[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 14]
[Senate]
[Pages 19492-19493]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       CHALLENGES FACING AMERICA

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I thank the Chair for this opportunity to 
speak on issues that go to the heart of the challenges facing America 
and the challenge we face in the upcoming election. Is there one of us 
who can forget 9/11, where we were, how our lives were changed, how 
America was changed?
  I was in this building, evacuated in panic as the White House was 
being evacuated, wondering what would happen next. Senators, 
Congressmen were dispersing in every direction, trying to find some 
safe place with all the visitors in the Capitol.
  I remember, as well, what happened during the course of that day. By 
the evening time, after the President had spoken to our country, 
Members of the Senate and House, Democrats and Republicans, in a 
remarkable, unprecedented move, stood together singing ``God Bless 
America'' on the steps of our Capitol--a sense of unity, a sense of 
purpose, a determination to avenge those who had attacked the United 
States and to protect Americans here and abroad.
  Recall how the world reacted. Countries that had been barely friendly 
to the United States stood up and said they would be on our side in the 
war against terrorism, stood up and said they would help us to make 
sure such an attack never occurred again, a broad coalition of 
countries standing behind the United States, many of these same 
countries we had helped in years gone by. Now they were prepared to 
help us.
  We came here on Capitol Hill and in a matter of hours did two very 
important things. First, we declared war on the clear enemy of the 
United States, al-Qaida. Of course, the Taliban in Afghanistan became 
the focus of our military effort. It was a bipartisan vote, an 
overwhelming vote. There were no partisan speeches. We were together. 
We had identified the enemy. We were moving forward. We were not going 
to forget what happened on 9/11 even as we buried our dead and honored 
the wounded and the heroes of America.
  And then think what happened next. We said to our Government: We are 
going to give you the tools and resources you need to fight this war 
against terrorism, to wage this war in Afghanistan. Again, we stood in 
a bipartisan fashion.
  It is hard to believe that was only 3 years ago. It seems like so 
much longer. What has happened in the meantime? Take a look around at 
the United States and the world community. Countries that stood with us 
after 9/11, determined to help us, have walked away from us. Americans 
who were determined to work together are divided. We find ourselves 
with scarce resources to really attack the enemies of the United 
States. We find ourselves counting the dead and wounded on a daily 
basis, with no end in sight.
  What has happened to make the difference? What has happened is a 
decision by this administration to lose focus, to stop this intensive 
effort against the enemies of 9/11 and instead to wage a war in Iraq--a 
war which sadly goes on and on every single day, with no end in sight. 
For some in the administration, it was an answer to a prayer; 9/11 was 
the reason and the excuse that was needed to attack Iraq. This 
irrational passion to go after Saddam Hussein in Iraq, whatever the 
threat against the United States, has led us to a point where we find 
so many of our best and brightest and bravest Americans dying and 
facing severe injuries and wounds in Iraq every single day.
  When the war began in Iraq, I said I wanted to call every family in 
Illinois who loses a soldier. I have not been able to do that. Some I 
could not get through to. I have to tell you, there is a stack of six 
names on my desk. Over 50 Illinoisans have been killed in this war and 
there is no end in sight.
  I spoke to another family yesterday, the family of a 28-year-old 
marine from Pana, IL, a wonderful young man who was dedicated to this 
country. He lost his life a few days ago. How many times that story has 
been played out over and over again--over a thousand times American 
soldiers killed, over 7,000 gravely wounded.
  I have been to Walter Reed and I have seen them with arms blown off, 
legs blown off, loss of both hands, head injuries, blinded, 
paraplegics. These are the wounded who come back from Iraq.
  What do we know today? We know the case made by the Bush 
administration for the invasion of Iraq was wrong. We know the 
information given to the American people to justify the invasion of 
this country was wrong. How do we know that? The Senate Intelligence 
Committee, in a bipartisan report, came up with the clear conclusion 
that our intelligence was just plain wrong.
  When the President told us we would find an arsenal of weapons of 
mass destruction, over a year and a half later we have found none. When 
the President told us we would find a stockpile of nuclear weapons 
threatening the Middle East and the United States, we have found none. 
When the President told us there was a linkage between Saddam Hussein 
and al-Qaida, the attackers of 9/11, we have found none. The list goes 
on and on.
  The President has come back and retracted statements he made in the 
State of the Union Address, incorrectly saying that fissile materials, 
nuclear materials, were sent from Africa to Iraq. So the information 
given to the American people to justify the war turned out to be wrong.
  Now, the question is, How were the American people misled? Was it 
deliberate? I personally believe that unless there is clear, credible, 
and convincing evidence that the President and his administration knew 
the information was wrong, you cannot say it was a deliberate deception 
of the American people. But this much you can say: People within this 
administration who continue to parrot these lines they know are false 
are, frankly, not only doing a great disservice to the American people, 
they have a wanton, reckless disregard for the truth.
  Let me give you some quotes to back that up, so you understand what 
we are talking about. This is a statement made by President Bush at a 
press conference a few months ago:

