Requiring a Report Setting Forth the Global Strategy of the United State to Combat and Defeat Al Qaeda and Its Affiliates--Motion to Proceed

Floor Speech

REQUIRING A REPORT SETTING FORTH THE GLOBAL STRATEGY OF THE UNITED STATES TO COMBAT AND DEFEAT AL QAEDA AND ITS AFFILIATES--MOTION TO PROCEED -- (Senate - February 28, 2008)

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. LAUTENBERG. Mr. President, first, I wish to say how proud I am to be on the floor with my three colleagues who are sponsoring this, with Senator Webb as the lead sponsor on this very important legislation. Senator Warner and I kind of outrank the others in terms of when it is that we served. I point out that we have two commissioned officers here and we have two noncommissioned officers. Senator Hagel, I think, outranked me. I was a corporal.

I am so pleased to be here with my colleagues. I got an undeserved credit because it was said I was a combat veteran. Well, I served in the combat theater, and my job was to climb telephone poles while the bombing was going on in Belgium. I would not say there were the same dangers as someone on the line, but people got hurt and worse doing what I was doing. But I want to clear the record because I didn't carry a rifle. I carried a carbine, which is a lot smaller weapon, and, fortunately, I didn't have a chance to fire it. But it wasn't fired at me either.

I look at what we are doing here and think about what it means to those who are serving and what it meant to me in my life. My parents were brought to America when they were infants, but they were people who would be classified as blue-collar people--no education but wanted to work hard. Honesty was constantly preached: Be mindful of your responsibility to others, do whatever you can, work as hard as you can.

When I got out of high school, I got a job loading milk trucks. Because going to war was imminent, I enlisted when I was 18. I served with 16 million other people in uniform at that time.

We used to talk about college around the dinner table, when we had dinner together, and my parents would say you have to get an education. My father took me into the mill he worked in when I was 12 years old. He said: I want you to see what it is like. It was a textile factory in Paterson, NJ, an industrial city. As we walked in the building, he said: Do you hear the noise? The whole building would vibrate. And I said: Yes, Dad. And he took me up to the machine he operated. It was a big old machine with a wheel that converted fibers into fabric. He said: You see how dirty it is here? Yes, Dad. He said: Do you see how dark it is? Yes, Dad. And he took my hand and he rubbed it across the silk fibers he was working on, and it left a film. He said: You see that? That is bad for you.

My father, when he did that with me, was 37 years old. Six years later, he was dead. Cancer that developed occupationally. My grandfather worked in the same place. And not unlike those who worked in the coal mine or some other place, my grandfather was 56 when he died.

So for me, being in the military was a responsibility that I willingly took on. My friends, my neighbors, we all did it. The future was not particularly bright. But then, when all of that was finished, I had a chance to go to a university. And Senator Warner, with his usual grace, he said that you could go to any school you wanted. I don't know that it wasn't just the recognition that we needed financial help, but I think there might have been a little give also on the standards that you had to meet. I don't know that in today's world we would have fared quite as well. I was lucky enough to go to Columbia University. They welcomed me. And I stood there in amazement when I graduated because none other than GEN Dwight Eisenhower handed me my diploma. He was then the President of Columbia University. I was a little upset that he didn't recognize me. We had both served in Europe. I didn't understand why he didn't say: Hello, Frank.

It was exciting to be in a university--exciting to know that somehow or other I was not only going to be able to help myself, I was going to be able to help my widowed mother and my kid sister and be something different than still loading milk trucks in Clifton, NJ. I was excited because not only did I learn subjects--statistics and finance and the kinds of things one learns at business school, in particular--but also I learned there was a different way of life; that there was something you could do besides standing with my folks when they had to buy a store because the mills closed. I learned you didn't have to live in cramped quarters and that maybe there was something else out there you could do.

So when I look at what we are talking about today, I am particularly motivated to see that with the leadership of Senator Webb and with the help of the three of us, that we get this legislation through. We know when there is a debate here and it gets to veterans' support, usually that quiets the troubled waters and we talk to one another, almost civilly at times, and we gather support from one another and are encouraged. We might feel differently about which programs ought to get more funding, but we are all concerned about the medical care, the post-service conditions that come up like post-traumatic stress disorder. And when we read stories about service people who get so distraught that they destroy their lives, that is often a sign of the kind of stress and the kind of trauma that people have been left with after they serve. So when we look at this legislation's opportunity, it is consistent with our need to show our respect and gratitude to the people who serve and who served in a war that is far longer and more vicious than anyone ever dreamed it might be.

Because in previous wars, and the war that Senator Warner and I served in, it was not the case that your enemy wanted to give their life and thusly would not be frightened off by anything you do. Their principle was to destroy the enemy. In the current war, the enemy is willing to destroy itself to destroy us. So the kind of violence that has been exhibited in this war is different than in any other war. Vietnam was the place where it was learned that people would die for a cause, but it was not like this war where people want to die. So conditions are different.

So here it is, very simply put: There are scholarship assistance programs like the Montgomery bill which provides 38,000 dollars' worth of support for education, for the cost of maintaining one's self, as well as room and board. But the average cost of a public education today is $51,000.

Well, it still is significant when someone graduates college with huge debt, and typically they are relatively young, wanting to start a family, wanting to get going in life. So it is simple math. Many of our veterans just cannot make up the difference and thusly are denied a college education. So this has real consequences.

People with a college degree earn nearly double the salary of those who do not have one. We have got to close the gap between the current cost of college and the amount that the GI bill pays for. Remember, America built something that was called and supported as the ``greatest generation.'' Now, why, with all the technology, with all of the richness this country has, with all of the talent this country has, can we not create another ``greatest generation''? We should move on that. There is only one way to get there, and that is to provide the ladder up to that success. You have got to take the first step. The first step is to make sure you get as much education as your mind and your body and your will can handle.

So when we look at what we owe to or can do for these veterans, to me, this is the ideal thing. I would hope that whatever party, however high the seniority is, that we all get together on this one and say: Veterans, we appreciate those of you who served, who left your families, in service. I was at Fort Dix, a major base in the State of New Jersey, for people who were going to deploy or be deployed back in Iraq. Many of them have served months already. These were not people who were living on a base where there was a culture to accompany their families, where there was a clinic, where there were schools, where there were libraries. They were in towns, they were paying their expenses, they have mortgages to deal with.

This is a time to say: We owe you something. We owe you something big. We are going to make it up to you. I encourage all of my colleagues to support this legislation. Join us in giving something back to our veterans that really stands out, that shows a lasting bit of gratitude for the valiant service that all of them have put in to serve their country.

I congratulate my colleagues for their effort, and Senator Webb for his leadership. And I hope we will see success.

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