By Congressman Steve King (R-IA)
On or near this anniversary of the tragic date of September 11, 2001, as a nation we look book on that day. We all remember where we were at that moment in history when the tragic attack took place on the Twin Towers in New York, on the Pentagon, and the plane that crashed in the fields of Pennsylvania. Since that time, this nation has gone through a lot of tests and a lot of trials. But immediately we pulled together as a people. We became one people; unified, lined up against the enemies even before we knew who our enemies were who had attacked us on that day.
We fought a war in Iraq. We’re fighting a war in Afghanistan. We’re engaged in operations in Libya. More Americans in uniform have lost their lives protecting us and defending our freedom and our liberty than were killed on that tragic day ten years ago. It’s been a huge sacrifice on the part of the American people. A tremendous amount of blood has been shed, ten years ago and in the years since. A tremendous amount of treasure has been spent to succeed in this global War on Terror.
We have made significant progress, both under President Bush and President Obama. We have a long ways to go before we can be assured that we can climb on a plane again and not fear that it will be hijacked, and not fear that it will be crashed into a critical component of our infrastructure or our society. But we are a stronger people as a nation. We’re stronger, we’re pulled together, we understand the value of freedom and the safety that we have within this country. We pay more attention than we did before to the values that came to us through the Declaration, through the Constitution, from our Founding Fathers. We recognize that our rights come from God and they must be defended. And they are precious and a dollar value cannot be put upon these rights of liberty and freedom that we have. It is our job to protect, preserve and defend them for the succeeding generations, just as those who have gone before us have protected and preserved our rights and our liberty for us.
I’d ask the American people for a new resolution. Let’s go forward, let’s stand together, let’s lock arms to defeat this enemy and let’s again take this lesson and be stronger as a people so that ten years from now we can look back, on the 20th anniversary of that tragic day of September 11, 2001, and say: ‘Yes, we are a stronger people, we’re a better people, we have gotten stronger because we’ve pulled together and we’ve drawn something positive out of this terrible tragedy.
Thank you very much. God bless America.
