[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 13]
[House]
[Pages 17195-17200]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           NATIONAL SECURITY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 4, 2005, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Carter) is recognized 
for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. CARTER. Mr. Speaker, we have had a month here in August where we 
have gone back home and talked to folks back home and visited with 
them, and we are moving forward on issues that are vital to America. 
But nothing is more vital to the United States of America than its 
national security.
  So I rise this evening to discuss with my colleagues and my neighbors 
the view that I am a little concerned about and want to talk about on 
the issue of national security. National security, the term itself, has 
a broad umbrella. It has an umbrella that we have a lot of historical 
experience to look at.
  I am an old history buff. I like history. I study history. I think we 
learn lessons from history. I think when we forget history, we forget 
lessons we have learned, sometimes the hard way.
  So, tonight, I want to talk a little bit about the national security 
of the United States today and compare that national security to a 
little bit of our history, and then also to discuss a little bit about 
what our response is, how we are now viewing our lives that we live in 
this country in light of national security. Now, national security 
means, are we secure as a Nation in the scope of our world, which means 
we have to think about our own common defense, promoting our own 
general welfare, the things that our founders talked about. That is 
part of it.
  National security is securing our Nation's borders, and this debate 
has been ongoing now in this Congress for quite some time concerning 
our Nation's borders, and we may talk a little bit about that tonight.

                              {time}  2030

  But I think that anyone who establishes a nation, and of course I 
believe

[[Page 17196]]

