David Thomas: “this morning I will make a few comments with regard to the issue that is generally before us and before the country, and…”

“this morning I will make a few comments with regard to the issue that is generally before us and before the country, and that is, of course, where we go with regard to Iraq and Saddam Hussein. The President did a great job last night. He made very appropriate comments at a very appropriate time. He has discussed in detail the threats we see in Iraq, the threats we see in terrorism, and he has talked about his solution. There have been questions raised, and properly so, and the President last evening sought to answer those questions, as indeed I think he should. Why do we need to contain this dictator? I think surely most people understand that. Why do we need to do it now? I suppose that may be one of the most difficult questions for some. Why are we waiting to have allies in the U.N.? Certainly most agree that is something we want. The President covered that very thoroughly, and indicated that is his goal. Our loss of 3,000 innocent Americans on September 11 makes us aware of why we need to make some changes; that activity in the world has changed. A number of years ago the threats were of landing on barges, flying huge formations of airplanes, with divisions of armed men and women. Now it is not entirely safe, as we found out September 11. We suffer huge damages from one incident. That is difficult to control. Clearly we have a problem. We must complete our discussion, move forward and make decisions.”