[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 7]
[House]
[Page 9588]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              WAR IS HELL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. McDermott). Under a previous order of 
the House, the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Burton) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, I want to start off by commenting 
on the lady's speech that was just made. I understand her position. War 
is hell. It is a horrible thing. We have been out to Bethesda and 
Walter Reed Hospital, and we have seen the damage that war has done to 
a lot of our young people.
  It is a terrible thing. It was a terrible thing in all the other 
conflicts we have been involved in where people have been killed and 
maimed, World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the Revolutionary 
War, the Civil War. War is horrible. Nobody wants war. We all want our 
troops home as quickly as possible. There is no question about that. 
Where we differ is what this war is all about and what will happen if 
we do not do what is necessary.
  Yesterday, a Sunni insurgent coalition in Iraq announced an Islamic 
cabinet, and they named an al Qaeda leader as their Minister of War. 
Throughout this whole debate over these years, the opponents on the 
other side have said al Qaeda was not involved in Iraq, that we did not 
have any reason to go in there. Al Qaeda was involved in Iraq. Osama 
bin Laden was involved in Iraq. The people that bombed the USS Cole, 
the World Trade Center, our embassies around the world were in Iraq, 
and now they have appointed a war minister over there who is the head 
of al Qaeda in Iraq today.
  So there is a world war against terrorism. Al Qaeda is the main 
leader of that war against the United States and the rest of the world. 
It is a war that we cannot afford to lose. They are using children as 
bombs. They are taking carloads of dynamite and other explosives and 
are driving into crowded places to kill people.
  We all know how horrible that is, and we also know how horrible it 
was when al Qaeda operatives flew into the World Trade Center and 
killed over 3,000 people, the worst tragedy in American history, and it 
was on our soil. So we are in a world war against radicals, al Qaeda, 
and we cannot back down.
  If we back down in Iraq, as my colleagues on the other side want us 
to do, it is going to send a signal, already is sending a signal to 
them, the al Qaeda and the terrorists, that we will not persevere, that 
we will back down, and they will, as they said yesterday, create an 
Islamic State in Iraq. And if you create an Islamic State in Iraq and 
do away with the democracy that is there now, you are going to provide 
a breeding ground for more terrorism and more attacks on the West and 
Europe and the rest of the world.
  This is a war that may go on for a while, but it is one we must not 
and cannot lose. My colleagues on the other side are well-intentioned, 
but the fact of the matter is they want to encourage and they are 
encouraging by their factions, our enemy, our mortal enemy, the 
terrorists and al Qaeda.
  Now, yesterday, I was very distressed when the majority leader in the 
United States Senate said that we have lost the war. To say that when 
al Qaeda is appointing a war minister in Iraq is a tragic mistake. It 
should never have been said. The man that they appointed, al-Muhajer, 
is a terrorist, and his goal is to destroy the United States and our 
allies and change the whole world to radical Islam. That is his goal. 
That is Osama bin Laden's goal. They are there, and they want to 
destroy us and we must hang tough.
  The President is standing there by himself. I know his popularity is 
very, very low, as Lincoln's was and George Washington's was when they 
were losing the wars that they were involved in, but this is something 
that the American people have to realize is absolutely essential if we 
are going to survive as a Nation in the long term.
  These people want to destroy us, and if we back down in Iraq, make no 
mistake, they will gain in strength and they will attack us again and 
our allies again around the world with acts of terrorism. They will be 
coming out from under the doors like cockroaches, and it is going to be 
hard to stop them. My view is we either whip them there or we are going 
to have to fight them here.

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