with my whole heart our Founders, when they established our Nation, had 
in mind securing our lives in the United States of America by 
protecting the life, liberty, and property of Americans.
  And they had in mind when those who would do us harm would put the 
life, liberty, or property of Americans at risk, that we would have the 
resources with which to protect those citizens and their holdings.
  In our recent memory, and I was actually born 1 month, I am going to 
show my age here, 1 month before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on 
December 7, so I am a prewar human being by 1 month. Almost 1 month to 
a day. I want to look at that event and how our Nation responded to 
that event.
  On December 7, 1941, the Imperial Navy of Japan attacked the United 
States of America basically from the air. They killed 2,402 Americans, 
57 of them were civilians and 2,345 were Americans who were in the 
service. They attacked our military with their military all in uniform. 
It was a dastardly sneak attack. The American citizens were irate.
  But what is kind of interesting, that particular day my dad tells the 
story, that was the first day under the way doctors looked at babies 
that people could visit the new baby. So on December 7, 1941, a group 
of friends came to my house to see me as a 1-month-old baby.
  When this was announced on the radio, the first question they asked 
was, where is Pearl Harbor? When they found out American citizens were 
attacked, American soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines were attacked, 
the American public was irate. The next day we went to war with Japan 
by declaration of this Congress. We followed that by going to war with 
Germany and Italy, supporters, allies of Japan, people who had the same 
agenda.
  The American public went wholeheartedly into that war. They suffered 
things on the homefront. A whole lot of women had to take men's jobs on 
the assembly line so men could go to war. They rationed gasoline and 
food. They rationed sugar. They rationed lots of things. The American 
public saved scrap iron and they got involved in selling war bonds. 
They supported our soldiers as our soldiers went to war.
  On the 11th day of September, 9/11 as we call it, 2001, a group of 
people attacked the United States of America again. These people didn't 
wear uniforms. These people didn't attack a military target. Well, sort 
of. Their last attack was on the Pentagon, but their initial attack was 
a civilian target, a symbol of international freedom and economy. The 
total number of United States citizens killed that day was 3,025, the 
vast majority of whom were civilians, not military soldiers, sailors, 
airmen and marines; and they were not attacked by someone's army. They 
were totally and completely sneak attacked on 9/11 to kill innocent 
American civilians who had done absolutely no imaginable harm to the 
people who attacked them.
  You know, this Congress gathered on the steps of the Capitol in a 
very touching moment and sang ``God Bless America,'' Republicans and 
Democrats alike. For 48 hours this country was united, and we sit there 
and say that is when it all started. Actually, that is not when it all 
started.
  Actually, if you want to go back a little bit, you can look at this 
same ideology, if you will, related groups of people attacked the 
embassy in Baghdad in 1983, attacked the Marines barracks in Lebanon in 
1983 killing an additional 242 and 120 in those two attacks; hijacked a 
TWA airplane, the Pan Am 103 bombing; the first World Trade Center 
bombing in 1993; attempted assassination of President George H.W. Bush; 
the Khobar Towers bombing in 1996; the embassy bombing in east Africa 
in 1998; and the USS Cole bombing in 2000, followed by an attack on our 
country for a total of American citizens killed of 4,037. And we were 
really upset about it. But who sacrificed? Where are we in the support 
of enemies who would bring down our Nation? That is something I find 
very curious.
  Tonight I heard some of my colleagues, my Democrat colleagues over 
here, saying the Iraqi war is wrong. They had nothing to do with 9/11.
  Well, the first people we whipped in the Second World War were the 
Italians. They had nothing to do with Pearl Harbor. And the second 
group of people we whipped in the Second World War was the Germans. 
They had nothing to do with Pearl Harbor by their definition, but they 
lent allied support to the country that attacked this country. How can 
they argue when Saddam Hussein paid $25,000 to every terrorist family 
that attacked the United States of America? How can they say they were 
not aiding and abetting our enemies?
  The President of the United States said something I thought was 
right. He said: Folks, you are either with us or you are against us. If 
you are helping our enemies, you are our enemies.
  Now, sort of like the Monday morning quarterback at a football game, 
and I know about that, it is fun to sit in the stands and watch 
everybody second-guess your kid, all of a sudden we have people who 
knew all along, even though President Clinton thought they had weapons 
of mass destruction and said so publicly, those in his administration 
said the same thing, all indications were that they did, and the 
British intelligence, along with others around the world confirmed that 
they thought that they had the potential to get to the hands of 
terrorists weapons of mass destruction. But in addition, they aided and 
abetted through at least a $25,000 reward to aid the terrorists who 
attacked us, our enemies.
  The Germans didn't do that and neither did the Italians, and yet we 
had to take care of those who would bring down our Nation. This 
Congress, the government in 1941, recognized the threat to the United 
States and knew that national security required us to get rid of the 
evil that was coming after our Nation.
  Mr. Speaker, that evil is still out there in this war we are fighting 
right now. You know what, we have been successful, very successful in 
taking down an awful lot of evil people. And we have used tools that 
are constitutional and legal to maintain our national security.
  Our intelligence network had been gutted in the 1980s and in the 
1990s. And all of a sudden we are all very critical of our intelligence 
network. But if you go back and look at the history of our intelligence 
network, we basically took the on-the-ground resources out of the hands 
of our intelligence people. We have had to replace those. We have had 
to do a lot of hard work communicating. We have the best electronics in 
the world, but our human resources were lacking.
  But that doesn't excuse the fact that we have an enemy who as 
recently as about 3 weeks ago was planning on blowing up, the estimate 
is nine or ten, airplanes headed to the United States with American 
citizens on board, with us the target, with our airline industry the 
target. And thank goodness for good British intelligence and 
information-gathering by the Brits that they were able to stop this 
from happening.
  But it tells us something. I am not trying to scare anybody. It tells 
us commitment counts. Here tonight we have heard some of my Democrat 
colleagues say we need a new strategy in the Middle East. We need to 
pull our troops out of Iraq and do it today. A passionate plea to the 
President, Mr. President, pull back the troops.
  You know, if you read about the battles, and I use as an example the 
Civil War, sometimes those people bashed each other for 3 or 4 days to 
a bloody pulp. But when one army left the field, the other side was the 
victor. The Battle of Gettysburg, which was probably the turning point 
in the war, when the Confederate Army left the field, the Union Army 
was the victor. That is the definition.
  I would propose, we are talking about a battle in Iraq and 
Afghanistan. The war is worldwide, but the battles are in Afghanistan 
and Iraq. Hopefully, that is the only place we will have to fight.
  Mr. Speaker, if we retire from the field, it is a victory for evil, 
evil that wishes to bring down the United States of America. It is the 
wrong thing to do.

[[Page 17197]]

