Cord Byrd: “In this new world, we face a new kind of war--a war on our shores, a war that is different in scope and intensity from…”

“In this new world, we face a new kind of war--a war on our shores, a war that is different in scope and intensity from any that we have ever faced before. The enemy is no organized army. There is no organized army of infantry, or artillery. The enemy is not an organized army with maps and bayonets. The enemy follows no rules of engagement. The enemy heeds no Geneva Convention. Their weapon is fear. Their application is destruction. We cannot stand idly by and put our total faith in some new bureaucracy. We ought not be lulled into complacency that the hope of a new government department may eventually make us safer. This Congress has the responsibility to protect the American people. That responsibility lies here as well as downtown in the executive branch. This Congress has the responsibility to invest the dollars where they are most needed and to focus on the Nation's many serious vulnerabilities. But by blindly supporting the arbitrary figures that are undermining the package before this Senate, we take a dangerous gamble with the lives of the American people. And we do not have that right. We do not have the right to take that danger and gamble with the American people. The White House does not have that right. The President of the United States does not have that right.”