What the congressman and so many others do not understand is the bigger picture of this war on terror.
FDR committed the United States to defeating all the forces of tyranny, not just those that directly threatened us. FDR understood that defeating your enemies and leaving them broken is a formula for future wars.
So, FDR set out to create democracies where none existed. Some said that the Japanese could never be democratic because they are too primitive, or had no experience in freedom--much the same things said about Muslims.
W is doing the same thing. He knows that the only way to stop new terrorists from being created is to give people something else to live for. The only way to achieve such a society is through freedom and capitalism.
The terrorists came here to decapitate our country and change our way of life. W has set us on a course to change the terrorists' way of life and to change the countries they consider 'safe'.
That is why we are in Iraq.