  I hesitate to talk about this, but it is something that concerns me. 
We are constantly examining ourselves and looking at our warts, but 
whenever evil is defined by our enemies, we say it is just too bad to 
talk about. Has anybody thought about the fact that American guys who 
were just working for a living trying to help rebuild Iraq got 
kidnapped and their heads sawed off with an 8-inch knife? Has anybody 
thought about that? Because it was so gruesome we didn't see it on 
television, thank God. That horrible incident alone ought to inflame 
Americans against our enemies. Don't we care any more about the safety 
of American citizens around the world? Aren't we willing to stand up 
and say we are not going to tolerate this?
  We have some fine people in this country who are willing to do that. 
God bless each and every one of them. That is the American soldier, 
sailor, airman, marine and Coast Guard. It is unsafe right now. Because 
of kidnappings and decapitations and murder and terror around the 
world, it is unsafe for Americans. We have a bunch of people walking 
around Afghanistan and Iraq flying the American flag on their 
shoulders. They are not afraid. They are standing up for what it takes 
to win the war on terrorism, the war on Islamic fascism. And even a 
better definition, the war on evil. When you do what they did to these 
contractors, when you do something like that to a human being, the 
whole world, but especially the United States of America, ought to be 
fighting mad.
  Mr. Speaker, I think that in our hearts we know that we have to 
confront evil where it is and we have to do hard jobs. You know, 
somebody said in 3 years there has been no progress. Once again I went 
back to my thoughts about history. I said, okay, we were bombed in 1941 
and we landed on the beaches at Normandy on June 6, 1944. So that very 
argument could have been made in this House on the Second World War in 
the spring of 1944. We have been fighting 3 years, and we have made 
relatively no progress because we haven't gotten after the Germans 
where they are. We had to fight the Italians, we had to fight in North 
Africa, and we had to fight the Japanese. We were still fighting the 
Germans, and we have made no progress against the people who attacked 
us.
  But that is not how our fathers and grandfathers and great 
grandfathers felt about this country. They were in it to get it done. 
That is why they are the Greatest Generation. That is why we talk about 
them as the Greatest Generation.
  You can sit around and make excuses, and you can get in folks' faces 
on things, and you can put politics before country.

                              {time}  2045

  But, Mr. Speaker, this is not about politics. This is about the 
safety of this country.
  I think we have got a lot to be proud of. I think we have done a lot 
of good. We have revitalized an intelligence group that is doing the 
job, accomplishing the mission, getting us good intelligence. It is 
substantially, substantially better than what we inherited and what we 
started with. But I think that there are some fuzzy thinking people out 
there that have got strange ideas about what entitles our enemy, for 
instance, to sue us in court. That is fuzzy thinking.
  The American people know what is right and what is wrong. The 
American people do not need to be scared because they know whatever the 
United States of America sets its mind to it gets done. And I think 
that is really the message that we have got.
  We have increased funding for our intelligence community. We have got 
all of our law enforcement communities talking to each other now and 
sharing information. We have poured $30 billion into our first 
responders so that we are ready to protect our homeland. This House has 
passed a bill to address the border, and hopefully, we will get that 
bill passed and written into law, and we will work out all of the 
issues that involve immigration and work them out in a way that they 
will be manageable and we can do what is right for all the people of 
the United States. But we first have got to defend our borders.
  Mr. Speaker, this is national security. It is a big picture. And it 
is one we have to be concerned about. We have to realize that the only 
realistic thing for us to do is to continue to support our soldiers as 
they do a very tough job. I have the only two division posts in the 
entire world in my district. No one has more compassion for those young 
men and women that go to war, on their third rotation now. We are 
getting the 4th Infantry Division back early this fall, and we have got 
the 1st Cav going back again. And it is hard. But do you know what? 
Those soldiers know that they are doing their duty, and they are doing 
what they have to do and they are doing what it takes to keep our 
Nation secure.
  I am confident, Mr. Speaker, that we will examine each and every day 
in light of protecting the American citizen wherever he may be, and 
that is what national security is all about. I am confident the 
American people will give us the resources. I am confident that this 
government will do the right thing to protect Americans.
  I have got colleagues here that have joined me, and I am going to ask 
Mr. Gingrey from Georgia, one of my best friends in this Congress, to 
talk to us a little bit about this issue. I yield to the gentleman.
  Mr. GINGREY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. And, 
indeed, it is a pleasure to be here tonight, Mr. Speaker, with my good 
friend Judge Carter. We are about the same age, and he was giving us a 
little bit of a history lesson, much better than I can, in regard to 
some of the things that went on with our Greatest Generation in 
defending this country in World War II, and I think that some of these 
statistics are so telling, the things that Judge Carter talked about in 
regard to, of course, that day that will live in infamy, December 7, 
1941. And, of course, I am referencing again, as he did, Pearl Harbor. 
I think Judge Carter mentioned that something like 2,400 of our sailors 
and airmen and a lot of civilian workers were killed that Sunday 
morning, a day of rest, a day of worship. An unprovoked attack. And the 
very next day, as John Carter pointed out, this Congress declared war 
against imperial Japan for this dastardly act, this unprovoked sneak 
attack on that early Sunday morning.
  Here again we think back now, and next Monday, 5 days from now, will 
be the fifth anniversary of an attack that was just as unprovoked and 
just as dastardly as Pearl Harbor and resulted actually in the loss of 
a greater number of lives. Something above 3,000 innocent men and women 
were killed in the Twin Towers attacks of September 11, 2001.
  And as I think about the numbers, and we are all very saddened when 
we read in the newspaper that another of our brave young soldiers has 
either been injured or killed in Iraq, maybe by one of these improvised 
explosive devices, and we are getting beyond the 3-year anniversary. We 
are more than 3 years engaged in that battle, and the number is 
something like 2,470 killed.
  Mr. Speaker, I remind my colleagues on both sides of the aisle and 
the American people that in the battle of Iwo Jima, we lost 7,000 of 
our Greatest Generation in 30 days; 7,000 to secure that strategic 
island in the mid-Pacific. That was a tremendous price for our Greatest 
Generation to pay. But we didn't hear Members of Congress telling 
President Roosevelt, well, that is too high a price, and we need to 
bring the troops home. We need to come back and batten down the hatches 
and cut our losses. I could say the same thing to my colleagues about 
the Battle of the Bulge, as tough as that was. Representative Carter 
referenced some Civil War battles, Antietam, Gettysburg. When the going 
gets tough, the tough don't leave. The tough fight back. And that was 
what happened in the Battle of the Bulge. That was what happened on the 
island of Iwo Jima where that famous flag was raised on Mount 
Suribachi. We cannot afford to cut and run. I am not saying that my 
colleagues on the other side of the aisle are necessarily advocating 
that, but certainly some of the rhetoric sounds a lot like that, Mr. 
Speaker, and I think

