War is Hell

Floor Speech

WAR IS HELL

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, I want to start off by commenting on the lady's speech that was just made. I understand her position. War is hell. It is a horrible thing. We have been out to Bethesda and Walter Reed Hospital, and we have seen the damage that war has done to a lot of our young people.

It is a terrible thing. It was a terrible thing in all the other conflicts we have been involved in where people have been killed and maimed, World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the Revolutionary War, the Civil War. War is horrible. Nobody wants war. We all want our troops home as quickly as possible. There is no question about that. Where we differ is what this war is all about and what will happen if we do not do what is necessary.

Yesterday, a Sunni insurgent coalition in Iraq announced an Islamic cabinet, and they named an al Qaeda leader as their Minister of War. Throughout this whole debate over these years, the opponents on the other side have said al Qaeda was not involved in Iraq, that we did not have any reason to go in there. Al Qaeda was involved in Iraq. Osama bin Laden was involved in Iraq. The people that bombed the USS Cole, the World Trade Center, our embassies around the world were in Iraq, and now they have appointed a war minister over there who is the head of al Qaeda in Iraq today.

So there is a world war against terrorism. Al Qaeda is the main leader of that war against the United States and the rest of the world. It is a war that we cannot afford to lose. They are using children as bombs. They are taking carloads of dynamite and other explosives and are driving into crowded places to kill people.

We all know how horrible that is, and we also know how horrible it was when al Qaeda operatives flew into the World Trade Center and killed over 3,000 people, the worst tragedy in American history, and it was on our soil. So we are in a world war against radicals, al Qaeda, and we cannot back down.

If we back down in Iraq, as my colleagues on the other side want us to do, it is going to send a signal, already is sending a signal to them, the al Qaeda and the terrorists, that we will not persevere, that we will back down, and they will, as they said yesterday, create an Islamic State in Iraq. And if you create an Islamic State in Iraq and do away with the democracy that is there now, you are going to provide a breeding ground for more terrorism and more attacks on the West and Europe and the rest of the world.

This is a war that may go on for a while, but it is one we must not and cannot lose. My colleagues on the other side are well-intentioned, but the fact of the matter is they want to encourage and they are encouraging by their factions, our enemy, our mortal enemy, the terrorists and al Qaeda.

Now, yesterday, I was very distressed when the majority leader in the United States Senate said that we have lost the war. To say that when al Qaeda is appointing a war minister in Iraq is a tragic mistake. It should never have been said. The man that they appointed, al-Muhajer, is a terrorist, and his goal is to destroy the United States and our allies and change the whole world to radical Islam. That is his goal. That is Osama bin Laden's goal. They are there, and they want to destroy us and we must hang tough.

The President is standing there by himself. I know his popularity is very, very low, as Lincoln's was and George Washington's was when they were losing the wars that they were involved in, but this is something that the American people have to realize is absolutely essential if we are going to survive as a Nation in the long term.

These people want to destroy us, and if we back down in Iraq, make no mistake, they will gain in strength and they will attack us again and our allies again around the world with acts of terrorism. They will be coming out from under the doors like cockroaches, and it is going to be hard to stop them. My view is we either whip them there or we are going to have to fight them here.

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