[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 147 (Tuesday, September 13, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4560-S4561]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                           Israel and Taiwan

  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, on November 11, 2001--exactly 2 months 
after the September 11 attacks--President Bush spoke to the United 
Nations General Assembly about the universal threat of terrorism.
  I want to share just a few lines from that speech:

       The suffering of September the 11th was inflicted on people 
     of many faiths and many nations. All of the victims, 
     including Muslims, were killed with equal indifference and 
     equal satisfaction by the terrorist leaders.
       Time is passing. Yet, for the United States of America, 
     there will be no forgetting September the 11th. We will 
     remember every rescuer who died in honor. We will remember 
     every family that lives in grief. We will remember the fire 
     and ash, the last phone calls, the funerals of the children.
       And the people of my country will remember those who have 
     plotted against us. We are learning their names. We are 
     coming to know their faces. There is no corner of the Earth 
     distant or dark enough to protect them. However long it 
     takes, their hour of justice will come.
       Every nation has a stake in this cause. As we meet, the 
     terrorists are planning more murder--perhaps in my country, 
     or perhaps in yours. They kill because they aspire to 
     dominate.

  Now, 21 years later, I fear that President Biden and many of my 
Democratic colleagues have forgotten the lessons they learned from that 
day and in the years that have followed.
  What I recall most about the weeks and months following the attacks 
is that everyone I talked with, no matter their politics, believed that 
we were facing a battle of good versus evil.
  There was a real clarity of conviction that demanded we all choose a 
side. Would we stand with freedom or with the enemies of freedom? You 
can dither and dally all you want on national security policy, but 
there was not much dithering to be done on that point, at least not in 
2001.

  But now, in the mainstream media and at the highest levels of the 
Democratic Party, we see that clarity of conviction ceding ground to 
moral relativism. It infected this weekend's remembrance. It infected 
the debate surrounding Joe Biden's disastrous withdrawal from 
Afghanistan. And it has all but derailed any serious discussion about 
emerging threats, not just from terrorist organizations but from 
hostile regimes that the Biden administration seems determined to 
appease.
  During this past August work period, I had the opportunity to visit 
two of the hot spots. Working with our counterparts in Taiwan and 
Israel was illuminating for many reasons. I wish every single one of my 
colleagues would get off their computers, get on a plane, and go talk 
to them about what it is like to spend every day on the frontlines in 
this battle against the new ``axis of evil.''
  Here in the United States, we are blessed by the benefit of physical 
distance from the hot spots. And it is no guarantee of protection, and 
I believe it has lulled many of my colleagues into a false sense of 
security concerning the threats we face.
  Our friends in Taipei and Jerusalem don't share this benefit. They 
spend their days watching missiles fly closer to their homes and 
listening to authoritarian propaganda from Beijing and Iran that 
threatens innocent families with extinction for the crime of simply 
existing.
  In Israel, they are gravely concerned about the Biden 
administration's desire to enter into a new nuclear deal with Tehran. 
They worry that this will move Iran closer to a nuclear warhead. They 
are concerned about what would happen with the billions of dollars that 
would flow into Iran's coffers. What would happen with sanctions 
relief? How will they use this money?
  Overall, their fears are dominated by the knowledge that, yes, 
indeed, Iran is the world's largest state sponsor of terrorism. How 
will they use the money to finance the work of their proxies? They are 
particularly concerned how this will instigate growth and expansion of 
terrorism in Palestine.
  In Taiwan, they are concerned about the growing intensity of Chinese 
Communist Party aggression. I have also heard grave concerns from other 
island nations that if China overruns Taiwan, they could be the next to 
fall.
  But above all, they conveyed a strong desire to continue working with 
the United States. Yes, we are their preferred partner. They need our 
foreign military sales. They want to be able to defend themselves. It 
means they have to increase their defense capabilities.
  Taiwan and Israel aren't the only hot spots that should concern us, 
but they both represent the first line of defense against the growing 
influence of the new ``axis of evil.''
  The one thing I heard, over and over again when I was overseas, is 
that if we allow these nations to become overrun, it will start a 
domino effect in the Indo-Pacific and the Middle East that will be 
difficult, if not impossible, to stop.
  And as we have seen before, when we give nations like China and Iran 
an inch, what do they do? They take a mile.
  So it is incomprehensible to me that Joe Biden and the Democrats are 
not doing everything--everything--in their power to stop this from 
happening.
  Over the past few years, I have watched the President and his allies 
treat the threat posed by the new ``axis

[[Page S4561]]

of evil'' like an academic problem, rather than what it is, a true 
threat to our freedoms.
  There is no excuse for this. They all have access to television and 
the internet. They know exactly who is in charge in Tehran and Beijing 
and what they are willing to do to expand their power.
  So why have we made so little progress repatriating our supply chains 
and protecting our economy from the Chinese Communist Party? Why is Joe 
Biden trying to force the American people into another failed nuclear 
deal with Iran? Why are they not listening to our closest allies and 
partners in these regions? Why is this administration having Russia 
negotiate a new Iran nuclear deal?
  If this country continues to treat China and Iran like difficult 
neighbors instead of a threat to our freedoms, eventually the balance 
of power will shift in their favor. Nations like Taiwan and Israel will 
fall. The United States could suffer another devastating attack.
  Joe Biden and the Democrats have wasted time rejecting reality in 
favor of appeasement. They believe that they can negotiate the upper 
hand and settle things diplomatically. But this isn't diplomacy; this 
is a hostage situation. If it weren't, images of missiles flying 
towards civilians would have reignited the same clarity of conviction 
we all felt after the towers fell and the people in charge of our 
government would be shouting warnings from the rooftops rather than 
negotiating away our security behind closed doors.

  I would remind my Democratic colleagues that U.N. human rights 
reports and strongly worded statements and all the other trappings of 
your current brand of diplomacy mean nothing if you are not willing to 
put lives and livelihoods on the line to defend them.
  So it is time to decide: Will you stand with freedom or with the 
enemies of freedom?
  I want to reiterate President Bush's assessment of the terrorists who 
attacked our country 21 years ago this week because it is an apt 
comparison to be made. ``They kill because they aspire to dominate.'' 
Think about that one. ``They kill because they aspire to dominate.''
  What the regimes in Tehran and Beijing are doing right now to our 
friends in Israel and Taiwan looks different from what al-Qaida did to 
us on 9/11, but their goals are the same. They seek global domination, 
and they are growing impatient. We can either wait to see what they 
will do next or we can stand with our allies and partners and 
demonstrate our resolve to ensure that the new axis of evil fails.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Booker). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.