[[Page 17198]]

the American people are hearing that. But even worse, our soldiers that 
are doing the fighting and the dying and the suffering on our behalf 
are hearing it.
  One of our colleagues on the other side of the aisle a few minutes 
ago was talking about what things that President Bush should have known 
and how he should have responded even before 
9/11. And as I listened, Mr. Speaker, I heard him talk about the United 
States embassies in East Africa; the attack on the USS Cole, where I 
think 17 of our soldiers were killed there; the first attack on the 
World Trade Center in the early 1990s; the Khobar Towers bombing. Well, 
I would remind my colleagues on the other side of the aisle that that 
was under the administration of one William Jefferson Clinton, a 
Democratic President, where basically the response was the bombing of 
an aspirin factory in Sudan, and I think maybe one janitor was injured 
a little bit in that bomb attack. That was the kind of response we got 
from them.
  The bottom line is you cannot continue to dare and double-dog dare 
and triple-dog dare and draw lines in the sand that you ignore, and 
that was what led us to this situation and that culminated in 9/11.
  This President responded. This President had the guts, if you will 
pardon my Georgia slang, to stand up and get permission from Congress, 
just as President Roosevelt did on December 8, 1941, and declared war 
on these people that were responsible for that attack.
  And I will just take a couple of minutes more, and then I will turn 
it back over to my colleagues and the gentleman from Tennessee for his 
remarks. The President was just speaking to the Reserve Officers 
Association a couple days ago, and this is what he said and this is, so 
telling, Mr. Speaker. And I quote:
  ``The experience of September 11th made clear, in the long run, the 
only way to secure our Nation is to change the course of the Middle 
East. So America has committed its influence in the world to advancing 
freedom and liberty and democracy as the great alternatives to 
repression and radicalism. We're taking the side of democratic leaders 
and moderates and reformers across the Middle East. We strongly support 
the voices of tolerance and moderation in the Muslim world. We're 
standing with Afghanistan's elected government against al Qaeda and the 
Taliban remnants that are trying to restore tyranny in that country. 
We're also standing with Lebanon's young democracy against the foreign 
forces that are seeking to undermine the country's sovereignty and 
independence. And we're standing with the leaders of Iraq's unity 
government as they work to defeat the enemies of freedom and chart a 
more hopeful course for their people. This is why victory is so 
important in Iraq. By helping freedom succeed in Iraq, we will help 
America, and the Middle East, and the world become more secure.''
  I cannot improve on that, Mr. Speaker. I think the President said it 
well.
  I thank God that we have a President that has the moral character and 
the intestinal strength to fight when we need to fight, to lead us, as 
President Roosevelt did, in that war that our Greatest Generation 
fought.
  So I am really proud to be here and share a little time with my 
colleagues. I thank Congressman John Carter for leading this hour and 
giving me an opportunity to discuss such a vital issue as this with my 
colleagues.
  Mr. CARTER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his comments.
  At this time I will yield to my colleague from Tennessee, Mr. Zach 
Wamp.
  Mr. WAMP. Thank you, Judge Carter, for yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, I just want to, as I begin, stand, as I think virtually 
everyone in this Chamber would do, and thank the men and women in 
uniform who volunteered to serve because whatever that call is that our 
commander-in-chief deems in our national interest and the Congress 
supports the actions for, they are the ones standing in harm's way. 
They are the ones willing to make the sacrifice.
  Over this August district work period, like many of my colleagues, I 
spent a lot of time with the men and women in uniform from my home 
State. The 196th Field Artillery Brigade just got back from a year in 
Afghanistan. I welcomed them home, and then I traveled to Nashville to 
spend several hours with them and their families, going through the 
slide slows and listening to the success of their mission there. And I 
am so very proud that they would volunteer to serve and that they would 
be willing to step up.
  So I begin today just by honoring them, and I know the House stands 
behind them. But where we are seeing some confusion is the messages 
that are coming out across the country here in the middle of a very 
divisive election year that, frankly, are at best mixed messages to our 
troops in the field and, at the very worst, not helpful at all. And I 
really hate that because I know that the Greatest Generation who set 
the standard for sacrifice and courage in our country would want us to 
attempt to work through our sometimes petty division and right now 
political division to stand at the waters' edge united against this 
threat. And there are people in this country who, frankly, do not want 
to acknowledge it. The Wall Street Journal editorialized last week and 
called it an ``aversion to conflict,'' meaning that there are people in 
this country that just do not want to be bothered. They do not want to 
accept the fact that these threats are real.
  I also spent all of August reading, and I would encourage people to 
read ``Londonistan,'' how the radical Islamists, the jihadists, the 
people who are literally waging war and believe that death is the only 
end, are spreading like wildfire through Great Britain and Europe, 
through the mosque, and radicalization is taking place so fast that we 
need to wake up as a Nation.

