oracle
09-13-2001, 09:14 PM
<center><A HREF="http://www.senate.gov/~gramm/press/obligation.html" TARGET=_blank>"Our task today is to find out with certainty who did these terrible deeds,*
and then it is our obligation to make war on them."</A>
Statement of* U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm
U.S. Senate,* September 12, 2001</center>
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas is recognized.
Mr. GRAMM. ** Madam President, yesterday, terrorists attacked the temple of American capitalism and the center of American democracy. With all of their terrible sophistication, they naively have seemed to believe, by destroying buildings and killing our people, that they can kill an idea. Capitalism and democracy are the most powerful ideas in the world. They are the crowning achievement of mankind on this Earth and they are not going to be destroyed by terrorists.
Our task today is to find out with certainty who did these terrible deeds, and then it is our obligation to make war on them. I am not talking about criminal justice. We are not going to be reading anybody their rights. No one is covered by Miranda. Any country, any city, any region, and any person who makes common cause with those who make war against America is making war against America, and the wages of sin is death. I believe these people have a hate that we cannot comprehend or understand. We are only going to be safe when these people are captured or killed.
We are hearing a lot of talk today about what we can do to be safer. I want to be safe. But let me make it clear: I don't want to change our way of life. I want to change their way of life. If we start infringing on our own freedom, if we start limiting our own freedom to move about our country and engage in our business and live our lives, then we are giving up what this war is about. We want to change their lives. We want to hunt them down in any dark corner, in any hiding place on this Earth.
We want to be relentless, and we don't want to be constrained.
I believe it is important that the people who did this terrible thing pay for it. I think if they pay for it, then we can make the world safer.
Finally, let me say that any American who watched the bravery of ordinary citizens in New York and in Washington, who watched police officers and firemen risk their lives, had to be proud of what Americans did yesterday. I have never been more proud to be a citizen of America than I was yesterday--ordinary people doing extraordinary things under terrible circumstances.
I know when we start getting the names of people, especially in New York and here at the Pentagon, who were killed, there are going to be many people on that list who we know. I knew Barbara Olson who was killed on the airliner that crashed into the Pentagon. She was a staffer here--a dedicated, brilliant woman. She called her husband, Ted Olson, our Solicitor General, and even facing death was talking about what she could do to try to resist. I am not surprised that she was brave because I knew her. My heart goes out to her and to everyone else who suffered.
We cannot tolerate this act. We cannot simply go through the motions. We have to hunt these people down and kill them. They deserve it. They made war against America.
I want people to stop talking about bringing them to justice. This is not about justice. This is about war. These people brought war to the mainland of America and killed thousands of our citizens. They have no rights. I think we have to hunt them down wherever they are and use whatever power we have in order to see that they don't do this again, and that no one else ever has the courage to do it again.
and then it is our obligation to make war on them."</A>
Statement of* U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm
U.S. Senate,* September 12, 2001</center>
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas is recognized.
Mr. GRAMM. ** Madam President, yesterday, terrorists attacked the temple of American capitalism and the center of American democracy. With all of their terrible sophistication, they naively have seemed to believe, by destroying buildings and killing our people, that they can kill an idea. Capitalism and democracy are the most powerful ideas in the world. They are the crowning achievement of mankind on this Earth and they are not going to be destroyed by terrorists.
Our task today is to find out with certainty who did these terrible deeds, and then it is our obligation to make war on them. I am not talking about criminal justice. We are not going to be reading anybody their rights. No one is covered by Miranda. Any country, any city, any region, and any person who makes common cause with those who make war against America is making war against America, and the wages of sin is death. I believe these people have a hate that we cannot comprehend or understand. We are only going to be safe when these people are captured or killed.
We are hearing a lot of talk today about what we can do to be safer. I want to be safe. But let me make it clear: I don't want to change our way of life. I want to change their way of life. If we start infringing on our own freedom, if we start limiting our own freedom to move about our country and engage in our business and live our lives, then we are giving up what this war is about. We want to change their lives. We want to hunt them down in any dark corner, in any hiding place on this Earth.
We want to be relentless, and we don't want to be constrained.
I believe it is important that the people who did this terrible thing pay for it. I think if they pay for it, then we can make the world safer.
Finally, let me say that any American who watched the bravery of ordinary citizens in New York and in Washington, who watched police officers and firemen risk their lives, had to be proud of what Americans did yesterday. I have never been more proud to be a citizen of America than I was yesterday--ordinary people doing extraordinary things under terrible circumstances.
I know when we start getting the names of people, especially in New York and here at the Pentagon, who were killed, there are going to be many people on that list who we know. I knew Barbara Olson who was killed on the airliner that crashed into the Pentagon. She was a staffer here--a dedicated, brilliant woman. She called her husband, Ted Olson, our Solicitor General, and even facing death was talking about what she could do to try to resist. I am not surprised that she was brave because I knew her. My heart goes out to her and to everyone else who suffered.
We cannot tolerate this act. We cannot simply go through the motions. We have to hunt these people down and kill them. They deserve it. They made war against America.
I want people to stop talking about bringing them to justice. This is not about justice. This is about war. These people brought war to the mainland of America and killed thousands of our citizens. They have no rights. I think we have to hunt them down wherever they are and use whatever power we have in order to see that they don't do this again, and that no one else ever has the courage to do it again.