September 11: Two years later

By By Chip Pickering / U.S. representative
Sept. 14, 2003
September 10, 2001, seems like more than two years ago. That Monday, most Americans had never considered the term "homeland security." Usama bin Laden was an obscure terrorist. The Taliban oppressed the ancient land of Afghanistan. Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq raped, tortured and murdered their people unfettered by and ignoring resolutions from the international community. Al Qaeda agents around the world plotted in secret with little fear of repercussions.
That Monday evening, workers in the World Trade Center in New York went home to their families, duties at the Pentagon continued as normal, and the only fear in our commercial skies was the stress of first-time fliers.
The next morning, the world changed.
Now two years later, there are still many unanswered questions. But today we are safer and more secure than we were two years ago. Today we have taken the war to the terrorists' renegade camps and away from our neighborhoods and homes. Today we mourn our loss two years ago, but we plan for a future more secure from terror.
During the past two years the war on terror has either captured or killed nearly two-thirds of known senior al Qaeda leaders, operational managers and key facilitators. Additionally, American authorities have arrested and convicted 130 terrorists and accomplices and seized or frozen from them and their associates' financial assets totaling more than $200 million.
We now have a new governing coalition of Afghanis who seek freedom and liberty for their people and have repudiated the oppressive regime of the Taliban, and have divorced their nation from its former unholy alliance with al Qaeda. Afghanistan is now free and ally of America against terror; two years ago it was the headquarters for Usama bin Laden.
Iraq is another vital front in the war on terror. The Iraqi regime harbored and sponsored terrorists, developed and used weapons of mass destruction, threatened the international community and exacerbated the problems in the Middle East.
More secure today
Americans are more secure today because Operation Iraqi Freedom addressed the gathering danger of Saddam Hussein. And the spread of freedom and democracy in the Middle East will help to reduce the root causes of extremism and terrorism that have caused thousands of deaths and destroyed the hopes and aspirations of generations.
In Iraq, coalition forces have captured or killed 42 of the 55 most wanted criminals of Saddam Hussein's regime. Our strategy in Iraq will be to improve security by aggressively hunting down terrorists, expand the international coalition beyond the more than 30 countries currently participating and accelerate efforts to transfer power and responsibility to the Iraqi people.
Today Iraq is on the road to democracy, freedom, justice and liberty, two years ago the dictator Saddam Hussein used billions of dollars stolen from his people to plot destruction and threaten the international community.
As the war on terror continues abroad, we are also being vigilant on the home front. Al Qaeda and its terrorist allies are still plotting attacks against the United States. The administration continues to take the steps necessary to ensure the American people are safe at home.
We formed the Department of Homeland Security with funding levels necessary to accomplish its objectives. We have reorganized our intelligence agencies to work better with each other, we have passed legislation allowing our law enforcement officers to more easily pursue and convict terrorists and we have launched several programs to properly fund and train our community first responders.
We still have much to do.
President Bush has asked Congress for $87 billion for military and reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq. This money will help protect American solders as they fight on the front lines of freedom, and it will construct a more stable Middle East that joins the international alliance of freedom loving peoples.
We have paid a price other than dollars. As of August, military operations in Afghanistan, the Philippines and Iraq had claimed the lives of more than 350 American servicemen and women, including several from Mississippi.
Two years ago the world wondered if America would be willing to pay the price for security, whether we would have the resolve to do what it takes to win the war on terror and secure safety and freedom for America's future and a future of peace for the world.
We tell the world that our men and women have not died in vain; we will finish what was started; we will prevail and win the war on terror.
On September 11, terrorists challenged our people with their misconception that we would not respond, that we were unwilling to pay the price of liberty. Now two years later they wonder how long we will continue our mission. We tell them, as long as it takes.