                              {time}  2100

  I have been here 12 years. But sometimes I feel like Paul Revere. 
When you know something in your heart, you better not be quiet about 
it. You better speak out about it. The gentleman from Texas and I serve 
on the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee.
  For 4 years, we have had the detailed briefings of some of these 
threats. And while we cannot speak of some things, we know that 
Hezbollah is the A Team in terrorism around the world. Al Qaeda has 
been seriously hit by us. We have dismantled a lot of their operations. 
We have killed Zarqawi. We have had a lot of success.
  But Hezbollah now has reared its ugly head in a way that threatens 
the entire free world. And they want, by their own charter and 
definition, the destruction of Israel and Christians. That is the 
truth. That is in their charter.
  I would encourage you to read ``While Europe Slept,'' about the rest 
of Europe and the radicalization that is taking place there, and be 
sensitive to what is happening in northern Africa where just this week 
we finally established a U.S. command. Why? Because Somalia is at risk. 
I was there last summer in eastern Africa. I came back and talked about 
the problems that we face with the potential of the terrorist networks 
and the jihadists looking for a vacuum in leadership, the Sudan, 
Somalia, Algeria, where they can go in and find another sovereign 
nation from which to operate like they had in Afghanistan.
  That was one of the great successes of removing Saddam Hussein, as we 
took Iraq out of the picture of having a sovereign nation from which 
the terrorists could operate. But this war has not gone perfectly.
  But as Senator McCain said 2 weeks ago on ``Meet the Press,'' no war 
we have ever fought went perfectly. We have never entered a war and not 
made mistakes. Of course mistakes have been made. That is the essence 
of war.
  But I am reminded of what John Stuart Mill said about war. This is 
where the veterans come in, our troops in the field. He said: ``War is 
an ugly thing. But it is not the ugliest of things. The decayed and 
degraded state of moral and patriotic feelings which thinks that 
nothing is worth war is much worse.''
  He said: ``A person who has nothing for which they are willing to 
fight,

