[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 20]
[House]
[Pages 27490-27491]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  TROOPS IN IRAQ AND DIRE CONSEQUENCES

  Mr. FRANKS of Arizona. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to take 
the Special Order time of the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Burton).
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Arizona?
  There was no objection.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Franks) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. FRANKS of Arizona. Mr. Speaker, it has been a meaningful and 
historic night. But it still deeply concerns me that there are Members 
of this body that have been constantly misinforming the public about 
pre-war intelligence on Iraq and demanding timetables for troop 
withdrawal. They seem to be wholly unaware of the dire consequences of 
even talking about pulling our troops out, let alone demanding it.
  Our brave men and women in uniform have always fought desperately to 
preserve those unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of 
happiness endowed by the Creator Himself. And that is exactly what they 
are doing now in Iraq, and we should all be deeply grateful for that.
  Mr. Speaker, one of the things that I am so desperately worried about 
is whether the people in this body and in this Republic truly 
understand what we are facing, not only as a Nation, but as Western 
Civilization.
  The question we must ask ourselves is not whether we can win this 
war. We must win this war. The question now is what will happen if we 
do not.
  Mr. Speaker, I am so concerned that this Nation does not yet 
understand that we are at war with an ideology, an ideology that 
threatens the existence of the Free World. This war did not begin on 9/
11. This war began many years ago when certain Muslim extremists 
embraced a divergent Islamist dogma that dictates that all infidels 
must die.
  Our Nation was first attacked during its very early beginnings in the 
late 1700s by the Barbary terrorists of the day. More recently, we were 
attacked in 1979 in Iran. Our embassy and our marine barracks were 
attacked in Beirut in 1983. The first World Trade Center attack was in 
1993, Mr. Speaker; and we still did not wake up to what was happening 
at the time. Our military complexes and soldiers have been targeted 
throughout the world. The Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia in 1996. Our 
embassies were blown up in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. We witnessed the 
attack on the USS Cole in 2000. Mr. Speaker, 1 year later on September 
11, terrorists murdered nearly 3,000 American civilians on our own 
soil, and I wonder tonight have we forgotten that.
  Since then our soldiers and our contractors have been kidnapped and 
executed, their bodies mutilated and dragged through the streets.
  And we are not alone, Mr. Speaker. This has taken place throughout 
the world. In Serbia and Bosnia, soldiers, POWs, and civilians were 
beheaded by mujahideen. In Beslan, Russia, 186 children and 158 
teachers and parents were slaughtered in a terrorist assault against a 
grade school. And just weeks ago, Mr. Speaker, in Indonesia, three 
young girls on their way to school were attacked and beheaded by Muslim 
extremists. Their names, Mr. Speaker, their names were Theresia, Ida, 
and Alfrita.
  Churches are being attacked. Pastors have been kidnapped, tortured, 
and beheaded. And it seems there is not a day that goes by without a 
suicide or a car bomb attack in Iraq.
  We have witnessed the horrific bombings in Spain, London, Indonesia, 
Jordan, and Israel. Rioters have completely disrupted hundreds of 
cities in France.
  We simply cannot deny that we are fighting a war against enemies with 
an evil ideology that is bent on the destruction of the Western World. 
They are committed to killing us, Mr. Speaker, and any others that hold 
in their mind to be infidels.
  Mr. Speaker, we truly are at war, and to undermine the sacrifice and 
blood-bought advancement of our valiant American soldiers who are at 
this very moment fighting terrorists in Iraq and across the world is 
unconscionable.
  A nation divided against itself simply cannot stand, Mr. Speaker. And 
those of us in this body, along with all Americans, must unite against 
this evil. We must win the war in Iraq. We must give our troops 
unequivocal support and everything else in our power to help them 
finish this job. Our troops have never failed us, and we must not fail 
them.
  Mr. Speaker, if freedom is to survive, to allow Islamist terrorists 
to declare war and victory in Iraq is not an option. We must win and we 
cannot leave before the job is done. Because if we leave too soon, Mr. 
Speaker, we will not be able to go on with our daily

[[Page 27491]]

lives as we once did. Because the world has truly changed. And those 
without conscience are relentlessly seeking to destroy us, and we must 
not let them ever have even the slightest hope of victory. Not ever, 
Mr. Speaker.

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