Pete Sessions: “I want to share with you my admiration for Bob Smith. I think it was Phil Gramm who repeated recently what he said not…”

“I want to share with you my admiration for Bob Smith. I think it was Phil Gramm who repeated recently what he said not long after Paul Coverdell's death: If you love somebody, you ought to tell them you love them. Sometimes you are too late. I love Bob Smith. I so respect what he stands for. He stood for the future. He has been an historian. He knows the past. He has called on our military to transform itself, to meet the new challenges in the world. He has understood, with great clarity, that we do need control in space. That was a remarkable address that all of us ought to take to heart about the future this Nation has in space. I remember at one of our Armed Services Committee hearings, Secretary Rumsfeld was up for confirmation and was asked, critically: Well, you don't mean we are going to have war in space, do you, Mr. Rumsfeld? Without hesitation he said: We have had war on the ground, we have had war on the water, we have had war in the air--and, yes, we are going to have war in space, and we need to be prepared to win it. One of the great technological advances we have is the ability to control space. That enables us to control the battlefield. Senator Smith has absolutely been the strongest advocate in this Senate, and probably maybe in the House, for the vision that we have to prepare ourselves to be able to maintain domination in space. He did it for one reason--because he cares about our men and women in uniform.”