Lloyd Bentsen: “like all the Members here and like all Americans, I was shocked and quite frankly stunned at the actions that occurred…”

“like all the Members here and like all Americans, I was shocked and quite frankly stunned at the actions that occurred yesterday. As we look at the news and the video of the actions over and over again, it is just unbelievable that America and Americans could suffer this type of attack, this cruel, cowardly, dastardly attack of terrorists. As a young man, I spent some time in New York and I have been in and out of the World Trade Center more times than I can remember. I know some of those firms that are there. I do not think I know anybody who is working there or was working there. I hope I do not know anybody who was still there. But it is unbelievable to me that this attack on America's power and prestige could have taken place. But what is also unbelievable is the response of the American people here at the Pentagon, the American people in New York, responding to it. The firefighters, the police, the people that went back into the buildings, the people who gave their lives who did not have to. The collateral damage was the flesh and blood of Americans. But the collateral damage was not and should not be the American ideal. As we resolve to move forward and to show the terrorists, whoever they may be, that we will strike back, and that we will continue to prosper and to grow and be the greatest Nation in the history of the Earth, we must not lose the American ideal. That was preserved yesterday in the carnage that occurred by this cowardly, dastardly attack.”