Floor Remarks by Congressman Zach Wamp, September 10, 2007

It's a privilege and an honor to come back down to the floor tonight. I want to talk on two fronts, really. The first one is about Iraq and the other is the threat of radical Islam, Islamofascism, as some people call it; but I think it's important here right on the cusp of the sixth anniversary, tomorrow of 9/11, to remind our colleagues and our fellow countrymen that we are not only not out of the woods, but that these threats are grave. They are grave this week.

It's easy for everyone in this country to get lulled back into complacency or look for the comforts of our living room and shopping malls, but we face a huge growing and imminent threat from the terror itself here on our homeland.

We come, as members of the Republican Policy Committee tonight, we just left a briefing downstairs from a Lebanese Christian named Brigitte Gabriel, who wrote a book called "Because They Hate." Some would ignore her, but, frankly, coming from that world and being able to go on Internet chat rooms and read Arabic and know what's going on out there, we should listen. We should listen very carefully to what's happening in the world of radical Islam…

…Let me give you an example. Mark Steyn just tells us recently of a book that was published called "Alms for Jihad; Charity and Terrorism in the Islamic World." A guy named Jay Millard Burr wrote it. Great research in Saudi Arabia where all this oil money, and we heard this downstairs from Brigitte as well, using the Saudi Arabian oil money to promote terrorists around the world, period. It's happening…

Let me tell you, folks, in this country, from Dearborn, Michigan to right here in Virginia, Falls Church, Virginia, oil money from the wahabis in Saudi Arabia training up young people in this country, under a global Shari'ah, Islamic law, bringing them up against America in this country today. Listen, this, to me, at the sixth anniversary of 9/11, is a call to action for Americans who've been lulled into complacency thinking that somehow this conflict is about Iraq. If we would just leave Iraq, all of our problems go away.

I'll say to you tonight, Mr. Speaker, this is not about Iraq. Iraq is the venue, it's the theater, it's where al Sadr is, it's where the Iranians and the Syrians have come, it's where they've recruited, it's where the fight is, but it's not about Iraq. It's about us and radical Islam at war. That's the theater. But let me tell you, it could just as easily be here tomorrow. God forbid it, but it could be just as easily here.

They have virtually taken some parts of Europe in terms of public opinion. They've challenged laws of countries and states in their courts, challenging Islamic law should take precedence, and that's what they would like to see here.

You may say, oh, he's wild; he's off the reservation. Not true. This is the way it is. They're using our very porous borders to come at us. And we're not secure. We're ignoring the threat…

And let me tell you, this threat we face, nobody wants to hear this, is greater than the threat of Nazi Germany…

This is not George Bush's war. This is America's fight. We committed it together. Some people would like to blame it on others now and not accept the responsibility. But this is America's fight against radical Islam, and it will go on for years to come, even when Iraq is over. And there'll be a time where Iraq is not the central theater. I'm concerned we're going to be fighting radical Islam all the days of my life.

The question is, are we going to stand up, as generations before us have, and defend freedom. And don't think for a second that it's all about Iraq. Some people dressed in pink would have you believe that. It's not true. And I'll tell you, what some of them are doing is downright un-American, and 50 years ago they'd have run them out of here on a rail.