[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 16]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 21991-21992]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          TRIBUTE TO JIM WHAM

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. JOHN SHIMKUS

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, July 31, 2007

  Mr. SHIMKUS. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the patriotism of 
Mr. Jim Wham of Centralia, Illinois. Mr. Wham delivered a passionate 
speech this past May 5th expressing the importance of winning the War 
on Terror.
  In his brief message, Mr. Wham, an attorney at law in my district, 
remarked on the immense debt we owe our fighting men and women for this 
sacrifices they have have made in this war and rebuked the defeatists 
who would set an arbitrary date for surrender.
  Therefore, I respectfully submit the text of Mr. Wham's speech for 
the Record in the hopes that others will stand with him in support of 
our troops and the mission for which they fight.

                    [From the Sentinel, May 8, 2007]

                       2007 Tribute to the Troops

                             (By Jim Wham)

       I want to commend the 15th Street Church of God for this 
     event at the Bandshell. This evening of prayer and song forms 
     the perfect occasion to recognize the men and women serving 
     this country in the Armed Forces of the United States. Each 
     one of them and their families are making a sacrifice unlike 
     any other.
       Every American when called to serve in the Armed Forces of 
     the United States performs the duty assigned to him or her by 
     the Commander-in-Chief and not by Congressmen and Senators.
       I thought of each life of these men and women and all 
     others who served their country. The course and destiny of 
     their lives are set by chance assignment of that duty. Some 
     come back unscathed, others marked by grievous wounds and 
     others never come back.
       The month of May is the month we pay honor to the men and 
     women on Armed Services Day a couple of weeks from now, and 
     then a week later, Memorial Day--a day when everyone in this 
     land of liberty must stop, look to the story of the soldiers, 
     sailors and marines who fell on battlefields--went down in 
     sinking ships--in crashing planes--in the deserts--in the 
     jungles--in the towns--all over this world during the entire 
     lifetime of this nation.
       The unknown soldiers and the unsung heroes--there are 
     thousands and thousands of them. These gallant men and women 
     most likely will never be known by the people for what they 
     did. They served and they did not ask for glory. Their deeds 
     of valor on battlefields and oceans and in the air never had 
     a chance to be forgotten because they remained unspoken and 
     unknown.
       The American people never forget these known and unknown 
     living and dead Americans--this ever expanding LEGION OF 
     HONOR has never let their country down and no one in this 
     country should ever let them down.
       Jesus tells us ``Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall 
     be called the children of God.'' The peacemakers--they are 
     the men and women in the American Armed Forces--the 
     peacemakers who in defending freedom do so to bring peace to 
     the world--God's world and to the children of God.
       The tyrants foment conflict and war. The armed forces of 
     the U.S. are always against the tyrant--never in support of 
     the tyrant, and these American men and women we honor today--
     honor them for opposing a tyranny of a new dark age, a 
     tyranny of worldwide terrorism--a dark age spawned from the 
     dens of terrorists throughout the world even in this country 
     and in our allies Britain and Israel as well as in countless 
     other nations.
       These insane religious fanatics misuse their religion to 
     cultivate and persuade thousands of suicide bombers to 
     destroy multi-thousands of innocent people who are unlucky 
     enough to be at the wrong place at the wrong time when the 
     suicide bomber explodes himself in their midst.
       This war in Iraq is no civil war--it is a war against gangs 
     of vicious mad dog criminals who want to kill off any 
     democratic government that can be formed--a government that 
     people yearn for and deserve. These criminals know that they 
     cannot succeed as long as American troops are in Iraq helping 
     good people form a democracy.
       These criminals hide in the casbahs and mountains while 
     promoting their lackeys to kill themselves and others, hoping 
     that such killings will aid the second-guessers in America to 
     oppose the Commander-in-Chief by insisting on a day of 
     surrender--a day to leave the Middle East--a day to quit any 
     resistance against the terrorists.
       These second-guessers proclaim to the world that the war is 
     lost; their words bring smiles to the evil faces of those 
     marauders. These quitters are like a quarterback shouting to 
     the other team. ``We're not going to pass, we're runnin' 
     around the left end.''
       We are running away from you--the terrorists--is the 
     message of the quitter.
       If they want to win a war they say is lost, they, the 
     second guessers not the President, must change their tune 
     because quitters never win.
       The Scripture proclaims ``If the trumpet gives an uncertain 
     sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle.'' There are 
     far too many uncertain trumpets being sounded in Washington 
     today and in the national news media. These uncertain 
     trumpets inspire nothing but joy in the haunts of the 
     terrorists who love to hear those mournful tunes in the USA.
       When these friends from Hell see the leader of the Senate 
     on television proclaim the war is lost, the terrorists around 
     the world applaud and promote more suicide bombers to hasten 
     the day of American surrender.
       And when they see and hear the Senate leader condemn the 
     Vice President, they applaud again and try to kill him in 
     Pakistan.
       Don't these second guessing quitters know that the United 
     States has a vital interest to contest the terrorist in the 
     Middle East--in that caldron of hatred and insanity which is 
     the launching pad for terrorists against this country and its 
     allies?
       Don't be second-guessers give any thought at all to the 
     downside of an American surrender by pulling out of that part 
     of the world?
       Every concerned American who stops, looks, and listens to 
     the present day happenings knows the disastrous downside of 
     an American pull-out from Iraq.
       It would proclaim to the world an American confession that 
     terrorism has won a victory over the United States.
       World power of the United States would evaporate.
       No longer would the United States lead in the battle for 
     peace and freedom which is so necessary to the salvation of 
     our own way of life.
       Do the quitters ever envision their day at the Baghdad 
     airport--when a thousand transport planes land and take off 
     with the American army to the dismay of every decent person 
     who knows that there goes the last best chance for peace and 
     freedom?
       Why can't these quitters envision that into the vacuum left 
     behind, the criminal gangs of the Taliban, al Qaeda, the 
     death squads of both Sunnis and Shiites will seize the 
     opportunity in a common cause against their own people and 
     against America and her allies by joining together these 
     legions of evil against the decent people of the Middle East.
       Doesn't it occur to the quitter that a coalition of Iran, 
     Iraq and Syria under despotic leaders will bring pressure and 
     threat of conquest against Saudi Arabia and Kuwait as Saddam 
     Hussein attempted to do in the 1990's Desert Storm?
       Can't the quitters envision the utter chaos that will come 
     when the nuclear bomb is developed in Iran or acquired from 
     North Korea and those reckless fanatics threaten their 
     surrounding countries to joint the crowd?
       If America is gone from Iraq, will that insane fanatic from 
     Iran, Ahmadinejad press the button that will lead to a 
     premature Armageddon in Israel?
       A hundred years ago, when Teddy Roosevelt was President, he 
     spoke these words about this nation's destiny: ``We have no 
     choice as to whether or not we shall play a great part in the 
     world. That is already the case. ``All that we can decide is 
     whether we shall play it well or play it ill.''

