[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 17653]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                REGARDING ASPECTS OF SEPTEMBER 11 EVENTS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Sherman) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SHERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleagues. I am due on a TV 
broadcast that starts rather soon. I know this sounds rather late, but 
it is prime time back in my own California.
  I rise to address several aspects of the recent tragedy, the recent 
outrage. I want to associate myself with the statements of the 
gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Bonior) when he came to this floor and 
talked about how important it was that we treat everyone with dignity 
and with respect, and decried several incidents involving 
discrimination against those of the Muslim, Sikh and Hindu faiths.
  Let us, though, also applaud the 99.999 percent of Americans who in 
fact today are treating their fellow Americans with tolerance and 
respect. I had a large public meeting in my district in which one of 
the two leaders of our Islamic community commented that, yes, we should 
all treat everyone with respect and, yes, he was chagrined by some 
recent reports. But he only wondered how much worse it would be in any 
other country in the world for any other minority group. And, in fact, 
in our own country in the 1940s, we did not act with the same level of 
respect and tolerance that we are showing today.
  Let us remember that America is not anti-Muslim and not anti-Islam. 
In fact, the last three military engagements of the United States were 
for the purpose of defending Muslim people. We restored the 
independence of Kuwait. We then went on to save the Bosnian Muslims 
from genocide. And then we bombed a Christian country, Serbia, because 
of what Serbia tried to do to its Albanian Muslim minority. And now 
American and NATO troops are engaged in Macedonia for the purpose of 
achieving a just result for the Albanian Muslims who are a minority in 
that country. So let us not only condemn every act of intolerance, but 
let us applaud an overwhelming majority of Americans who are acting 
with tolerance even at a time when emotions run high.
  Let me comment on those who suggest that we modify our foreign policy 
in the Middle East in order to placate Osama bin Laden, the Taliban, 
and other extremists. These calls do no honor to the greatest 
generation and its response to Pearl Harbor. After Pearl Harbor, there 
were some who suggested that all we had to do was change our foreign 
policy in the Far East, allow Japan to conquer all of China, and then 
we could avoid conflict. Instead, the greatest generation made the 
greatest sacrifices to win the greatest victory. It would be a dishonor 
to that generation for us to act any differently now that we have 
suffered the greatest loss of American life on American soil since our 
Civil War, a loss of life two to three times what we suffered at Pearl 
Harbor.
  But not only is appeasement dishonorable, it is also, in this case, 
impossible. Because what motivated Osama bin Laden was a hatred for the 
fact that American troops are somehow ``defiling'' the soil of Arabia 
by being stationed there in defense of the Saudi and Kuwaiti regimes. 
Remember that if those soldiers were not there, Saddam Hussein would 
control not only Kuwait but also Saudi Arabia, also the Emirates, and 
he would control 70 percent of the world's oil reserves. But even a 
withdrawal of American soldiers from the Arabian peninsula would not be 
enough. It would just whet the appetite of Osama bin Laden, who will 
not rest until every Arab leader who is even moderately pro-American is 
displaced and killed, including the entire Saudi royal family.
  But even that would not placate bin Laden, who would demand not what 
Arafat is demanding with regard to Palestinian-Israeli relations but 
the total destruction of 5 million Israelis. But even that would only 
whet his appetite. Bin Laden will not rest until every girl in every 
part of the world is kicked out of school, until the concept of female 
illiteracy is enshrined worldwide. I do not think that appeasement of 
bin Laden is possible. But even if it were, if you can change American 
foreign policy in the Mideast by an act of great terror, then what 
about those who disagree with our policy in Colombia or Kosovo, 
Macedonia, Sumatra, Sri Lanka or Taiwan? If we establish the policy 
that terrorists can change our foreign policy, then every terrorist 
will try to control the only superpower by an act of super terror.
  We must stand by our friends in the Middle East and show that we 
cannot be controlled by terrorists.

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