[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 116 (Monday, September 18, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9671-S9672]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    PROUD TO FIGHT FOR OUR FREEDOMS

  Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, every day when the Wyoming papers come out, 
my staff in Wyoming looks through them and makes sure that information 
that is in them reaches me here in Washington in a timely way so that 
action then can be taken or information can be received or questions 
can be answered or people's personal problems that have been caused by 
the Federal Government can be taken care of.
  Recently, there was a letter to the editor from a young man in our 
military. It appeared in the Torrington Telegram. It has a very 
important message for our country that I wanted to share with the 
country. These are the feelings of a young man serving in the military. 
I appreciate his effort in putting this letter in a Wyoming paper. I 
hope it makes several papers in Wyoming. I am going to make sure the 
people across America hear the message he is delivering to Americans. 
It is an important message for Americans, but apparently it is one on 
which the media is reluctant to report. So I am going to work to help 
him deliver the message.
  Here is his letter. It is from Lee Freeburg:

       I am a U.S. Navy Corpsman, having returned home for some 
     relax time. I was reading through the Telegram and came 
     across a letter to the editor titled ``Bush using fear 
     tactics.''
       I am appalled by the disrespect to the president of the 
     great nation and the U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
       The president is doing his best to guide our country and 
     keep us free. He is not the only one who makes decisions, 
     (hence we are not a dictatorship.) Have we forgotten that we 
     also have a House of Representatives and a Senate? This 
     collection of Americans is Congress. For the president to 
     send our troops, our sons (me) and daughters to war, it takes 
     an act of Congress.

  Sailor Freeburg continues:

       I am proud to serve my country and my president, defending 
     and bringing freedom to people all around the world.
       I am outraged by people's attitudes toward this war; have 
     we so soon forgotten 9-11? They attacked us first on our 
     soil. . . .
       Have you ever seen the look of gratitude in people's faces 
     for the liberation from a dictatorship?
       Then you do not understand what we (the U.S. troops 
     stationed abroad) are doing.
       We as Americans take our freedom so lightly and we need to 
     stop and think. How did we come about to have these freedoms? 
     Well, war. War earned our freedom, and war has kept it, from 
     the American War for Independence to Operation Iraqi Freedom. 
     Men have fallen, paid the ultimate price so that we as 
     Americans can enjoy living without dictators like Hitler, 
     Stalin and Saddam Hussein.

  Sailor Freeburg goes on to write:

       While other countries are building fences to keep people 
     in, we have to build fences to keep people out. Now if the 
     president were a dictator, would people be trying to float 90

[[Page S9672]]

     miles across rough water on a wooden door, drinking their own 
     urine, just to set one foot on American soil?
       Where are the iron gates and armed guards? Where are the 
     mass graves of innocent citizens, murdered for disloyalty to 
     the dictator? There are none to be found on our soil. They do 
     not exist. Why? Because we do not live under a dictator. Was 
     President Lincoln a dictator? No, he even had to go to war 
     with the south for freedoms we still enjoy today.
       In closing, if this was a war for oil, why haven't we just 
     taken over the entire country of Iraq and added it as the 
     51st state? I am proud to say, I am a gun-carrying 
     Republican, and honored to be a part of the greatest nation 
     on earth.
       America, be thankful for the freedom we enjoy because 
     freedom is never free.

  That is one of many letters that I receive wondering why more things 
are not said about the way the war is going in Iraq from the 
perspective of our troops who are over there, who are talking to the 
people who are affected by it.
  Our troops are affected by what they hear and read from over here. 
They get their local newspapers. They get letters, and they want their 
message out, too. This is a perspective from a young man serving in our 
military, one of many.
  A few years ago, one of the TV stations that goes into schools across 
this country did a show called ``Young Men Who Saved the World.'' It 
was about World War II. The reason they ran this show was because there 
were a lot of reunions happening among soldiers who had been a part of 
World War II, and they were all old guys. The people in the schools 
were getting the impression that the war had been fought by old guys. 
So this channel that goes into these schools did this special 
broadcast.
  What they did was go back and find the pictures of these men when 
they actually served in the military. They were young men. It made a 
distinct impression on the kids of this country that there were young 
people out there recognizing the value of freedom, the value of 
democracy, and willing to put their lives on the line to see that it 
was shared around the world.
  I thank you, Sailor Freeburg, for your letter and for the message 
that needs to be delivered to the United States.
  I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to be recognized 
in morning business.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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