OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Ongoing Military Operations

Date: June 27, 2003
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Defense Military Personnel Foreign Affairs

ONGOING MILITARY OPERATIONS

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, this morning we had another meeting organized by the majority leader, in consultation with the Democratic leader, with Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld and the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Staff, General Pace, together with representatives from the intelligence agencies.

This is the third time Secretary Rumsfeld has been to the Senate this week. He has been in close consultation with the Senate during these perilous days for our Armed Forces around the world, and most particularly in Iraq. Our discussions, by necessity, were largely related to classified matters and were behind closed doors.

I do share with my colleagues two thoughts. I sensed by those colleagues—quite of number—who joined us this morning a heartfelt concern for the men and women of the Armed Forces who, around the clock, 7 days, 7 nights, are in harm's way in Iraq and Afghanistan, most particularly, and we share in the bereavement of their families for those who are lost from time to time.

Steadfast this Nation must remain in its resolve to bring to a conclusion the hostilities in Iraq and Afghanistan, such that the peoples of those two countries can themselves create a government free of oppression and persecution to enable them to have a very large measure of freedoms, freedoms we enjoy in the form of democracy, beginning with speech, privacy, and a sense of security in their homes, in their workplaces, and in the nation.

This is a long and courageous struggle worldwide, headed by, if I may say most respectfully, a very strong and courageous President of the United States, George Bush, and those principal deputies and many others right down to the privates, sailors, airmen, and marines who are making possible this freedom throughout the world.

We will stay the course. We will meet every challenge. We shall not waiver in the mission of this country. I just pray and hope the American people have a complete and full understanding of the risks they are taking and the absolutely essential requirement that this Nation continue its leadership and succeed.

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