Jeff Bingaman: “all of us share in the overwhelming shock and grief at the horrible events of these past 24 hours. All of us are…”

“all of us share in the overwhelming shock and grief at the horrible events of these past 24 hours. All of us are struggling to find the right words to say--struggling to understand our own emotions--struggling to answer the question, ``Where do we go from here?'' Despite our uncertainties, we share a common bond--the deepest sorrow and sympathy we feel for those innocent people who have lost their lives or their loved ones in those instants of unspeakable inhumanity. I join with the people and leaders of the world in expressing my profound sadness and extending my personal condolences to all of those who have been victimized by these acts of terror. Ten years ago, the Soviet Union crumbled and the Warsaw Pact disappeared. The cold war, many have said, is over. The nation moved quickly to reduce the size of our military and to reorder our national priorities to attend to pressing national issues of health care, education, justice, and so forth. All of us celebrated the nation's new priorities. Hopes for the future of our nation and the evolving international system were high. What we were only beginning to understand, however, was that the end of the cold war did not mean the end of America's need to ensure its security in new and different ways.”