[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Pages 50-51]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION TO CENTRAL ASIA

  Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, over the recess I had the 
privilege of going to the other side of planet Earth in the area of 
central Asia with 8 other of our colleagues. The delegation was led by 
the Senator from Connecticut, Mr. Lieberman, and the Senator from 
Arizona, Mr. McCain. In 7 days, we visited the heads of government of 6 
nations. And what was a delightful surprise to our delegation was the 
fact that each one of the leaders of those countries wanted to express 
appreciation to the United States for us being involved in their 
countries to help rid them of terrorists.
  They implored us, after this initial thrust of military success, not 
to turn on our heels and walk away. Indeed, if you look back in 
history, the United States made a mistake a little over a decade ago. 
We were involved, in the 1980s, in Afghanistan--albeit clandestine--as 
we were helping the Afghans try to repel and expel the Soviet Union, 
which was trying to take over Afghanistan. And when the Soviet Union 
was whipped and tucked its tail between its legs and left, then the 
United States left also. That created a political vacuum--a vacuum that 
begs to be filled by political leaders, and that is the vacuum that was 
filled by the terrorists--ultimately, the very repressive Taliban 
regime.
  So let's take a lesson from history and let's not repeat it. Let's 
listen to those leaders who said they don't necessarily want us to be 
there in the long run in a military situation, but they want our help 
in advising them technically, agriculturally, about communication, and 
indeed in Afghanistan about stabilizing the country, about setting up a 
national government, about setting up a national army so they can 
protect themselves from these outside forces and from these insidious 
forces that well up within, which was the terrorist organizations.
  It was quite illuminating. We met with the Prime Minister of Turkey, 
the President of Uzbekistan, and the President of Turkmenistan.
  We then flew into Bagram airfield with lights out in the middle of 
the night for security reasons. Those young pilots were using night 
vision equipment, and I am telling you, Mr. President, they greased 
that plane on to that runway with no runway lights, no airplane lights, 
and lights out on everything because of snipers, mortar, and rocket 
fire.
  The descent was rapid, and the pilot did evasive maneuvers with the 
plane. The first instruction given to us before we stepped off the 
plane was: Do not dare step off the concrete tarmac because of the 
known and the unknown landmines.
  The sergeant who escorted me through the darkness told me about his 
buddy who had his foot blown off just 2 days before traversing a 
footpath that the sergeant who escorted me had traversed many times 
before and had escaped the lethal explosion of a landmine that 
ultimately caught his buddy and caused the amputation of his foot.
  We had the opportunity to meet with the interim Government of 
Afghanistan, with Chairman Hamid Karzai and his cabinet. What was very 
distinct--not only their enthusiasm, their absolute intent on making a 
success of a new kind of government that was not a repressive one--was 
the fact that, for the first time, the cabinet had a new minister: A 
minister of women's affairs, a prominent Afghan woman. As we met with 
that cabinet, they shared that message about being involved.
  Chairman Karzai gave us an example of how for the long run he needed 
our help. He explained to us he was so appreciative of the humanitarian 
assistance and that it looked as if, for this winter, most of the 
starvation had been avoided but for the long run they needed 
agricultural assistance. They needed the rains to come because without 
that, the farmers were not going to be able to grow crops in the 
spring, and they were going to return to growing poppies and, thus, in 
the drug trade and, thus, all the more ripe for exploitation by the 
terrorists we are trying to get rid of in that part of the world.
  All of our Senators would be so proud of what we saw on the faces of 
those young men and women in the uniform of our country at Bagram 
airfield in the dead of night. They were absolutely resolute in being 
able to successfully fulfill their mission. They had tasted success. 
They knew their cause was just, and they were absolutely intent on 
seeing it through to a successful conclusion.
  Whether we met young Americans in uniform in the neighboring 
countries,

