Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 2006 and 2007

FOREIGN RELATIONS AUTHORIZATION ACT, FISCAL YEARS 2006 AND 2007 -- (House of Representatives - July 20, 2005)

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Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding me time. I really appreciate her bringing this very, very important amendment to the floor.

As has been said earlier, this is a very important debate that we are having in the United States House of Representatives. Mr. Chairman, the establishment of a firm deadline for withdrawal of American troops from Iraq simply will put them in greater danger. It will embolden our terrorist enemies and all but assure the failure of that nation's fledgling democracy.

Under such a deadline, the best we could hope for is that our enemies would simply go into hiding, wait for us to leave, then unleash bloody terror on their countrymen until Iraq's government fell, Iraq's people were subdued, and Iraq's hope was destroyed.

In short, such a deadline would do nothing less than help our enemies win the war. After so many have fought, and fought and sacrificed and died, ending decades of Saddam Hussein's murderous tyranny, now with freedom secured and stability in sight, with hope abounding in Iraq and across the Middle East, to establish such a deadline, all but ensuring disaster, would be morally and strategically indefensible. It would be an insult, an insult to every soldier who wears on their uniform the flag of the United States, a body blow to the cause of freedom and justice around the world, and a signal to evil men everywhere in the world that America's spine had gone brittle.

A deadline for withdrawal would not amount to mere appeasement, but it would amount to surrender, betrayal, and it would amount to an invitation for more bloodshed on our own soil. It cannot, cannot, cannot be done.

Failure in Iraq, which a premature withdrawal date would assure, would be a crucial and possibly a decisive defeat in the global war on terror.

Rhetorical attempts to divorce Operation Iraqi Freedom from the broader war on terror have failed in no small part because our enemies make no small distinction.

Bin Laden, al-Sadr, Zarqawi, Fedayeen foot-soldiers, Hamas, Hezbollah, Syrian imports, al Qaeda exports, Taliban holdovers, Ba'athist henchmen, shoe bombers, dirty bombers, hijackers in Boston, roadside bombers in Baghdad, homicide bombers in Madrid, suicide bombers in London, and, yes, inmates in Guantanamo.

They are all the same. They are all the same, Mr. Chairman. They are one enemy, terrorism, serving one cause, tyranny, against one target, freedom.

Mr. Chairman, our soldiers in Iraq, Afghanistan and around the world are not fighting for a grotesque mistake. They are fighting for a noble cause. They are not Nazis or Soviets. They are heroes. The war in Iraq is not over. It is just not being fought on television. And our decision to join the war on terror, which waged for years before 9/11, has not made the war more dangerous but more hopeful for future peace.

Our enemies brook no confusion about their goal, it is to kill every last one of us. The only thing standing between us and that fate is the courage and determination and commitment of our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines.

Members and political leaders from both parties would do well to remember that in times like these words have consequences. Consider the soldiers now under enemy threat in Iraq. Consider the victims of 9/11 and their families. Consider the Iraqi people on January 30 raising their ink-dyed fingers, voting after holding their polling lines against the threat of terrorist attack. Consider the Iraqi women who no longer fear the rape rooms, the Afghan men who can speak their minds freely, and the children who can learn math and literature and history outside the control of their Orwellian regimes.

We are at war whether we like it or not, whether we fight it or not. Our enemies will keep coming. We cannot defeat them solely with our weapons, Mr. Chairman. We must defeat them with our will. Words and deeds here at home and in particular here in Washington that embolden any of our enemies embolden all of them, and by doing so undermine our cause, weaken our resolve and threaten our troops.

Iraq is the war on terror. Victory in Iraq is a victory for hope. Defeat in Iraq is a victory for chaos and violence and evil. The terrorists know it, the Iraqis know it, and deep down even the most partisan critics of our Commander in Chief know it, too.

That is why we must stand and we must fight as we have for almost 4 years here at home, in Afghanistan, Iraq and everywhere terrorism threatens the survival and success of liberty until the fight is won.

We know not the day nor the hour, Mr. Chairman, when the scourge of terrorism will be repelled once and for all from Iraq, from the Middle East, from our world, when citizens of all nations will breathe air cleared of the cries of wounded heroes and the report of hostile gunfire, when men will be free, when women will be honored, and when children will be safe.

As long as war is our policy and victory is our aim, Mr. Chairman, neither can our enemies.

I urge all of our colleagues to bring that day a bit closer by truly supporting our troops in word as well as in deed by supporting the Ros-Lehtinen amendment.

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