Supporting President Bush and Our Troops

SUPPORTING PRESIDENT BUSH AND OUR TROOPS

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, we all watched with great interest the President's remarks at the U.N. yesterday. When one looks at the U.N., it is impossible not to have kind of a mixed view. Certainly the U.N. has, on many occasions over the years, done worthwhile work. But rarely, if ever, has it taken the lead on anything of significance.

The reason for that, obviously, is that the membership is so diverse. Many of the governments that are represented there of course are not democracies; they are not particularly interested in what America stands for, so it is not entirely surprising that the President's decision—and the support of Congress for that decision was 77 out of 100 votes to change the regime in Iraq—was viewed with mixed reactions at the U.N.

Had the United States waited on the U.N., Saddam Hussein would still be in power. But that is not what the President decided to do. The President led a coalition of 19 willing governments to liberate the people of Iraq. Although many in the U.N. actively opposed and many others were just completely ambivalent about that effort, there is no question that the world is better off with Saddam Hussein gone.

Make no mistake about it, that regime is no more. The only Iraqis who are not immensely better off are those who perpetrated crimes against humanity on a massive scale and abetted in the murder of 300,000 innocent Iraqi civilians. Not since Saddam Hussein was in power have innocent Iraqis been hauled off in the middle of the night to rape rooms and torture chambers. Not since Saddam Hussein was in power have innocent Iraqis been summarily executed. Not since Saddam Hussein was in power have ethnic and religious minorities been gassed or murdered at will by a tyrannical regime.
And, yes, Saddam Hussein no longer provides succor and support to international terrorists who plot the murder of Israelis, Americans, and everyone who opposes their radical interpretation of Islam.

There are no more terrorist training camps in Iraq, and Saddam Hussein no longer cuts checks to support suicide bombings in Israel. The Iraqi regime is no longer pursuing weapons of mass destruction, and it will never be able to use them against its own people, not ever.

Are there problems in finishing the job in Iraq? You bet. But free Iraq remains hostile to terrorists and to tyranny. President Bush noted yesterday that there are still challenges in Iraq and they are challenges that confront all free nations. The terrorists are making a desperate last stand in Iraq and, frankly, I would rather be fighting them there than fighting them here.

The world's challenge now is to secure Iraq. We know nobody else is going to do that job for us. That is an American responsibility. We would like to have help from others, and we are going to get help from others, whether the U.N. officially endorses some kind of American effort here or not. But we are going to lead this effort and we are going to finish the job.

We are going to have a great debate here next week about providing the funds to finish the job. There will be a lot of amendments offered, a lot of amendments voted on, a lot of speeches made. But at the end of the day, with a bipartisan, overwhelming majority, the Senate is going to give the President the money to finish the job. We are helping the Iraqis round up terrorists and the Baathist thugs who oppose liberty for the Iraqi people. We are helping the Iraqis to rebuild roads and schools and hospitals. We are helping the Iraqis to build for themselves a multiethnic moderate democracy in the very heart of the Middle East.

This is a great cause. We ought to be rallying behind it. This is everything for which America has stood for several hundred years. Everything we believe in, we are promoting in Iraq. The Iraqis will be better off. The world will be better off when we finish this job.

Failure is not an option. Waffling around here just because the going is a little tougher than some had expected—and others had anticipated—is not what is called for at this particular time. Going home early is surely the way to reinvigorate al-Qaida and to make it possible for some other kind of thuggish regime to come to power there in Iraq.

Given the magnitude of the threat the proliferation of Islamic radicals and terrorism pose, not only to us but to the entire world, I am a little mystified that this seems to have become so controversial. As Senator Lott was pointing out just a few moments ago, we have very short memories. Just 2 years ago, 3,000 of our people were killed in New York and in Washington. That is what this is all about: Taking the war to the terrorists where they are rather than here on the streets of the United States.

So, yes, we will have our debate. It will be vigorous. But at the end of the day, I am confident that the Senate, on a bipartisan basis, is going to do what is right for the Iraqis, for the United States, and for the world.

I yield the floor.