[[Page 21992]]

       Thus far, we have played it well but we are now at the 
     crossroads of the decision that will affect all mankind. The 
     question is, will we stay and fight for freedom and for peace 
     or will we forfeit the field to those vicious criminals who 
     in no way respect the God-given miracle of life.
       Rudyard Kipling--the great British patriot and poet of the 
     19th and 20th Centuries put to verse the lesson of 
     perseverance in long lasting battles. Here's the way he wrote 
     it:

     ``How do we know, when the long fight rages,
     On the old, stale front that we cannot shake,
     And it looks as though we were locked for ages.
     How do we know they are going to break?
     There is no lull in the level firing,
     Nothing has shifted except the sun.
     Yet we can feel they are tiring, tiring--
     Yet we can tell they are ripe to run.
     Something wavers, and, while we wonder,
     Their centre-trenches are emptying out,
     And, before their useless flanks go under,
     Our guns have pounded retreat to rout.''

       In other words, we win by hanging on.
       My friends, American forces are going to win this war 
     against terrorism. The war is not lost and no one should 
     listen to the quitters because they are the losers of the 
     present and the future.
       If we but stand fast with the troops and our Commander-in-
     Chief, the fiends of Hell will lose. And the sacrifice of 
     these gallant men and women we honor today will not have been 
     in vain. They must not be let down by quitting and surrender.

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