[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Pages 17053-17054]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                           A UNITED RESPONSE

  Mr. BROWNBACK. Mr. President, this morning the Senate passed a 
historic resolution. The resolution passed granting the President broad 
authority and power to prosecute a war against terrorism and those who 
house terrorists.
  It is important we talk about that from the standpoint that this is a 
war as no other we have been in where the enemy is one who can attack 
and has attacked on our soil, who will use means and methods of terror, 
which is the tool of choice for the terrorists, and try to debilitate 
us by fear.
  We should not succumb to fear. We should not allow fear to take over 
but, rather, have faith in our system and faith in God above that we 
will prosper and persevere.
  Many terrorists have networks that are headquartered throughout 
central Asia, South Asia, and the Middle East. It is wise for us to go 
after these terrorist organizations. It is absolutely right for us to 
do so.
  We need to build alliances with people throughout these regions, and 
they are available to us if we move wisely and successfully. The State 
Department has done a nice job thus far, and I congratulate Secretary 
Colin Powell and Rich Armitage, the No. 2 person in the Department, and 
others, for reaching out to many countries in that part

[[Page 17054]]

of the world and saying: Look, it is time to stand up and be counted. 
You are either with us or against us, and we want to know what it is, 
and there will be consequences that will flow from that decision.
  It appears a number of these countries are standing up and saying: We 
are with you; this global scourge of terrorism hits us on a daily basis 
as it just hit you with such a devastating force on September 11.
  I think it would be wise for us to look at this very seriously, that 
before we move forward, we build these alliances with a number of 
nations that are willing to stand up with us and be heard. That is very 
possible for us to do.
  We need to look to nations such as Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, nations 
that are not in the common lexicon perhaps of geography of the American 
student or maybe even the American political student. These are 
countries formed out of the fall of the Soviet Union, and they sit in 
direct proximity to Afghanistan, which has been the headquarters for 
some period of time of Osama bin Laden.
  If these nations want to work with the United States, we ought to 
work with them. It requires us to look at them with a new set of eyes 
and say: OK, we put a lot of demands and pressures on you at different 
points, and now we have one singular focus, and that is to deal with 
terrorism; we want to work with you on that. I think we will get their 
cooperation.
  They also will say: We want the United States to work with us, 
building the economies and abilities of our people. So there is going 
to be an exchange and a push back and forth that, in many ways, will 
help strengthen our standing and our relationship with many of these 
nations.
  We have recently been on a diplomatic effort with India. That is 
proper and good and should continue. There are sanctions that need to 
be lifted in this region. Pakistan is going to be a key country, as we 
have already seen, and discussions are taking place already. Pakistan 
will be a key country. We have gone to them and said: OK, stand up and 
be counted with us or be counted with the other side.
  We believe Pakistan will strongly come along our way. We have had our 
share of differences, certainly after the cold war. Pakistan was there 
with us in bringing the Soviet Union down when the Soviet Union was 
engaged in Afghanistan. I think Pakistan will be with us again. We have 
to look at how we work with them. They are going to say: OK, there are 
a series of sanctions you have on us; we want to talk about that as 
well.
  We should engage those discussions. Hopefully, that will be a way we 
can build these nations together. That would be a good and appropriate 
thing to do.
  I want to point out some history regarding Afghanistan. Some suggest 
we go in and start bombing. There have been a number of nations, great 
nations over history, that have tried to go into Afghanistan, and there 
has been great difficulty going into Afghanistan, whether it was the 
British or whether it was the Soviet Union, which could merely drive 
into Afghanistan with huge amounts of weaponry and force and still was 
not able to put the proud people of Afghanistan under their pressure 
and army.
  To think we can just drop bombs or drop a few troops into Afghanistan 
and that country will succumb to our pressure does not read correctly 
the history of that proud nation.
  The Taliban has been a scourge on that country, as they have been on 
the world. We have to look very wisely and carefully at how we are 
going to deal with Osama bin Laden and other terrorist organizations 
that are headquartered in Afghanistan.
  This is going to take some time, and I hope our people are cognizant 
of those lessons of history and are cognizant of what we are dealing 
with. This may take some time, planning, and thoughtfulness as we build 
the alliance with countries in that region, as we do the give-and-take 
to get them on our side and with them saying: OK, we need you to work 
with us as we build up our nations as well and as we plot long-term 
strategy to be able to get at these terrorist groups that are 
headquartered in a very difficult nation.
  This is not the sort of thing we are going to do from 30,000 feet in 
the air, dropping bombs or launching cruise missiles and hoping we get 
it done. This is going to take some period of time to build the 
alliances we will need.
  It is a different alliance than we have formed in the past. It is an 
alliance to put the tools in place, the human intelligence, the ability 
to get at these dens of iniquity, these evil groups that would 
perpetrate these crimes on this country and across the world.
  Then we are going to have to go in and dig them out one at a time. 
This is not the Persian Gulf war or any other war in which we have 
been. If done properly and well focused, we can be very successful in 
this effort. It is going to require time, focus, prudence, and 
determination, and the mettle of this country will be tested. But we 
are going to be successful in the long run. We could be here for some 
period of time talking about this.
  Mr. President, I wanted to rise to say that because the resolution we 
passed this morning was quite broad based. It was an expression of the 
people of the United States, and I think a good expression of the 
desires of the people of the United States.
  I do not want people to think this will be done later this year and 
we are finished with it. This will take a long period of time. These 
terrorist organizations operate in a number of countries, and they have 
substantial assets in at least 10 different nations. We could well be 
going at that for some period of time.

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