[[Page 17199]]

nothing they care more about than their own personal safety, is a 
miserable creature, who has no chance of ever being free unless those 
very freedoms are made and kept by better persons than himself.''
  And those better persons, men and women of the House, Mr. Speaker, 
are our Nation's veterans. Our sons and daughters and friends and 
relatives that are in harm's way today looking back asking, often to 
each other, does this country stand behind us? Does the elected 
leadership of the United States Congress believe in this mission? Will 
we be successful or will we go home early?
  Those are serious questions of war and peace, of freedom or tyranny, 
whether or not there is ever going to be a hope of us instilling some 
democratic systems in a part of the world that frankly is breeding hate 
and destruction directed right at us.
  The chronology that you have heard some of today was articulated well 
by a U.S. Navy captain in Pensacola, Florida. I want to read it into 
the Record, and then submit it for the Record. It takes a minute, but 
this really capsulizes the threats we face that some people are in 
denial of, and some people do not want to acknowledge that this is 
worse than it was on September 11 in terms of the global proportions of 
the terrorist networks, the jihadists working together.
  Hamas, Hezbollah, al Qaeda, it is growing. But it did not just start. 
He writes: ``It was a cool fall day in November 1979 in a country going 
through a religious and political upheaval when a group of Iranian 
students attacked and seized the American embassy in Tehran.
  ``The seizure was an outright attack on American soil. It was an 
attack that held the world's most powerful country hostage and 
paralyzed a Presidency. The attack on the sovereign U.S. embassy set 
the stage for events to follow for the next 25 years.
  ``America was still reeling from the aftermath of the Vietnam 
experience and had a serious threat from the Soviet Union when then 
President Carter had to do something. He chose to conduct a clandestine 
raid in the desert. The ill-fated mission ended in ruin, but stood as a 
symbol of America's inability to deal with terrorism. America's 
military had been decimated and downsized or right-sized since the end 
of the Vietnam war.
  ``A poorly trained, poorly equipped, and poorly organized military 
was called on to execute a complex mission that was doomed from the 
start. Shortly after the Tehran Experience, Americans began to be 
kidnapped and killed throughout the Middle East. America could do 
little to protect her citizens living and working abroad. The attacks 
against U.S. soil continued.
  ``In April of 1983, a large vehicle packed with high explosives was 
driven into the U.S. embassy compound in Beirut. When it exploded, it 
killed 63 people. The alarm went off and America hit the snooze button 
once again.
  ``Then just 6 short months later, in 1983, a large truck heavily 
laden down with over 2,500 pounds of TNT smashed through the main gate 
of the U.S. Marine Corps headquarters in Beirut, and 241 U.S. 
servicemen were killed.
  ``America mourned her dead and hit the snooze button once more. Two 
months later, in December of 1983, another truck loaded with explosives 
was driven into the U.S. embassy in Kuwait, and America continued her 
slumber. The following year, in September of 1984, another van was 
driven into the gate of the U.S. embassy in Beirut, and America slept.
  ``Soon the terrorism spread to Europe. In April 1985, a bomb exploded 
in a restaurant frequented by U.S. soldiers in Madrid. Then in August 
of 1985, a Volkswagen loaded with explosives was driven into the main 
gate of the U.S. Air Force base Rhein-Main. Twenty-two were killed and 
the snooze alarm was buzzing louder and louder as U.S. interests were 
continually attacked.
  ``Fifty-nine days later, in 1985, a cruise ship, the Achille Lauro, 
was hijacked as we watched an American in a wheel chair singled out 
from the passenger list and executed.
  ``The terrorists then shifted their tactics to bombing civilian 
airlines when they bombed TWA Flight 840 in April of 1986 that killed 
four, and the most tragic bombing, Pam Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, 
Scotland, in 1988, killing 259.
  ``President Clinton treated these terrorist acts as crimes. In fact, 
we are still trying to bring these people to trial. These were acts of 
war. The wake-up alarm was getting louder and louder. The terrorists 
decided to bring the fight to America. In January 1993, two CIA agents 
were shot and killed as they entered CIA headquarters in Langley, 
Virginia. The following month, February, 1993, a group of terrorists 
were arrested after a rented van, packed with explosives, was driven 
into the underground parking garage of the World Trade Center in New 
York City. Six people were killed and 1,000 injured.
  ``Still, this was a crime and not an act of war. The snooze alarm was 
depressed again. Then in November, 1995, a car bomb exploded at a U.S. 
military complex in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, killing seven servicemen and 
-women. A few months later, in June of 1996, another truck bomb 
exploded, only 35 yards from the U.S. military compound in Dhahran, 
Saudi Arabia. It destroyed the Khobar Towers, a U.S. Air Force 
barracks, killing 19 and injuring over 500.
  ``The terrorists were getting braver and smarter as they saw that 
America did not respond decisively. They moved to coordinate their 
attacks in a simultaneous attack on two U.S. embassies in Kenya and 
Tanzania, where I was. These attacks were planned with precision. They 
killed 224 people.
  ``America responded with cruise missile attacks and went back to 
sleep. The USS Cole was docked in a port in Yemen for refueling on 
October 12, 2000 when a small craft pulled alongside the ship and 
exploded, killing 17 U.S. Navy sailors. Attacking a U.S. warship is an 
act of war, but we sent the FBI to investigate the crime and went back 
to sleep.
  ``And of course you know the events of September 11, 2001. Most 
Americans think this was the first attack against U.S. soil or in 
America. How wrong they are. America has been under a constant attack 
since 1979 and we chose to hit the snooze alarm and roll over and go 
back to sleep.''
  Now, this was written by a U.S. Navy captain currently serving. This 
was his speech to a group. I submit it for the Record. You can take 
issue with that. But that is a chronology of what has happened. These 
threats are real and they are building, they are growing.
  Ladies and gentlemen, when Zarqawi wrote a letter to Zawahari before 
we killed him, he said, use the infidel's, us, presence in the Middle 
East, Iraq, to expand the califate from Morocco to Indonesia. Morocco 
is in northern Africa. It is in northwest Africa. Indonesia is way over 
here, east of Saudi Arabia and the Middle East.
  The califate is frankly jihadist rule, expanding their territory. 
This is an aggressive plan, documented by their own words. People can 
deny this if they want to, but I got to tell you, our generation has 
been called to many, many challenges. And since the Greatest Generation 
set the standard for sacrifice and commitment, we have had it really 
easy in this country.
  But we need to be honest with the American people. It is not going to 
be easy in the coming years at all. We are very fortunate we have not 
been struck again. We are kidding ourselves if we do not think they are 
planning another attack. We are kidding ourselves if we think that this 
problem will go away if we pull out of Iraq.
  What will happen is it will give them momentum. It will cause them to 
recruit more jihadists and more suicide bombers, because they will see 
us in retreat. That is the truth. This problem is not going away. This 
problem did not just start either. It has been building. We just did 
not get serious enough about it until they actually took the Towers 
down, which they tried to do 8 years earlier, but their engineering was 
flawed and it did not work. That is when they wanted them to come down.
  Ladies and gentlemen of the House, Mr. Speaker, we have an obligation 
to try our best to meet at the water's

