[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 19]
[House]
[Page 26992]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            WE WILL NOT RUN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of 
January 7, 2003, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. DeLay) is recognized 
during morning hour debates for such time as he may consume.
  Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, 2 days ago in Iraq, the United States lost 16 
soldiers in a missile attack on an Army CH-47 Chinook helicopter. 
Twenty more American servicemen and women were wounded. All on board 
were headed to Baghdad, on the way to the airport and a well-deserved 
break from combat service.
  Today, we all mourn their loss and offer our heartfelt prayers for 
the victims and, most especially, their families. But, Mr. Speaker, we 
will not run. The United States will stay in Iraq, along with our 
coalition partners, until the work there is done.
  Until innocent Iraqis are no longer threatened by thuggish holdovers 
from the old regime; until state-sponsored murderers from neighboring 
counties no longer enter Iraq to terrorize its people; until the 
citizens of Iraq have a democratic government to set their own course 
among the free nations of the Earth; and until the nexus of the weapons 
of mass destruction, international terrorism, and outlaw regimes can no 
longer threaten the United States from Iraq.
  These things, these long overdue and wonderful things, are going to 
happen. Let there be no mistaking in this or any capital around the 
globe, justice is coming to the Middle East with hope and freedom 
riding close behind.
  We all have always known that delivering these basic human rights to 
a region unfamiliar with them will be hard, but that is our mission, 
and one worth the sacrifice.
  Just as it has been since we began debating the removal of Saddam 
Hussein from Iraq, this war remains a test of America's moral 
leadership in the world.
  Are we serious about destroying international terrorism? Are we 
serious about holding outlaw regimes accountable for their sponsorship 
of it? Are we resolved to see our mission through to the end, despite 
the disproportionate costs and risks we must assume? And finally, is 
human freedom worth fighting for?
  The answers to all of these, of course, is yes. And so we will not 
run. No matter how perilous our journey, we will stand and fight and 
humanity will win. Iraq will be free. Terrorism will fall. Evil will be 
turned back. And the Chinook 16, Mr. Speaker, will not have died in 
vain.

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