Update on the War on Terrorism
By Thomas M. Reynolds
U.S. Representative, NY-27

During a number of town meetings I've held throughout the 27^th Congressional district over the past couple of weeks, including one at the Harlem Road Community Center in Amherst, it's clear that America's War on Terrorism is on the minds of most everyone in our community.

A few days after the evil and cowardly attacks of September 11th, President Bush declared that freedom and fear are at war.

And make no mistake. Freedom is winning and will win this war.

It's said that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. And I think that Osama bin Laden is going to learn a painful lesson by not heeding the history of this great nation.

Shortly after the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, Imperial Admiral Yamamoto - the very man who had conceived and executed that attack - is quoted as saying that he feared "we have awakened a sleeping giant and have instilled in him a terrible resolve."

If those who plotted September 11th's vicious attacks on our country thought they could divide us, they could not have been more wrong. This nation's unity is proudly on display. You can see it any neighborhood, on any street, as row after row of American flags snap proudly in the wind.

And the world has seen the steely resolve of this great nation, embodied in our police, firefighters and rescue workers, and in the passengers of United Flight 93, whose selfless acts of heroism saved the lives of perhaps hundreds more on that fateful day.

Just as the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor woke a sleeping giant, today we are a country, as President Bush said, "awakened to danger and called to defend freedom. Our grief has turned to anger, and anger to resolution."

September 11th's tragedy was so profound and so completely evil that many continue to ask, why do they hate us so?

After all, we are, by our very nature, a peaceful nation: a peace-loving nation.

But think about the Al Qaeda and the Taliban, for just a moment. Women are beaten on public streets if they dare show their face. Young girls are forbidden from receiving an education. Men can be arrested if their beards are not a proper length. You can be jailed for owning a television set. And the only religion that can be practiced is that of their leaders.

Nothing could be more abhorrent to tyrants such as these than a free and open society: where men and women, and those of every racial and ethnic background are accorded equal protection and opportunity; and where religion - any religion - is practiced freely and openly.

In America, we do not cloak our differences of heritage, ethnicity and religion, of culture and ideas. We celebrate them.

That is why so many continue to come to our shores: to begin a new life filled with hope and opportunity, to breath the air of freedom, and to escape the very kind of oppression and tyranny we see today in places like Afghanistan.

And that is why everyone should remember, as President Bush said on September 20th, "the enemy of America is not our many Muslim friends; it is not our many Arab friends. Our enemy is a radical network of terrorists, and every government that supports them."

The teachings of Islam "are good and peaceful, and those who commit evil in the name of Allah blaspheme the name of Allah. The terrorists are traitors to their own faith, trying, in effect, to hijack Islam itself."

We are and will be a nation of many faiths. Cowardly terrorists cannot be allowed change that. America will be America.

Perhaps the most tragic thing is that this is not the first time we have seen the face of this type of evil fanaticism. Today, it is embodied in Osama bin Laden.

But our Greatest Generation has seen it before, personified in Adolph Hitler.

And just as our Greatest Generation went to war to free a world, our nation has once again been called to arms to defend freedom and liberty against a hateful fanatic.

Ronald Reagan once said that "freedom is a fragile thing and is never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation."

Today's generation has been called upon for a new showdown with evil.

But unlike past conflicts, where nation fought nation, this is a different kind of war, with a different kind of enemy.

Our goal is not only to bring to justice Osama bin Laden and all those responsible for September 11th's attacks, it is to root out and defeat terrorism. It is a difficult objective, but one which has already had its share of victories. One even came on September 11th.

As expectant mother and widow Lisa Beamer said, her husband "Todd and the other freedom fighters of flight 93 brought the first victory in our nation's war against terrorism."

In addition, we have frozen tens of millions of dollars in money traced to bin Laden and his terror network. And the precision strikes of the American military are methodically destroying Al Qaeda's military capability.

Our government is at work, too, providing the tools and resources we need for victory.

In an unprecedented display of bipartisanship and purpose, we have worked together on everything from an immediate aid package of $40 billion to help recover from the attacks to new anti-terrorism legislation that will provide law enforcement the tools they need to root out terrorist activities here at home.

This week, we'll finalize and pass an airport security package to protect America's traveling public. And we've passed an economic stimulus package to keep America strong and we're working to get our nation back to normal.

It is important that each of us returns to normal, to get back to our daily routines. As President Bush said in his address to Congress, you should "live your lives, and hug your children," and even though "many citizens have fears...be calm and resolute."