Kevin Brady: “If the gentleman would stay for just a moment. You have spent your whole life in law enforcement and a number of your…”

“If the gentleman would stay for just a moment. You have spent your whole life in law enforcement and a number of your recent years in protecting homeland security from threats. One of the key points you made is that while we are fighting a war against terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan with our men and women, the fact is we fought a war, as well, 20 years ago in Central America, moving those countries away from communism and socialism toward democracy. They have made real progress, but we still have leaders like Castro and Chavez and Daniel Ortega and FMLM, some of the most Socialist anti-American groups in this hemisphere opposing us because their point is democracy does not work, human rights does not work, the rule of law does not work. Communist does. Come, step backward in time. One of my colleague's points was the worst thing we could do would be to give that region back to the Communists and Socialists at a time when they have made so much progress. Mr. McCAUL of Texas. We cannot afford to turn the clock back, as the gentleman mentioned. We won that war 25 years ago, but now we see instability in the region. We see President Chavez down in Venezuela aligning himself with people like Fidel Castro, asking Iran for nuclear technology. We have a triborder region down in South America where al Qaeda and groups like Hezbollah meet and discuss their activities. The threat is very real.…”