[[Page 17200]]

edge. I want these volunteer troops and the Guard and Reserve and 
active duty to see us united around this issue.
  This is our call. This is so important. Our way of life is worth 
defending. Everybody is going to have their role. They say, oh, well, 
you are not over there serving. Everybody has got a role to play. The 
Greatest Generation, ``Rosie the Riveter'' was the spouse who stayed 
and worked in the factories and raised the kids so the men could serve. 
And they were people on the floor of this House standing with those 
troops. We need to do it again.
  I will be glad when the next 62 days are over so this is not as much 
about politics as it is about doing what is right for the men and women 
in uniform, and for global security because the world is looking to us 
for leadership. And I am also grateful that we have had consistent and 
decisive hard-nosed Texas-tough leadership in the White House.
  Because this is not a time for wimps. This is a time for us to be 
consistent and be resolute. The President has got a big heart. I have 
been with him when he has talked about the families of these troops and 
there were tears rolling down his face. He understands the sacrifice. 
He would never, ever put any person in harm's way unless he knew deep 
in his soul that it is in our national interest and we have to do this. 
Freedom is not free. We hear that so much we think, oh, that is just 
what the politicians say.
  The sacrifices of the generation before us hang in the balance today. 
Are we going to rise to meet this or not? We have got to keep talking 
about it too. Even though we are in an election, this is about the free 
world and our leadership, whether or not we are going to stand with our 
allies, whether or not the people in Europe and across the world look 
to us for leadership or put their hope in organizations like the United 
Nations that have proved ineffective and today grossly corrupt.
  The coalition of the willing are the only people willing to do it 
today, us and our allies, and tyranny and terrorism is on the rise. 
Let's not bury our head in the sand.

