Susan Collins: “it has been nearly 2\1/2\ years since a monstrous act of war was committed against the United States. The American…”

“it has been nearly 2\1/2\ years since a monstrous act of war was committed against the United States. The American people responded to the attacks of September 11 with courage-- courage that was evident that horrible day in the heroic actions of the passengers on Flight 93, in the firefighters and police officers at Ground Zero, and in the Pentagon employees who led their co-workers to safety through fire, smoke, and rubble. That courage is evident today in the men and women of our Armed Forces on the front lines in the war on terrorism and in the ordinary Americans across the country who carry on normal, productive lives, refusing to be terrorized by terrorism. President Bush and Congress responded by recognizing that this was a different kind of war with a different kind of enemy. Together we saw that this enemy used as a weapon the freedom and openness that Americans cherish but that it despises. We realized that our efforts to defend our Nation against this unconventional and unprincipled enemy were hampered by the lack of a unified strategy. To revisit a phrase used so often in the aftermath of September 11, we were not connecting the dots. We knew that turf battles, communication gaps, and interagency rivalries could no longer be tolerated. The stakes were too high.…”