[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 18]
[House]
[Page 25018]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 WHY ARE WE FIGHTING THE WAR ON TERROR?

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of 
January 4, 2005, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Stearns) is recognized 
during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. STEARNS. Mr. Speaker, 2 weeks ago, President Bush addressed a 
Virginia audience, vowing no letup in the war on terror. He 
acknowledged we have rocky roads ahead but we will not falter. The 
President said, ``Tyrants and would-be tyrants have always claimed that 
murder is justified to serve their grand vision and they end up 
alienating decent people across the globe.'' And he said, ``And tyrants 
and would-be tyrants have always claimed that free men and women are 
weak and decadent, until the day that free men and women defeat them.''
  Mr. Speaker, why did he say this? For what exactly are we fighting is 
the question. On Saturday, October 29, 2005, in India, explosions 
rocked two New Delhi markets, killing almost 60 people. Although Indian 
officials appeared hesitant to immediately place blame, Pakistan-based 
Islamic militants have been suspected in these bombings. Possibly, as 
some Indian analysts and newspapers have suggested, these are 
Pakistani-based groups fighting to wrest Kashmir from India.
  Meanwhile, in Jakarta, Indonesia, that same day, seven assailants 
attacked a group of high school girls walking through a cocoa 
plantation on their way to class in Indonesia's tense province of 
Central Sulawesi, beheading three and seriously wounding a fourth. The 
girls were from a private Christian high school. Indonesia is the 
world's most populous Muslim nation. But Central Sulawesi has a roughly 
equal number of Muslims and Christians, and sectarian violence. The 
province witnessed such a bloodly war in 2001-2002 that killed around 
1,000 people from both communities. At the time, beheadings, burnings 
and other atrocities were common.
  Last week, a grateful Nation paid respects and laid to rest a woman 
who had the courage to practice her convictions, Rosa Parks. In great 
part, thanks to her understated fight for freedom, we can take for 
granted in this country our civil liberties. One of the most 
fundamental of these, of course, is the simple freedom to worship. 
However, the irony of our Nation being touched by such a peacefully 
resolute woman being an agent of change with nothing more than the word 
``no'' the same weekend we witness these alternative, violent ways of 
objecting to our fellow man by these Islamic fundamentalist terrorist 
practices is not lost on me.
  As did Rosa Parks, thousands of individuals today around the world 
want to practice their civil rights in the name of freedom of worship, 
perhaps in a faith not held by their nation's leaders. We want to 
practice Christianity, or Judaism, or Buddhism, or observe no religion 
at all, yet there are some people who just cannot stand this, who 
absolutely refuse to allow us this 
opportunity. The Web site www.persecution.org, a Web site that tracks 
human rights and persecution of people for choosing to simply practice 
their Christian faith, reported on October 6 that 53-year-old Pamilton 
Tadoa, a member of the Tabernakel Pentecostal Church in Indonesia, was 
shot in the head and killed in the area of Poso while he road his 
motorbike to school where he served as a treasurer. His death raised 
fears of a new Islamic crackdown on evangelicals in Indonesia, where 
10,000 Christians died between 1998 and 2003 at the hands of extreme 
Islamic jihad warriors, according to human rights group Open Doors. 
About 1,000 churches were burned down by Islamic mobs, Open Door said 
in that report.
  Some ask why are we at war? Why are we fighting this war on terror? 
Because this is how some people in the world continue to settle their 
differences. Our Nation faces angrily squabbling, fighting mad, groups 
and individuals who are diametrically opposed to one another, but it 
seldom rises to the level of bloodshed. We settle our differences at 
the ballot box, here in Congress, not with car bombs; through media 
exposure, not machete swipes. If one cannot see that continued 
civilization itself is in danger, I don't know what else can persuade 
you.
  Twenty-six years ago last Friday, November 4, 1979, Islamic 
terrorists took hostages in Tehran. This is how some people in the 
world address disputes: They take hostages. They push old men in 
wheelchairs over ship rails into the sea, the Achille Lauro example. 
They behead little girls. They strap dynamite to their children and 
send these innocent children to detonate clusters of fellow innocent 
citizens. They bomb nightclubs, subways, pillars of commerce and 
symbols of freedom. As long as people reign who cannot live peacefully, 
the war on terror must press on for the safety of all of us.

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