       The reason that I keep insisting there was a relationship 
     between Iraq and al-Qaida is because there is a relationship 
     between Iraq and al-Qaida.

  Look what Secretary of State Colin Powell said a few days ago:

       I have seen nothing that makes a direct connection between 
     Saddam Hussein and that awful regime and what happened on 9/
     11.

  That is his own Secretary of State who says the President is not 
telling the American people the facts.

[[Page 19493]]

  Look at the 9/11 Commission report. This is a report prepared on a 
bipartisan basis, which has been lauded by everybody in Congress. This 
is what they say:

       We have no credible evidence that Iraq and al-Qaida 
     cooperated on attacks against the United States.

  Yet if you ask the American people, they will make the following 
argument: It is far better for us to be fighting terrorism in al-Qaida 
over there than to be fighting it here in the United States. These 
conclusions by the 9/11 Commission and Secretary of State Colin Powell 
tell you that statement is just plain wrong.
  We are not fighting al-Qaida in Iraq. The al-Qaida forces, as Senator 
Kennedy said earlier, have metastasized around the world. They are a 
threat to all of us.
  Let us tell you what we know for sure. We have lost international 
cooperation in Iraq; the same cooperation that was there to help us 
fight terrorism is gone. Our coalition continues to dwindle and the 
losses are to American troops; 95 percent of those killed and wounded 
are American soldiers. If you want to know who is waging the war, how 
much commitment is being made by this coalition, that statistic tells 
it all.
  Secondly, we were unprepared, we were not prepared, our troops did 
not have the necessary equipment and even training for what they faced 
after the initial military victory in Iraq.
  Over the weekend, back home, officers in the Illinois National Guard 
told us their units are being asked to do things far beyond their 
training capability. We know our troops went into battle in the 
aftermath without the necessary body armor and that the Humvees were 
not properly equipped for what happened in Iraq. We know our 
helicopters didn't have the necessary defense equipment--this from an 
administration that received every penny it asked for from Congress to 
wage this war.
  This Commander in Chief did not stand up for our troops, was not 
prepared to defend our troops, and we have seen what resulted: over 
1,000 dead, over 7,000 wounded.
  There is no end in sight.
  There is a litany of quotes from Senator Hagel, Senator McCain, 
Senator Lugar, and so many others on the Republican side who have 
joined on the Democratic side to say that, clearly, we are not winning 
the war in Iraq. This Commander in Chief cannot crow and brag about the 
great job in Iraq. We are there with no end in sight.
  We have found now that we have been misled in going into Iraq, and we 
continue to be misled by statements from this administration about the 
reason for the war and what we can expect its outcome to be.
  There are many who argue that John Kerry should not be elected 
President because he cannot come up with a plan to extricate us from 
this complicated mess in Iraq. That, to me, is a curious position. This 
President, President Bush, drove our national bus into a cul-de-sac and 
now he can't turn it around, and he blames John Kerry because he cannot 
explain how President Bush can get us out of this mess in Iraq.
  What is wrong with that picture? This is a decision by President Bush 
to invade before the inspections were completed, before the U.N. had an 
opportunity to join us, to invade before the facts were in. The 
invasion took place and our military did its best. They are the best in 
the world. They conquered Saddam Hussein, but they left us in a 
position of vulnerability, with no end in sight. That is the choice 
facing American voters on November 2.
  I yield the floor.

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