failure to act led to disaster

[supercar]

Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart

September 13,2006

Mr. Speaker, we have seen these

past few days events to remember the tragic incidents of September 11.

And, frankly, when we were reliving that tragic day, among the many

things that crossed my mind was the realization that thousands of

Americans died. Thousands of Americans died in their place of work for

the simple sin, their only crime being that they were free people who

live in a free country. They were people who love freedom, and their

only crime was that that morning, like every other morning, they went

to work so that they could help their family, they could feed their

children, they could pay their bills, and they could continue to live

and prosper in freedom.

Mr. Speaker, 9/11 was not the only attack against America. It was the

largest attack, the terrorists' most successful attack against America,

but by no means was it the only attack or the first attack against

America.

The problem, Mr. Speaker, however, was that America did not realize

until that horrendous wake-up call of 9/11 that there were a number of

radicals around this world who had already for a generation declared

war. They had declared war against the United States and our allies for

the simple reason that we live in freedom, that we cherish freedom,

that women can work and live in freedom and have equal rights to men.

For those reasons, there is a group of people who declared war against

the United States. Not only did they declare it verbally, as they did,

but they did so in actions. And again, we just didn't wake up to that

realization.

When President Jimmy Carter withdrew the United States' support from

the Shah of Iran, in essence facilitating and allowing the Ayatollah

Khomeini to take power in Iran, he didn't realize the type of enemy we

were dealing with.

More recently, in February of 1993 when the first bombing of the

World Trade Center took place killing six people, the United States

didn't realize who the enemy was, and we didn't fight back. But the

killers persisted in trying to kill Americans.

In October of 1993, in Somalia 18 valuable, decent brave American

soldiers were killed. Osama bin Laden later personally claimed credit

for organizing the Somalia fighters. We didn't fight. On the contrary,

we withdrew immediately from Somalia. I will quote what bin Laden said

about our withdrawal. He said, "America exited, dragging its tail in

failure, defeat and ruin. Caring for nothing, America left faster than

anyone expected.'' Again, we didn't fight.

In June 1996, a truck bombing in the Khobar Towers barracks in Saudi

Arabia, killing 19 Americans and we did nothing. We did not fight back.

But the killers were not content. They kept trying to kill Americans.

And then in August 1998, the bombing of the U.S. embassies in

Tanzania and Kenya where 224 people were killed, including many

Americans, we didn't fight back. We did nothing.

In December 1999, the plot to bomb the Millennium celebrations in

Seattle that was foiled when custom agents arrested an Algerian person

smuggling explosives into the United States. The killers continued to

persist, and we were not fighting back.

And then of course the tragic bombing of the USS Cole in the port of

Yemen where U.S. 17 sailors were killed, and we did not fight back. But

the killers were not satisfied and they continued to persist.

And then of course we got the big wake-up call, September 11, 2001,

the destruction of the World Trade Center, the attack on the Pentagon

where a total of 2,992 Americans were murdered on that horrendous day.

Finally, America woke up to the realization that there had been a war

declared on our country and our way of life and it was time that we

fought back, that we started bringing justice to those terrorists

wherever they may be so we would not have to fight them here on our

streets, so we would not have to deal with another September 11 or

another World Trade Center explosion like the first time or another

attempt on the celebrations like those in Seattle.

America started fighting back finally because we found out that these

killers are not going to stop if we don't fight because that is what we

always did. We didn't fight back. In many cases we withdrew. Did that

appease them? No. It emboldened them, like bin Laden said.

After that then, after September 11, this President and this Congress

decided to fight back and decided to remove the Taliban from power. Our

brave men and women in uniform have done an incredible job under the

most difficult circumstances and removed the Taliban and that which was

a state sponsor of terrorism is no longer a state sponsor of terrorism,

and there is a struggling democracy that is gaining ground and taking

root in that land where al Qaeda used that land to plan the horrible

events of 9/11.

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