[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 15]
[Senate]
[Page 20476]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     FIGHTING THE WAR ON TERRORISM

  Mr. THOMAS. Mr. President, I appreciate the comments made by my 
friend from Kentucky. Certainly those are the discussions going on 
today.
  I take a minute or two to talk about the war on terrorism. We are in 
a war on terrorism. We need to conduct that war and take it to the 
terrorists, not here at home. We do have a plan. In war, obviously, the 
plan does not always turn out the way one hopes and we have to change 
from time to time.
  We need to be together on the goals. Our goal is to win. We must do 
whatever is necessary to win. We should not have all of our 
conversations about this war based on politics. Hopefully that will be 
over soon. We ought to talk about the challenges before the country. We 
need to support our troops and goal--and that is to win.
  We are not alone in our effort, although that is talked about 
sometimes. Some 80 nations are working together with us to ensure the 
world is a safer and a more secure place. The coalition is removing the 
threat of terrorism and building a foundation to enhance national and 
international security.
  The war being fought in Afghanistan and Iraq is bringing about a 
fundamental change to the environment that has given rise and power to 
the extremists who export terrorism.
  Contrary to what those who focus only on the negative would have you 
believe, we have some good things to talk about that move us toward 
this goal of winning over there. Coalition forces have not lost an 
engagement at the platoon level or above in 3 years of war.
  This terrorist enemy knows we cannot be defeated by him, but he is 
focused on winning the battle of perception by attacking civilians to 
spread fear among local populations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The 
terrorists' goal is to win the perception battle and to force us to 
lose our will to win.
  Unfortunately, by trying to exploit the negative aspects of the war, 
some in our country have fallen into the trap and are unwittingly 
advancing this cause. This is unfortunate and, quite frankly, very 
counterproductive to our goal of winning.
  We have been successful in Iraq and Afghanistan in many ways. Of 
course, the situation is still violent. It is still volatile. It is not 
the way we would like it to be, and much more remains to be done. But, 
again, we will succeed by focusing on success and by moving toward our 
goals.
  Today, in Afghanistan, coalition and Afghan forces are setting the 
conditions for a stable and safe environment for a successful 
presidential election in October, followed by parliamentary elections 
in the spring.
  The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan reports that 
over 10 million voters are registered as of August 29 for the October 9 
presidential election. More than 41 percent of registered voters are 
women. This is an unusual kind of change for Afghanistan.
  Today, more than 18,000 coalition forces, together with the Afghan 
National Army and Afghan National Police, are increasing their security 
operations in towns and villages. These are tremendous accomplishments 
by any standard. Although several months ago, when I had the privilege 
of attending there, you could tell--you could tell from the kids in 
school, you could tell from the people on the street--this movement was 
taking place. Unfortunately, of course, it is being slowed down by the 
terrorist attacks in Iraq.
  Despite the negativity coming from the President's opponents, the 
United States remains fully committed to assisting the Iraqis in 
restoring security and rebuilding their nation. The Iraqi National 
Conference met and has selected the Interim National Council. This 
Interim Council for the Iraqi Government is now planning for elections, 
of course, in January. Some say: Well, can that happen? It will not be 
smooth. Of course it will not be smooth. To make a transition of this 
kind is not a smooth operation. But the fact is, violence will continue 
to exist and these things will continue to happen. But this movement 
toward a change in government to self-government will persist.
  The enemy obviously is unscrupulous and will do anything, including, 
of course, the killing of innocent children, to stop this movement 
toward freedom from taking seed.
  Overwhelmingly, however, the people of Iraq want to rebuild their 
country and to defend it from fringe groups that wish to tear it apart. 
The largest single contributor to Iraq's security is that effort of 
Iraqi people who continue to step forward to join the various Iraqi 
security forces. More than 230,000 Iraqis serve as part of their 
country's security force, with another 20,000 in training. Again, I had 
the opportunity to visit some of these training facilities, and they 
were new at that time, they were still becoming efficient at that time. 
You could sense this was happening, and there was a commitment on the 
part of Iraqis to do some things that were much different than they had 
been accustomed to.
  They have been trained and are on duty in areas including police 
service, national guard, border enforcement, the Iraq Army, and the 
Iraqi intervention force.
  Now, there are those who may say: I know, but they are not doing very 
well on the borders. Of course not. It takes time to do these things. 
This an extreme change from what they were doing in the past. We also 
know in our own country how difficult it is for border protections.
  So while performance varies in regions, Iraqi security forces 
continue to improve. And they are recruiting additional persons to 
strengthen their efforts to be very successful.
  I think it is clear that the Iraqi people have much at stake in 
defeating the terrorist insurgency, and they are indeed taking on this 
burden which, of course, is exactly what has to be done in order to 
transfer the governance and the security of Iraq to the Iraqi people--
our goal.
  They need our unequivocal support, not talk of cutting and running, 
because the mission is difficult. All of us knew it was going to be 
difficult. Again, we have to go back to the basis of terrorism; we have 
to go back to 11 September; we have to go back to the previous gulf war 
where the agreements made by Saddam Hussein were never put in place.
  So all those things go in to where we are. Where we are now, you can 
argue about, but that is where we are. We need to win. We need to be 
positive. We need to be supportive of our troops and of our commitment. 
Our goals are lofty, and the road, of course, has not been easy and 
will not be easy in the future. There will be tough times before we are 
through. But we must remain resolute and be sure the job is completed 
and that we win. Because only by fostering freedom and democracy and 
hope in these oppressed regions of the world can we truly root out and 
defeat the terrorist threat we have faced and continue to face today.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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