that we continue to live 
our lives in freedom, so that our children go to school not in fear but 
go ready to learn and with a sense of security, so that we live in our 
homes, so that we go to work, so that we have our daily life and carry 
on our business and do it without the fear of being interrupted by 
terrorist threats, by terrorist strikes, by terrorist fighting that 
would take place in our streets, in our cities here in America.
  Mr. PRICE of Georgia. If the gentlewoman will yield once again.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Be happy to.
  Mr. PRICE of Georgia. I think it is important because when we talk 
about opinions and facts, a lot of people have their opinions about the 
nature of our enemy and what their goal is, but the fact of the matter 
is you don't have to look too far because you can look to their words. 
You can look to their words, and we have a quote here from al-Zarqawi, 
who was finally brought to justice in the past couple of days, and what 
he said in January of 2005.
  These are his words, now. These are not our words but his words: ``We 
have declared a fierce war on this evil principle of democracy and 
those who follow this wrong ideology.'' That is the nature of our 
enemy. That is why it is unlike any enemy that we have ever, ever had 
before.
  And I yield back to the gentlewoman.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. The gentleman is so correct in that, and for them it 
is a fierce war to bring down the pillars of free enterprise, to bring 
down those underpinnings of democracy that allow us to be a productive 
society, that allow us to be a free society.
  I know that I join the gentleman from Georgia in looking forward to 
the debate we are going to have in this body this week, and I want to 
again thank the leadership for setting aside this time for us to focus 
once again on why we fight and why we must win and why it is imperative 
that we have a democratic ally in the Middle East and that we break 
apart the stranglehold that terrorism has had on that region of the 
world.
  I thank the gentleman for the time, and I yield back to him.
  Mr. PRICE of Georgia. I appreciate so much your participation 
tonight, and I join you in looking forward to our discussion and our 
debate on Thursday. We will spend the majority of the day here in the 
United States House of Representatives talking about the war in Iraq 
and talking about the war on terror and the importance of it and 
bringing a perspective that I think is so needed for the American 
people to see and appreciate as we recognize the longevity of the 
battle that has occurred already and the challenges that we have before 
us.
  I am so pleased to be joined by my colleague from Georgia this 
evening, Congressman Phil Gingrey, my good physician colleague from 
Georgia and also congressional colleague from Georgia. He is an 
individual also who recognizes the extreme importance of the support of 
our military forces and the gravity of the war in which we are engaged 
now, this war on terror.
  I am pleased to have you join us tonight and yield to you.
  Mr. GINGREY. I thank my colleague from Georgia for yielding. I 
certainly, certainly appreciate, Mr. Speaker, the Official Truth Squad 
that the gentleman has led, and particularly tonight in regard to this 
subject.
  The gentleman spent 10 or 15 minutes actually going through a 
historical perspective, taking us, Mr. Speaker, all the way back to the 
1960s, as he outlined the attacks that have occurred against this 
country, and made the point that this policy that we have had 
heretofore prior to our President's response to 9/11, on September 11, 
2001, this so-called policy of containment that has proven itself to be 
a dismal failure because of these attacks, one right after another, as 
the gentleman pointed out, Khobar Towers, U.S.S. Cole, first attack on 
the World Trade Center, and finally leading up to the horrendous 
killing of over 3,000 people on September 11.
  We didn't start this fight, Mr. Speaker; and I think that is the 
gentleman's point. It was just astounding to me to hear someone from 
the other side earlier this evening imply that we started this battle, 
that we have got no business defending freedom and standing up for the 
rule of law.
  Edmund Burke once said that ``all that is necessary for the triumph 
of evil is that good men do nothing.'' And quite honestly, Mr. Speaker, 
over the last 40 years, as the gentleman from Georgia has pointed out, 
we basically did nothing. It was like turning the other cheek, or I 
dare you to do that again, or I double dog, even triple dog dare you to 
strike at us again, and on and on and on. And finally this President 
and this Congress had the courage to stand up and take it to the enemy. 
And I would point out that at that particular time, Mr. Speaker, this 
battle was not against any one individual but this was a long slog, 
that it was going to be tough, that the global war on terrorism would 
not end with just one battle.
  It is so interesting, as we hear from the other side, that finally 
the tracking down and the killing of Zarqawi was almost a nonevent. It 
doesn't matter. They are going to replace him with someone just as 
terrible and we won't even notice the difference. That would be like 
saying that Knute Rockne was going to be replaced at Notre Dame, or a 
Lou Gehrig was going to be replaced by the New York Yankees and nobody 
would know the difference.
  This guy was the worst of the worst. And I think that what we have 
done last week in killing Zarqawi is a tremendous accomplishment for 
our military, for the Iraqi people, for the intelligence that was 
brought to bear that led to the success and also, Mr. Speaker, in 
regard to the Iraqi Government finally, very carefully vetting 
individuals to place as ministers of defense, ministers of interior, 
and minister of their national security. These are huge items of 
success.
  I want to say to my colleagues on the other side that we will, as the 
gentleman from Georgia has pointed out, we will discuss this 
thoroughly, and every Member in this body will have an opportunity to 
have their say about what we are trying to do and whether we support 
continuing this battle or whether we decide that it is time that, as 
the gentleman from the State of Washington said earlier this evening, 
to bring our troops home. I think it is very simple. I hear the Members 
on the other side of the aisle saying, well, the American people are 
against this, the American people have turned against this. Well, if 
that is the case, when we have this simple resolution on Thursday or 
Friday morning, then they will have an opportunity then to vote the way 
they think the American people want.
  I, Mr. Speaker, refute that. I think the American people stand strong 
and understand that when you are in a contest, you don't say, we are 
going to play the game for 60 minutes, but if it happens to go into 
overtime then we are going to pull our team off the field because we 
don't want to go any further. This is what this is all about.
  And, again, I want to thank the gentleman from Georgia for leading 
the Official Truth Squad. As he said at the outset, you are entitled to 
your own opinion, but you are not entitled to your own facts, and these 
are the facts that Congressman Price has brought to us as he outlined 
what has happened over the last 40 years.
  It is time that we stood up. We are going to win this battle, and we 
want