                        When WWIII Started--1979

       It was a cool fall day in November 1979 in a country going 
     through a religious and political upheaval when a group of 
     Iranian students attacked and seized the American Embassy in 
     Tehran. The seizure was an outright attack on American soil; 
     it was an attack that held the world's most powerful country 
     hostage and paralyzed a presidency. The attack on this 
     sovereign U.S. embassy set the stage for events to follow for 
     the next 25 years.
       America was still reeling from the aftermath of the Viet 
     Nam experience and had a serious threat from the Soviet Union 
     when then, President Carter, had to do something. He chose to 
     conduct a clandestine raid in the desert. The ill-fated 
     mission ended in ruin, but stood as a symbol of America's 
     inability to deal with terrorism.
       America's military has been decimated and down sized/right 
     sized since the end of the Viet Nam war. A poorly trained, 
     poorly equipped and poorly organized military was called on 
     to execute a complex mission that was doomed from the start.
       Shortly after the Tehran experience, Americans began to be 
     kidnapped and killed throughout the Middle East. America 
     could do little to protect her citizens living and working 
     abroad. The attacks against U.S. soil continued.
       In April of 1983, a large vehicle packed with high 
     explosives was driven into the U.S. Embassy compound in 
     Beirut. When it exploded, it killed 63 people. The alarm went 
     off again and America hit the snooze button once more.
       Then just six short months later in 1983 a large truck 
     heavily laden down with over 2500 pounds of TNT smashed 
     through the main gate of the U.S. Marine Corps headquarters 
     in Beirut and 241 U.S. servicemen were killed. America 
     mourned her dead and hit the snooze button once more.
       Two months later in December 1983, another truck loaded 
     with explosives was driven into the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait, 
     and America continued her slumber.
       The following year, in September 1984, another van was 
     driven into the gate of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut and 
     America slept.
       Soon the terrorism spread to Europe. In April 1985 a bomb 
     exploded in a restaurant frequented by U.S. soldiers in 
     Madrid.
       Then in August 1985 a Volkswagen loaded with explosives was 
     driven into the main gate of the U.S. Air Force Base at 
     Rhein-Main, 22 were killed and the snooze alarm was buzzing 
     louder and louder as U.S. interests were continually 
     attacked.
       Fifty-nine days later in 1985 a cruise ship, the Achille 
     Lauro, was hijacked and we watched as an American in a 
     wheelchair was singled out of the passenger list and 
     executed.
       The terrorists then shifted their tactics to bombing 
     civilian airlines when they bombed TWA Flight 840 in April of 
     1986 that killed 4, and the most tragic bombing, Pan Am 
     Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988, killing 259.
       President Clinton treated these terrorist acts as crimes; 
     in fact we are still trying to bring these people to trial. 
     These were acts of war.
       The wake up alarm was getting louder and louder.
       The terrorists decided to bring the fight to America. In 
     January 1993, two CIA agents were shot and killed as they 
     entered CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.
       The following month, February 1993, a group of terrorists 
     were arrested after a rented van packed with explosives was 
     driven into the underground parking garage of the World Trade 
     Center in New York City. Six people were killed and over 
     1,000 injured. Still this was a crime and not an act of war? 
     The snooze alarm was depressed again.
       Then in November 1995 a car bomb exploded at a U.S. 
     military complex in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia killing seven 
     service men and women.
       A few months later in June of 1996, another truck bomb 
     exploded only 35 yards from the U.S. military compound in 
     Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. It destroyed the Khobar Towers, a U.S. 
     Air Force barracks, killing 19 and injuring over 500. The 
     terrorists were getting braver and smarter as they saw that 
     America did not respond decisively.
       They moved to coordinate their attacks in a simultaneous 
     attack on two U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. These 
     attacks were planned with precision. They killed 224. America 
     responded with cruise missile attacks and went back to sleep.
       The USS Cole was docked in a port in Yemen for refueling on 
     12 October 2000, when a small craft pulled along side the 
     ship and exploded killing 17 U.S. Navy sailors. Attacking a 
     U.S. war ship is an act of war, but we sent the FBI to 
     investigate the crime and went back to sleep.
       And of course you know the events of 11 September 2001. 
     Most Americans think this was the first attack against U.S. 
     soil or in America. How wrong they are. America has been 
     under a constant attack since 1979 and we chose to hit the 
     snooze alarm and roll over and go back to sleep.
       U.S. Navy Captain from Pensacola, Florida.

  Mr. CARTER. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Wamp, and I thank him for 
sharing that letter from that Navy captain. I think that was very well 
expressed by that captain in the Navy.
  Mr. Speaker, there is a lot of rhetoric going on. What we really need 
is we need, as Mr. Wamp has so very accurately described, we need to 
meet on the water's edge. We are waiting to hear plans for solutions. 
Mr. Speaker, if we do not stay the course, as hard as it is, whether it 
is hard politically, whether it is hard socially, whatever, if we do 
not stay the course, Mr. Speaker, I honestly think, as Mr. Wamp said, 
all the investment in freedom that we have made in the past will pale 
to the surrender that follows.
  I thank you for your time, Mr. Speaker, and I thank you for allowing 
us to share this concern and this little bit of history. I yield back.

                          ____________________