[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 145 (Thursday, October 8, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H11147]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            AMERICAN CREDIBILITY, POLAND AND MISSILE DEFENSE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POE of Texas. Madam Speaker, the United States Government plans 
to abandon our current missile defense plan in Europe. That will leave 
this country more vulnerable. Why would we want to do that? With Iran 
in a race to get the nuclear bomb and testing long-range missiles, 
America and Europe are at risk.
  But the American Government decided to abandon the current missile 
defense shield to be installed in Poland and the accompanying radar 
system in the Czech Republic. This system was to protect Europe and the 
United States from a missile launch from Iran. The whole world knows 
that the little man from the desert, Ahmadinejad, is building nuclear 
weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles that could send nukes 
to the Middle East, Europe, and the United States. We have agreements 
with Poland and the Czech Republic for defensive missile systems. Don't 
we have an obligation to protect America from the threats of tyrants 
like Ahmadinejad? We should not break our word with our allies. America 
loses its credibility with our allies by failing to live up to our 
commitments.
  Madam Speaker, America and Poland have a special relationship. This 
body just voted to grant honorary U.S. citizenship to Casimir Pulaski, 
the Father of the American Cavalry. He was born in Poland, and he was 
essential to our victory in the American War for Independence. Congress 
commissioned this Polish individual, Pulaski, as a brigadier general 
with the command of all the American Cavalry; and after training 
American troops for a year, Washington approved the formation of an 
independent corps of cavalry, and Pulaski's Legion became the training 
ground for American Cavalry officers like ``Light Horse'' Harry Lee, 
the father of Robert E. Lee. Once a British officer called Pulaski's 
Legion simply, ``the best damn cavalry the rebels ever had.''
  Then later, when World War II began, Hitler first invaded Poland. 
That happened 70 years ago this past September. Poland was occupied by 
the tyranny of Nazism. The horror that was Auschwitz was in Poland at a 
place where Jews, musicians, writers, Poles and other peoples died 
horrible deaths. There were many concentration camps in Poland, 
Auschwitz being the largest and most infamous of these extermination 
camps. Jews and others were worked to death. This policy was called the 
Vernichtung durch Arbeit, or as we say in English, the annihilation 
through work. My father was one of the Americans to liberate the 
concentration camps in Europe at the end of World War II. He was a 
teenager and still recounts the inhumane treatment of humans by 
tyrants.
  As America celebrated the end of World War II in 1945, Poland then 
was occupied by the tyranny of communism and for decades the people of 
Poland lived under the tyrants of communism.
  So the Polish people understand more than anyone the terrors of 
living under tyranny. They have a special love for freedom and liberty, 
and they have a special love for America. Now Poland has partnered with 
the United States to put a missile defense system in their nation, and 
we must not desert them, Madam Speaker. They even stand with us in 
fighting terrorists in Afghanistan, and I got to meet numerous Polish 
soldiers at Camp Bagram in Afghanistan earlier this year. They are our 
friends and our partners and our allies. We stand shoulder to shoulder 
in this fight against the war on terror.
  I also had the opportunity to meet with the Polish people in Poland 
earlier to discuss missile defense and other matters, and they are 
friends to America. They have shown their dedication to independence 
and loyalty to the United States since the American War for 
Independence. They heeded our call when we needed them with their 
General Pulaski, and we showed Poland our loyalty in World War II and 
the Cold War. Now, when liberty and freedom are in danger once more, it 
is unwise to abandon them and our missile defense system in Europe. 
After all, Madam Speaker, tyrants still roam the globe looking for the 
opportunity to snuff out freedom.
  And that's just the way it is.

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