[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 13]
[House]
[Pages 18948-18949]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                   CIVILIZATION WILL DEFEAT TERRORISM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2001, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. DeLay) is recognized for 
60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, all of us have been heartened by the way the 
Americans have pulled together after the attack of September 11. We 
have seen the best qualities of America at work, pride, patriotism, 
courage. Passengers on the plane that went down in Pennsylvania foiled 
their hijackers' diabolical objective by fighting for freedom. Police, 
fire, and rescue workers disregarded grave risks to their own lives 
just to save others. The President rallied America to our purpose 
through his determination and his grand leadership. And from across the 
country, we feel a wave of love and support and patriotism.
  We saw the best of America after the raw hand of evil struck our 
Nation. We are left with a defining question. How will we best protect 
our way of life from those who would destroy freedom to lower an evil 
nightmare over the free world? It starts with our mindset. Too many 
people thought that threats to the United States ended with the Cold 
War. The first thing we have to do is to reinvigorate the idea that 
freedom is never free. Our way of life has a price tag.
  Our founding fathers knew that price of freedom is eternal vigilance. 
Now we truly understand that obligation. Now our eyes are wide open. We 
will never become complacent again. Complacency in the face of evil 
lays the foundation for the end of liberty.
  The international terrorist networks are a cancer growing on the 
heart of freedom and a direct threat to civilization itself. The events 
of September 11 reminded us that we must do whatever it takes to defend 
freedom and root out tyranny and terrorism. That mission begins with 
good intelligence and a more robust military. For far too long the 
people we asked to defend America have been fighting our enemies with 
one arm tied behind their back and that must change.

[[Page 18949]]

  Today we added to that effort by passing the Intelligence 
Authorization Act. We need to renew our commitment to our national 
defense. We must once again rebuild our military by arming our forces 
with the tools that they need to meet the full scope of threats to our 
security. We need to spend what it takes to defend America. It is time 
to begin upgrading our capabilities to defeat and deter those who would 
target freedom.
  We need better human intelligence. Good intelligence is essential to 
protecting our Nation and our allies, and it is vital to ensuring that 
our military has the information it needs to safely and effectively 
carry out its mission. We need to cultivate and develop sources of 
information that will reveal the movements, activities, and identities 
of the people plotting evil schemes against people of freedom and 
civilization.
  What might be the most important change, we need to provide our 
defenders with the flexibility to protect America effectively. The men 
and women working to save our freedom must have those tools that they 
need to defeat those who are thinking the unthinkable.
  As we move forward in the campaign to save civilization, we need to 
remember that there is no quick victory just around the corner. We will 
suffer additional losses. We will lose more great Americans, and we 
will have to make additional sacrifices here at home. But freedom is 
worth it. All of us need to understand that.
  This war against the cancer of terrorism is a perpetual obligation. 
It never ends. So we can never drop our guard again. We cannot be 
confused about the nature of this threat. This conflict is larger than 
one man or one terrorist network. It is a struggle between all of those 
who wish to live in freedom and those who wish to enslave the world 
beneath an oppressive, evil totalitarian ideology. It is a new battle 
between every American and all of the terrorist networks.
  We also have to remind everyone that this is not a conflict over 
faith. Millions of people in the world draw meaning and fulfillment 
from the Islamic faith. The extreme views of this splinter movement do 
not reflect the wishes of millions of Muslims who only seek a better 
life for their families.
  There is additional danger in the campaign against terrorism. We have 
got to remember that the traditional threats have not receded. If 
anything, the terror networks exacerbate the long-standing threats we 
have always faced. One thing we could do is reduce our dependence on 
foreign sources of energy. Our dependence, a 57 percent dependence on 
foreign sources of energy weakens our national and economic security.
  We need to move towards energy independence and energy security. It 
will take weeks, months, and years; but America must reduce our 
dependence on energy from volatile corners of this world. This is a 
test. It is a test of this generation of Americans. An evil movement 
thinks it can extinguish that wonderful light of freedom. Terrorists 
send people to die because they believe we have forgotten who we are. 
They believe that we lack the resolve to defend our way of life. They 
hate America and not because we act but simply because we exist.
  Americans know who we are. During World War II, America defeated the 
forces of fascism because that generation risked all that they had to 
secure freedom for their children. So today we face a crisis that is 
every bit as serious as that crisis in World War II. It is going to 
take sacrifices; and unfortunately, it is going to cost lives. But the 
American people retain the determination, the conviction, and the love 
of liberty to resist this ongoing aggression and vindicate freedom. We 
will defendant freedom. We will keep freedom alive.

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