[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 16]
[Senate]
[Page 21916]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES TO THE NATION

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, on Sunday night in his televised address to 
the Nation, the President of the United States outlined clearly and 
unequivocally why we are at war and what is required to defeat our 
enemies. In his remarks, he urged us to remain steadfast and resolute. 
In that speech, he reminded us that our enemies are motivated not by 
the perception that we are strong. No. Indeed, they attacked us out of 
the mistaken belief that we are weak.
  This is not mere guess or conjecture. When one listens to the words 
of Osama bin Laden himself, he calls America ``a paper tiger.'' He 
boasts that at the first sign of danger, that first painful blow, we 
retreat to wallow in our so-called--his words--decadence.
  The terrorists did not launch the September 11 attacks in retaliation 
to military action. They struck America as a direct demonstration of 
their pure and unshakable hatred. One only has to listen to the words 
of one of Osama bin Laden's closest associates, Yussuf al-Ayyeri--no 
longer with us, I might add, in body. This murderer warned in a 
treatise written just before Operation Iraqi Freedom that:

       It is not the American war machine that should be of the 
     utmost concern to Muslims. What threatens the future of 
     Islam, in fact its very survival, is American democracy.

  Why? Mr. al-Ayyeri fears democracy will--

       . . . make Muslims love this world, forget the next world, 
     and abandon jihad.

  He fears that if democracy takes root in Iraq, Muslims might actually 
benefit in the here and in the now, that they might become prosperous, 
self-sufficient, tolerant, and consequently--going back to quoting him:

       . . . reluctant to die in martyrdom.

  For this reason, and he explains in the treatise, his comrades must 
defeat unbelief, must defeat modernism, and most of all must defeat the 
democracy brought on by the Americans.
  While Mr. al-Ayyeri falsely conflates his power-mad ideology with the 
Muslim faith, a faith that we all know is practiced peacefully by 
millions in this country and indeed around the world, one cannot deny, 
however, unwittingly, that he makes his case. Success in Iraq spells 
failure for al-Qaida, failure for al-Qaida's murderous fanaticism, 
failure for al-Qaida's tyrannical goals. Success in Iraq strikes at the 
cold, arid hearts of men who murder Muslims for daring to reject al-
Qaida's warped demands.
  Our efforts to help the Iraqi people build a decent and free nation, 
yes, a democratic society where people of differing ideas, of differing 
ethnicity can live in peace, live with one another, will be a clear 
refutation of all that the terrorists stand for and the poison that 
they continue to peddle.
  September 11--most Americans have spent much of the day in thought 
and reflection on that event 2 years ago. I wish, as every American, 
that September 11 had never happened, that those innocent women and men 
and children were alive today, were with their families, were thriving, 
were safe. I wish our enemies had never emerged from their caves and 
they never cooked up their crazed campaign. I wish all these things. 
But clearly wishing will not and does not make it so.
  Thus, we are called to act. We are called to lead. We must protect 
our fellow citizens and defeat terror and those regimes that support 
them. Our enemies will not disappear or go away. It is not going to 
happen. We know that. Words do not in any way mollify them. Negotiation 
in no way mollifies them. Thus, we must stand firm and we must not 
waver.
  We must support our troops; let them know how much we admire their 
courage, their sacrifice, their bravery. We must let the enemy know 
that America will press on to victory.
  I know we will meet the challenge. Americans are strong and Americans 
are tough. We have seen that tenacity. In many ways September 11 made 
it come alive. It uplifted all of us, but it made that tenacity and 
that strength come alive.
  We are sincere in our compassion. Why? Because it springs from the 
fundamental belief that all people have a God-given right to liberty, 
to freedom, to know what is in their own minds and to control their own 
futures; freedom to act in a room and a body like this in the political 
sphere; freedom to participate in their own governance. And, unlike our 
deadly enemies, we wish the best--not the worst--for Iraq.
  The President has come this week to this body seeking our support. It 
really began formally in his speech now 5 days ago on Sunday night. His 
proposal for emergency funding to defeat terror and to stabilize our 
efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan clearly warrants it.
  We will continue to meet with the administration in the days ahead, 
as we have in the last several days, to assist them in these efforts. I 
know there will be much debate and there will be careful examination of 
the request, but I know the Senate will overwhelmingly support the 
President's request. Why? We think back to September 11. We know who 
the enemy is and we know what it takes to defeat that enemy.
  Over the course of the week and in our briefings and after we talked 
to our colleagues who have gone to Iraq, it is very clear that we are 
making a lot of progress in Iraq. It is not what you see when you first 
turn on the television or when you open the newspapers now, but from 
our colleagues who have gone there to see firsthand, and as we have 
been briefed by people who have just come back, clearly, we are making 
progress.
  Just this week the League of Arab States granted the Iraqi Governing 
Council membership, albeit conditional membership but membership, in 
their deliberative body. This is a significant step forward. There will 
be many more steps forward in the coming weeks and months ahead. I know 
we will succeed in this mission. We will defeat terror. And the Iraqi 
people will have a free and a democratic nation to lead into the 
future.

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