[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 14]
[Senate]
[Page 19066]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         A REMARKABLE NEWS DAY

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, yesterday was a remarkable day in many, 
many ways. Private First Class Lynch returned to her home after so many 
weeks and months away. She is a true American hero. We had Ambassador 
Jerry Bremer brief 65 Senators yesterday on the real progress being 
made in Iraq and on the reconstruction and reconstitution that is going 
on there.
  Then we had the news that began late in the morning, and was 
confirmed in the afternoon, that Saddam's two sons, Uday and Qusay, 
have been eliminated as threats to Iraqi freedom.
  It was truly a remarkable day. We are driven by headlines so much. 
They influence us in such a direct way. As we looked at these three 
sequences of events, you could not help but feel pride and optimism as 
we move forward in this fight for freedom around the world.
  We do greet the news yesterday, with the elimination of Saddam's two 
sons, with pride and with respect--respect for our troops, for our 
military men and women who have devoted their lives and demonstrated an 
unmatched professionalism and maturity. It is clear--we have no doubt--
that we have waged a just war, that the bloody tyrant Saddam Hussein 
has been defeated; that Iraq is better without Saddam and his 
diabolical offspring terrorizing and murdering the Iraqi people; and 
indeed America is better off without Saddam Hussein and his murderous 
cabal that had been in power, which clearly sat back and had plans and 
carried out terror and domination and mass murder.
  It is a tough road. In talking to Ambassador Bremer, it is clear that 
our reconstruction and capturing what we know this is all about, which 
is in the words ``Operation Iraqi Freedom''--it is freedom that we have 
fought for and that we continue to fight for. This will continue to 
take time and patience. It will continue to take resources from this 
body. But for the first time in 30 years, the Iraqi people are free to 
live without fear and without tyranny. They are participating for the 
first time in 30 years in the planning and the future of their own 
government.
  Indeed our hearts go out to the families who have lost loved ones on 
the battlefield and who continue to lose them in this effort. Each day 
it seems we are greeted with another distressing story of a Baathist 
attack. We are entitled to feel this grief and, indeed, this 
frustration. But in honor and respect for the individuals who have 
given their lives, and who continue to give their lives to protect our 
freedom, we must remain resolute. We must keep pressing forward. We 
cannot let that headline of the day dictate our overall policy.
  Our President and our troops are out protecting the security of our 
Nation, and we are leading at the same time another nation in a 
systematically planned, strategic, organized way to freedom. In so 
doing, we are making ourselves and future generations more secure.
  We will succeed. It will take patience. It will take determination. 
It will take resolve. It takes all of that to bring our enemies to 
justice. It takes all of that to free the Iraqi people. It takes all of 
that to help protect the American people.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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