[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 17108]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                           TERRORIST BOMBING

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Ose). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Ehlers) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. EHLERS. Mr. Speaker, many of us have been quiet about what has 
happened this week, but many of us also feel the need to speak. What I 
say is not in the mold of reviewing it or condemning anything that has 
happened, but I just want to express some personal feelings about it 
and also a few opinions.
  I will not revel in self-misery, although it is tempting to do so, 
but at least I want to share my experience with my colleagues and the 
American people.
  Tuesday morning, as I was listening to the morning news, I heard 
about the airplane hitting the first tower. It was described as a two-
engine plane, and since I am a former pilot, I assumed it was some 
amateur who had gotten off course, or some kook who was trying to do 
some damage with a small twin-engine plane.
  I immediately turned on the television just in time to see the second 
plane approach, and immediately I knew it was terrorism, because it was 
obviously a large commercial airliner, and no large commercial airliner 
would be off course or score a direct hit in clear weather such as 
that.
  I immediately headed for the Capitol. In doing so, I drove past the 
Pentagon. They had just been hit. That confirmed that indeed it was a 
very serious case of terrorism. The smoke was beginning to billow out. 
I drove to the Capitol; and at that time, a decision was made to 
evacuate it. I turned and headed back.
  It was as I was driving back across the Potomac River and I crested 
the hill on the bridge, I saw the Pentagon with smoke billowing out of 
it that it hit me with full force. My immediate response was, what are 
they doing to my country? What are they doing to our country? It was 
with horror, disbelief, and shock.
  It took more than a day for that to turn to anger, although anger was 
present at the beginning. But this has happened to all the Members of 
Congress, it is not just me. I hope the American people realize how 
deeply we feel their anguish, how deeply we feel their pain, and how 
much some of us have cried; how we hug each other out of a sense of 
this disaster. It has really hit us hard.
  Why did this happen? Everyone is asking that. Why? It is very hard to 
believe, because Americans are good people. They try to do good things 
in the world. People hate us. Why do they hate us? We cannot comprehend 
that, but they do hate us. That is why they do these terrible things to 
us.
  How can this be? Why do they hate us? Partly because they are enemies 
of freedom. They cannot stand the fact that we are a free country, and 
there are dictators in this world and many terrorists who want to rule 
in an absolute way. They cannot stand to see the success that we enjoy.
  There are other reasons, of course, other types of enmities that 
peoples of other nations may have to us, but it does not match the hate 
and anger that these terrorists have.
  On the positive side, let me note how much I and all the Members of 
Congress have been heartened by the reaction of the American people, 
the greatest outpouring of loyalty and patriotism that I have seen 
since World War II. There have been people in the streets wanting to do 
something good, and contributions are pouring in to those who have 
suffered. There is generosity. People are saying, as the President said 
this morning during the service of prayer and remembrance, there are 
people driving from Dallas with skin grafts to help the wounded here, 
and similarly, from my State of Michigan, and I believe from my 
hometown of Grand Rapids, driving in because they cannot fly in, 
driving in with skin grafts so people can be treated and heal.
  What comes next? We must have retribution. Just in the name of 
justice, we must have retribution. But let me caution the American 
people, this takes time. We have a faceless, nameless enemy. The first 
task is to identify who did this.
  This has been compared in many ways to Pearl Harbor, but it is very 
different in one sense. The enemy was clearly identified, and we 
proceeded for several years to arm to resolve that dispute.
  This will take an equal amount of time, I am convinced, because it is 
not just one person. It is not just one terrorist camp, it is a 
network, I am convinced, that is lodged in a number of nations. We 
cannot simply knock out one and think we have solved the problem. We 
are going to have to deal with the entire problem.
  I hope and pray that God will be with us. I hope and pray that our 
allies will continue to help us, and that, indeed, we will be able to 
have justice, we will have retribution and the world will once again 
enjoy peace.

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