[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 13]
[House]
[Page 18782]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                         WHY WE MUST GO TO WAR

  (Mr. PITTS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PITTS. Madam Speaker, we seem to be entering a new era of war 
protesters. The professional protesters who have been marching against 
globalism and capitalism and other causes now have a new cause.
  I respect true pacifists, although I do not agree with them. I 
believe sometimes we have to fight against tyrants. But we should 
remind one another that freedom is not free. Our freedoms were not won 
with poster paint. It was costly. They were won by the blood of 
patriots.
  The reason our soldiers fight and die is to secure our freedoms: the 
freedom, the luxury, even, to protest and carry a sign, and the freedom 
to be tolerant; the freedoms of religion, speech, press, assembly, and 
redress of grievances.
  This war is against terrorists who will kill innocent women and 
children and take the law into their own hands to achieve their own 
ends. This war is to guarantee that our people, our children, can have 
a secure and free future. The intent of the terrorist is not our 
defeat, it is our destruction. If they had weapons of mass destruction, 
they would use them. They are seeking such capability as we speak.
  That is why we must go to war. We must exact justice on the 
terrorists, and we must prevent them from getting that capability so 
the world can live in peace and freedom.

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