Ileana Ros-Lehtinen: “I am pleased to yield 3\1/4\ minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. McCaul), a member of the International Relations…”

“I am pleased to yield 3\1/4\ minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. McCaul), a member of the International Relations Committee. Mr. McCAUL of Texas. Mr. Speaker, September 11 changed our lives forever. But the war on terror started long before that. The year 1979 changed the world. When Iran took our embassy hostage, the seeds of Islamic jihad were spread all over the Middle East. These seeds planted hatred and contempt for freedom in the souls of men like Osama bin Laden. In 1983, they murdered our marines in Beirut. In 1993, Ramzi Yousef and his al Qaeda associates bombed the World Trade Center. They were supposed to fall that day, but that day would come later. They struck the Khobar Towers in 1996. They bombed our embassies in Africa. They defeated us in Somalia. And they deliberately attacked the USS Cole. Each time we failed to respond. And then came September 11. It was as if the United States was a sleeping giant. And not until the bloodiest alarm of 9/11 did the giant finally awake. America cannot afford to go back to sleep again. We are fighting this war in distant lands, and we are winning. Our struggle in Iraq and Afghanistan is the great stand in this war on terror. The terrorists are there. Zarqawi was there before, and we are there. And if we fail, the terrorists will prevail just as they have over the last 30 years. Behind me is a picture of Sergeant Byron Norwood taken moments before he died for his country in this global war on terror.…”