Resolved: America Will Prevail in the War on Terror

Resolved: America Will Prevail in the War on Terror

One of the most important votes I've cast this year was in favor of a resolution that declared the United States will prevail in the Global War on Terror and the struggle to protect freedom from our terrorist adversaries (H. Res. 861). After considerable debate, the resolution passed with bipartisan support and by a vote of 256 to 153.

The lessons of history demonstrate that threats left unchecked become more dangerous over time. In the long-term, isolationism is not an effective solution for peace-seeking nations.

Osama bin Laden and the al Qaeda terrorist network that he founded, financed, and leads, have been at war with the United States throughout the 1990s. The first act of terror associated with bin Laden is believed to have occurred in 1992.

In 1993, the first attempt on the World Trade Center occurred. Further information indicated a financial relationship between the bombers and bin Laden.

In 1996, bin Laden declared that Muslims have the right to harm U.S. troops in the Persian Gulf. In May 1998 bin Laden claimed: "Muslims should kill Americans in any country where it is possible - including civilians."

Bin Laden permitted ABC News to interview him in an interview that aired in June 1998. He told us exactly what to expect when he said the battle will "inevitably move…to American soil."

On August 7, 1998, the eighth anniversary of the UN sanctions against Iraq, two simultaneous explosions occurred at the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The bomb in Nairobi, Kenya killed 213 people, including 12 US nationals, and injured more than 4,500. In Tanzania, 11 died and 85 were injured. US intelligence intercepted a mobile phone conversation between two known bin Laden lieutenants, implicating him in the bombings.

On August 20, 1998, President Clinton ordered cruise missile attacks at suspected terrorist training camps in Afghanistan and a pharmaceutical plant in the Sudan.

However, Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda were left virtually unchecked despite these and other terrorist attacks throughout the 1990s and up until 9/11.

Recently I visited Kenya, including the former site of the American Embassy in Nairobi. Today, that site has been replaced by a park with a fountain, a memorial wall that has all the victims names inscribed on it, and a small memorial building. During past wars, memorials to the victims of conflicts and those who served bravely to win them have usually waited until after the hostilities ended. In the name of all those who died at the sites of all terrorist attacks, as well as those who have made the ultimate sacrifice to fight terrorism, we must ensure the future of those memorials by winning the war on terror.

Every event from bin Laden's first bomb in 1992 through today have been part of one long coordinated al-Qaeda war. The simultaneous embassy bombings in 1998 should have been a clear warning signal that Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda were determined, willing, and able to attack Americans.

While Osama bin Laden had declared war on all Americans in 1998, the US didn't declare war on terror until September 12, 2001.

The opportunity to stop bin Laden before 9/11 came and went. The lessons of history assure us that left unchecked the forces of evil will grow stronger and will seek to harm us again. The debate in Congress about the resolution is about a simple choice: do we fight terrorism tomorrow or do we stop it with our actions today?

We must not forget what drew us together as a nation on 9/11. We must not forget that there is a true enemy and they will kill Americans regardless of political affiliation or philosophy.

We must not forget what we have accomplished, so far, in the global war on terror:
Liberating over 25 million Afghanis who have successfully created their own democratically elected government; Liberating over 25 million Iraqis from a brutal dictator and helping them to create their own democratically elected government; we have created a more hopeful Iraq by eliminating its most dangerous terrorist, Abu al-Zarqarwi, who came to Iraq after the downfall of the Taliban in 2001; the first democratic elections in Egypt in over 7,000 years; getting Moammar Gadhafi to turn over his WMD program to American, British and U.N. officials rather than be the next Saddam. A more hopeful, democratic Middle-East still remains the best opportunity for reducing the causes of fundamentalist terrorism.

http://www.house.gov/miketurner/news/columns/6.23.06.shtml