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 Bond Announces Millions for Disaster Recovery Bond Blasts Retreat and Defeat Iraq Strategy Bond Works to Protect Military Heroes Bond Votes to Kill Amnesty Bill Bond Clarifies Phase II Report on Prewar Intelligence Bond Announces $3 Billion in Agriculture Assistance Water Resources Bill Passes Senate Bond Continues Tour of Vets Facilities Pentagon's Pre-War Intelligence Legit National Guard Empowerment Legislation |
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Bond Condemns Terrorist Attacks
"September 11, 2001 will forever Our hearts and prayers are with survivors and families of those who were murdered in New York City, the Pentagon and near Pittsburgh and elsewhere. Though still appalled by the damage, the United States is already recovering from these attacks. Fate has written many painful chapters in America's history. Each is sharply engraved into our collective memory. Most are battles and wars. Gettysburg. Pearl Harbor. Iwo Jima. Pork Chop Hill. Others were acts of madmen like the bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building and the slaying of our Presidents, Lincoln, McKinley and John F. Kennedy. The magnitude of yesterday's attack defies understanding. It is the scale of what happened yesterday that freezes the mind in horror. The wrenching sights of passenger planes deliberately flown into the largest symbol of America's economic and military strength was an assault on how we think of ourselves, our nation and our role in the world and in history. Vehicles of peaceful domestic travel were bent horrifically into missiles of death shot into the heart of our economy � into all of our hearts. The blasts we watched in real-time and in slow-motion reruns in our collective mind's eye have buried splinters deep into our souls. As shock gives way to action, recovery and the identification of those responsible, we must remember this is not the first time the American people have been tested. History has probed the limits of our strength and patience many times, over many generations of Americans. As the realization of what has happened continues to sink into our national consciousness, we must never forget that each time our nation is tested, each time we have survived -- as we will again. And while it seems impossible to believe today, barely a day after this horrific attack upon our soil, we must draw strength from the knowledge that each test has failed to diminish our nation. Just the opposite. America's history is written by a people who rise to every challenge fate and history has thrown our way. We are the greatest and most powerful national today precisely because we have met and triumphed over adversity. This is our national identity. This is what it means to be an American. This is the strength of character that built this nation over the last four centuries. Americans do not face challenges. We surmount them. And we grow stronger as a result. I am confident that we are already seeing this today. I see it in the faces of the New York fireman and police officers. A grim determination and smoldering pride etched in the ashes on their faces -- etched with sweat. And tears. And blood. We see it in the faces of our military men and women still breathing life into our nation's military command center at the Pentagon. While the terrorists hit their targets and caused death and damage -- the scale of which will only be understood many weeks from now, their real aim is to inflict a crippling psychological blow. That is why they attacked great symbol of America's economic and military strength. The terrorists will succeed only if we surrender our confidence in our nation. Americans cannot -- and will not -- allow them this victory. The terrorists will fail. Despite the horror we feel, we will remain strong. Our immediate focus must be to recover from these attacks. And to tend to the victims and their families. We may not know the full toll for many weeks. In the longer run, we must recognize that these attacks demand an appropriate response from the United States. I know the man who is the President of the United States. I know this man. And I am confident that he will throw the full weight of the U.S. government behind the task of identifying and destroying those responsible for the attacks. The President should also have the power to take appropriate steps to prevent a reoccurrence. And I know that he has the support of both political parties in the U.S. Congress. And more importantly, he has the full support of the American people. Our nation must not rest until those behind the attacks are destroyed. Our unyielding anger will span the world and reach the terrorists wherever they may try to hide. The world is not big enough to offer them the concealment they seek. We will find them. We will get them. And make them pay for what happened yesterday. And any nation that seeks to provide protection or cover for the terrorists ought to think twice before doing so. The President is correct to make no distinction between the terrorists and those nations that shelter them. The price of doing so will be very high. Let us be clear about what yesterday's attack was � and what it was not. It was an act of war, not a simple criminal act. I say it was not merely a criminal act because of its scale. It was too large to be only a criminal act. It was an act of war against our people, our way of life and against all people who cherish democracy and freedom. I believe there has been an unfortunate trend in the American government in recent years to �criminalize' acts against this country that are by definition acts of war. That trend has delayed our potential responses until the evidence collected approached the standards required by a court of law. I believe that to have been a mistake. Investigations like this should not become ends unto themselves. The war against terrorism � and its war against us � is just that, war. And we ought to be free to respond in kind. Not only after that fact. But I believe the President's hands ought not to be tied. To help ensure our nation is never dealt a similar blow, we must give the President the authority and freedom to act to PREEMPT such acts. That is he must be able to strike terrorists before they strike. For many years the prevailing trend has been to shackle our intelligence agencies. To err on the side of doing too little, rather than doing too much. I understand the forceful reasons behind this trend. Nothing is more dear to us than the protection of our civil liberties. Our political culture at root is defined by our steadfast guardianship of our civil liberties. But I believe we can do more to attack terrorism without further encroaching upon our civil liberties. I believe we can strengthen the reach of our intelligence agencies significantly at no risk to our civil liberties. We know the incalculable cost of getting this balance wrong. In our understandable zeal to protect our civil liberties, we hampered the very agencies that protect not only our lives, but our very way of life. America is a different nation today than it was yesterday morning. We have been attacked in a way without precedent, in kind and magnitude. Our nation needs time to grieve. We need time to tend to our dead. And to care for the wounded and their families. Yesterday's attacks have shaken us. Yet, the bedrock beliefs and principles that anchor the United States remain strong. Just how strong is something the terrorists will soon discover. God bless the United States." This statement is excerpted from a floor statement scheduled to be delivered on the U.S. Senate floor by Senator Christopher S. "Kit" Bond on the afternoon of September 12, 2001. Bond's Statement on the Attacks News from the War on Terrorism Bond's September 11th Historic Act Images from the War on Terrorism Comments on Airstrikes Against Taliban |
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