[[Page H3901]]

to make sure that every Member of this body has an opportunity to vote 
yea or nay. So I commend the gentleman from Georgia, and I yield back 
to him.
  Mr. PRICE of Georgia. I thank the gentleman for joining us tonight, 
and I appreciate your perspective and your commitment to our servicemen 
and -women and for the sober reflection that you gave on the situation 
that we find ourselves in today and the importance, the real importance 
of this war. And it is a real war. It is a real war, and you know and 
understand that as well as anybody.
  I also appreciate your reminding folks again that on Thursday we will 
be spending time on this floor discussing the war on terror and the 
importance of it and why America has found itself in this situation, 
why it is important that we respond in the way that we have.
  When I am at home, I hear people talk about the war in Iraq. And 
whenever I discuss this with some of my constituents, I oftentimes will 
say it is important for us to remember that this war in Iraq is really 
just the battle in Iraq in the larger war on terror. And the gentleman 
from Georgia just described it extremely well, that the policy of 
containment that we had used in the past, prior to 9/11, was a dismal 
failure. And so this is truly a war. It is a real war. It is a real war 
in which we must engage, and it wasn't of our choosing. It wasn't of 
our choosing, Mr. Speaker.
  I want to spend the final few moments that I have to talk about an 
issue that is related to the war on terror and the battle in Iraq that 
we have right now, because you hear so many people say, how are we 
going to know when it is over? How are we going to know what victory 
is? How will we know when we win?
  It is difficult. I understand that. It is difficult because this, 
again, is a war unlike any war we have ever had. Victory in Iraq will 
not come in the form of our enemy surrendering, because our enemy 
doesn't hold any territory. It is not like they can say, okay, I give 
up, I am not going to fight any more. And it won't be signaled by a 
single particular event.
  For folks who remember past wars and past ends to past wars, there 
will be no Battleship Missouri signing. There will be no Appomattox 
signing. The ultimate victory in the battle in Iraq will be in stages. 
And I think it is important to point out that these stages have been 
defined by members of the military and members of this administration 
and have been articulated by the administration as well as members of 
the United States House of Representatives leadership and others.

                              {time}  2315

  And they have been defined in the short term, in the medium term and 
in the long term. I would like to run through those briefly because I 
think it is important for the American people to appreciate that yes, 
indeed, there are benchmarks that one can follow, and that we have made 
incredible progress, not just in the war on terror but in the battle in 
Iraq.
  In the short term, we have an Iraq that is fighting the terrorists 
and neutralizing the insurgency, meeting political milestones, which 
they have done to a remarkable degree, building democratic institutions 
and standing up robust security forces. We hear over and over that 
those security forces number around 250,000, which is truly remarkable. 
They are destroying terrorist networks and maintaining security and 
tackling key economic reforms to lay the foundation for a sound 
economy.
  So in the short term, those are the kinds of benchmarks that we 
should be looking at. Many of them have been accomplished.
  In the medium term, an Iraq that is in the lead defeating terrorists 
and insurgents and providing its own security with a constitutional, 
elected government in place. Mr. Speaker, that is a medium-term goal 
that has been described for a number of years and in fact has now been 
accomplished, providing an inspiring example to reformers in the 
region, and well on its way to achieving its own economic potential.
  And then in the longer term, Mr. Speaker, we will know that victory 
in Iraq has been obtained when an Iraq has defeated the terrorists and 
neutralized the insurgency, an Iraq that is peaceful and united and 
stable and democratic and secure where Iraqis have the institutions and 
resources that they need to govern themselves justly and to provide 
security for their own country, and an Iraq that is a partner, a 
partner in the global war on terror and the fight against the 
proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, integrated into the 
international community and an engine for regional economic growth and 
proving the fruits of democratic governments to the region.
  Mr. Speaker, those are the kinds of benchmarks we ought to be looking 
at. There won't be a surrender. There won't be a signing. There won't 
be a waving of the white flag certainly by our enemy. We just hope 
Members in this body and across the Nation do not wave the white flag. 
This is an important battle. It is a part of the war on terror. It is 
imperative that we wage this with the vigor and enthusiasm and the 
spirit that we saw on the faces and heard in the voices of American 
soldiers as they greeted President Bush as he made his visit to 
Baghdad.
  Mr. Speaker, America is a wondrous and a glorious nation. Freedom's 
light is strong here. We are a vessel of liberty and a beacon of hope 
to so many people around the world. The work that we do here is so 
important as we continue to provide that American leadership, 
international leadership, and show that light, show that light of 
freedom.
  I am so proud to have the opportunity to stand here with my 
colleagues and to highlight some of the truthful and honest efforts 
that this government, this administration, this House of 
Representatives is taking to make certain that that vessel of liberty 
and that beacon of hope rings true around the world.

                          ____________________