[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 13]
[House]
[Pages 18434-18435]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             WAR ON TERROR

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Tennessee (Mrs. Blackburn) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, this past weekend, like so many of my 
colleagues, I spent time at a memorial ceremony, several in my 
district, to remember the victims of September 11, to honor the 
soldiers who have bought our security with their lives, and to pray for 
those who battle at this very moment in Iraq and Afghanistan to 
preserve our freedom. Today, I traveled to Fort Campbell in my district 
to spend the day with our 101st Airborne soldiers and to join Secretary 
Rumsfeld as he held a town hall meeting with the community there at 
Fort Campbell.

[[Page 18435]]

  Mr. Speaker, it occurred to me while surrounded by those thousands of 
Americans, all united, all prepared to do what it takes to win this war 
on terrorism, it occurred to me that the terrorists sorely have 
misjudged our Nation and that they certainly have misjudged our 
President and his leadership team.
  On September 12, America made a conscious decision to change the 
world, not to withdraw from it. And President Bush deserves credit for 
not wavering, for realizing the time had come for America's military 
might to be used. The terrorists never expected we would have the 
fortitude to invade Afghanistan, to remove the Taliban, to hunt down 
and destroy two-thirds of the al Qaeda leadership.
  The attacks were meant to change us, but only those who have a 
fundamental misunderstanding of what makes America unique could think 
that that is possible.
  Today, the al Qaedas, the Saddams, Qadhafi in Libya, Iran's 
President, Mohammed Khatami, and North Korean Dictator Kim Jong Ill, 
they understand us better and they know that America is not the one who 
will change.
  Some say that Iraq was not worth it. These are the same people who 
believed we could win the Cold War with nothing more than diplomacy, 
and these are the same people who think U.N. sanctions are the answer 
to the world's problems. But what I have found and what I saw today was 
that most Americans want a substantive, serious debate on what 
direction we should take in the war on terrorism, not disagreement for 
disagreement's sake, which is what I believe Candidate Kerry is giving 
them. I think they respect the job that President Bush has done and is 
continuing to do, and they understand that what we are doing in Iraq is 
something that needs to be done. They understand that much better than 
most politicians.
  People across America, our constituents, know that Iraq is tough. 
They understand it is a struggle, but they also realize that we have no 
choice but to change the world, to change the Middle East if we hope to 
have a chance to end terrorism. Containment and detente simply do not 
work when we are talking about planes being hijacked and when we are 
faced with people strapping bombs to their bodies and annihilating 
crowds of civilians.
  So I support President Bush. He has helped America stand tall in the 
face of terror. He told the world that America would not be changed by 
their threats of terrorism; and today, we are on the offensive in this 
war on terrorism for the first time. We must not change course now.
  Americans have always recognized leadership when they saw it; and 
today, they see it. President Bush is a leader who is not afraid to 
make the tough decisions, and that is what our Nation needs.

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