Posted on 08/29/2002 5:08:18 PM PDT by M.K. Borders
USE OF FORCE TO DEFEND AMERICA AGAINST TERRORIST ATTACKS -- (Senate - September 14, 2001)
[Page: S9459]
--- Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, we are now learning that the terrorists who attacked our Nation this week may have been planning their hideous crimes for years.
In their evil and painstaking calculations, the terrorists clearly tried to anticipate every possible obstacle they might encounter.
But there is one obstacle they overlooked; that is, the courage of the American people, and our fierce determination to defend the people and values we cherish.
It was that courage and determination that appears to have given the passengers aboard the plane that crashed near Pittsburgh the strength to resist their murderers and prevent an even greater tragedy.
It is that same courage and determination that is at the heart of this resolution we pass today.
Tuesday, from the window of my office in the Capitol, I watched thick black smoke rise from the Pentagon and fill the sky over Arlington Cemetery.
The graves in that hallowed ground remind us that Americans have faced great evil before and defeated it.
By passing this resolution, we are saying we are prepared to confront evil again and to defeat it again.
We are saying that the Congress of the United States--Democrats and Republicans stand with the President as our Commander in Chief.
We are authorizing the President to use force against the terrorists who attacked America on September 11, and any nation, organization, or person that aids or harbors them.
As a result of our actions today, we know that our men and women in uniform may be forced to confront a new kind of enemy--an enemy whose actions are constrained neither by conscience, nor the rules of war.
We also know that whatever they are called to do, they will do it well and with honor. And we know this: They will prevail.
This is the gravest responsibility we can undertake as elected leaders.
That is why our Constitution calls on the President and the Congress to act together on decisions to employ our armed forces to defend our Nation.
By passing this resolution, we reaffirm our belief in our Constitution as the foundation and strength of our democracy.
By providing specific statutory authorization and by requiring continuing consultation between the President and the Congress, we also underscore the importance of the War Powers Resolution. Only by standing together, can we stand strong and defeat this threat.
As I have said before, what happened on Tuesday was not simply an attack against America. It was a crime against democracy, and decency. It was a crime against civilization itself.
Americans have been deeply touched this week by the support we have received from friends throughout the world. From the gates of Buckingham Palace, to the halls of the United Nations and NATO, to the streets of Moscow and beyond, the grief displayed by our friends has helped to make our own grief more bearable.
We thank the family of nations for standing with us in these early days of this battle against terrorism. Even more, we thank them for their commitment to stand with us in the days ahead.
I am confident we will continue to stand together, and defeat this most insidious of threats, wherever and whenever it arises.
We will be fierce in the defense of our ideals. We will make whatever material or physical sacrifice that is required of us to punish those who attacked our nation, and to prevent future attacks.
But we will not sacrifice the ideals that built this nation and have sustained us for more than two centuries.
Just as we are united against the terrorists and their co-conspirators who carried out the attacks on our nation, we must also be united against acts of hate against innocent Arab-Americans and Muslims.
The madmen who carried out these crimes despise our values of liberty and justice for all.
By maintaining our commitment to those ideals now, we send a powerful message to those who committed this evil that they have not won, and they will not win this war. They have broken our hearts, but not our will.
[Page: S9460]
The terrorists hoped to bring us to our knees. Let us defy them by standing together on our feet as one nation, indivisible.
Yes, we saw evil this week. But we have also seen great strength. We have seen it in the heroic men and women working day and night in the wreckage of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
We have seen it in the countless Americans in cities across the country who waited hours to donate blood.
And we have seen it in the men and women who may have prevented even greater destruction through their bravery aboard that doomed flight.
That is the strength of America--the one obstacle the terrorists did not anticipate, and the one that will be their undoing.
I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
END
I think the above Senate Resolution says it all. Unless they did'nt mean it when they said it ( is it possible this was a posture for the news?! NAW!)
I would refer further discussions on this topic to the highlighted portion.
We are authorizing the President to use force against the terrorists who attacked America on September 11, and any nation, organization, or person that aids or harbors them.
Black helicopters, again; better duck if you ever mailed a check to an M.E. relief organization.
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