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such as Uzbekistan to the north or Pakistan to the south, whether we 
met Americans in the diplomatic service or in the humanitarian 
component of our assistance, whether we met those young men and women 
in full-combat, cold-weather gear at the Bagram airfield right outside 
of Kabul, Afghanistan, or whether we met our marines at the airfield on 
the coast of Pakistan on the Arabian Sea, or whether we met our sailors 
and our pilots out on the aircraft carrier, the Theodore Roosevelt, off 
the Pakistani coast, they all had that conviction of expression on 
their faces: Absolutely intent on persevering and succeeding, knowing 
their cause is just.
  We spent a good hour with the President of Pakistan. It has been said 
many times that President Musharraf, well before September 11, offered 
leadership by recognizing that he had a problem with terrorism in his 
own country. In early June, well before September 11, he had met with 
religious leaders and said: We are going to have to start dampening 
down the religious extremism. In his country, there are 3,000 of these 
madrasahs, which are religious extremist schools.
  The President of Pakistan recognized he had a problem because where 
poverty exists and fathers and mothers cannot support their children, 
these children get shipped off to these religious schools where they 
provide the basic necessities for them but in the process train them in 
the ways of terrorism and extremism and teach them a doctrine that is 
not taught in the Koran.
  The President of Pakistan saw well ahead of September 11 that he was 
going to have a problem. He started laying the groundwork so that when 
the awful events of September 11 came and he knew he was going to have 
to make a choice--was he going to fight with a coalition of nations led 
by the United States to rid that part of the world of terrorism, 
including the terrorists in his country, or was he going to stay with 
the longstanding policy where the Government of Pakistan had even 
recognized officially, diplomatically, the Taliban Government, and was 
he going to break relations with them and cast his lot with the nations 
of the world that were trying to get rid of the terrorists--he did just 
that.
  Of course, at the time my colleagues and I were there, we had another 
reason to be concerned about that part of the world because two armies 
were amassing on either side of the Kashmir border, two armies of 
nuclear nations which pretend awful things for the peace of this world 
should they get into a hot war, not even to speak of how it would drain 
Pakistan's energies and military activities away from helping the 
coalition of nations try to get the Taliban, the al-Qaida, and the 
terrorist leaders as they attempt to flee into Pakistan.
  We went up to the Khyber Pass and met with the commanding general who 
was commanding about 33,000 troops all in that sector of the Afghan-
Pakistan border where we are concerned that al-Qaida are trying to 
flee.
  The general assured us that with all of their troops on the border, 
plus all of their friendships and lines of communication they have 
built with the native Pakistanis in all of those villages, they will 
know when one of those terrorists comes across.
  At the time we were there, which was about 2 weeks ago, they had 
already captured in excess of 200 al-Qaida. We went on to Muscat, Oman, 
and met with the Sultan of Oman. Again, it is a different kind of 
government in that region of the world and yet one that is very 
necessary in helping us as we knit and keep together this fragile 
coalition of nations, most of them being Muslim, as we fight terrorism 
in that part of the world.
  I believe the leaders in Central Asia now recognize terrorist 
activity is one of the greatest threats to the stability of their 
countries, and I believe they are now much more enthused in supporting 
the coalition efforts because of the extraordinary success we have had.
  I will conclude with this: The commander in chief of the Central 
Command I have the pleasure of having reside in my State, General 
Franks. He is stationed at MacDill Air Force Base where not only the 
Central Command is located but also the Special Operations Command. We 
have another commander in chief on the same base.
  I think the military success of this war effort thus far is 
illustrated by the photograph we saw on the front pages of so many of 
our newspapers, which was the Special Operations troop, American, on 
horseback, riding with other Afghan troops on horseback. The difference 
was the U.S. Special Operations person was calling in pinpoint 
airstrikes from his vantage point traversing the terrain on horseback. 
It is a combination of low tech and high tech. It is a commitment of 
very specialized troops, few in number, but backed up by the 
superiority of the skies, the precision of the weapons, and the instant 
communication between the low-tech troop on horseback, or on the 
ground, with the high-tech arsenal represented by the skies and by the 
pinpoint accuracy of the weapons.
  So the terrorist is in a compound, suddenly there is an explosion, 
and he flees and all of a sudden sighs relief that he escaped, and then 
whammo, the second precision pinpoint-accurate weapon hits. Talk about 
demoralizing the enemy.
  Why have we had success? Because of the combination of that and, in 
conclusion, because of the absolute determination of our men and women 
in uniform. That is what made me so proud for all of us, what made all 
of us in our nine-senator delegation so appreciative that we could 
express to those troops whom we saw the appreciation of the American 
people for their dedication and for their success.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Dayton). The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that 
the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The Senator from Florida.

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