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Afghanistan
Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, I rise to speak to 9/11, the 20th anniversary, but before that, I would like to address some of the remarks made by the minority leader just a few moments ago.
He discussed, in the context of the Biden Presidency, what he called a ``reckless decision to retreat from Afghanistan with an arbitrary deadline.'' What the Senator failed to include was the efforts made last year, before Joe Biden was elected President, by the previous President, Republican Donald Trump, through his Secretary of State, Pompeo, in direct negotiation with the Taliban, to establish the deadlines for the evacuation of Afghanistan. The idea didn't come with the new President, Joe Biden; the idea started under the previous Republican President, Donald Trump, who sent our Secretary of State to directly negotiate with the Taliban leaders.
One of the things that they negotiated, incidentally--I want to make a record of it--was the release of 5,000 prisoners by the Afghan Government the Taliban wanted released, and President Trump negotiated their release.
Now, the Republican leader in the Senate comes and notes the fact that four Guantanamo prisoners are now in positions of power in the Taliban administration. Well, of course, that speaks for itself. But honesty would require us to note the fact that they were among the very same Taliban team President Trump negotiated with last year and now have positions of authority. There is no blame for President Biden in that score.
To say that we were naive toward the Taliban is to ignore the obvious. President Trump negotiated an agreement with them. If we would hold to a deadline for leaving Afghanistan, they would make certain that American forces were spared attacks during that period of time. That was part of the conversation. That was part of the negotiation. That in and of itself was a positive thing, but it also held us to a deadline to keep our troops safe.
The notion of working with and negotiating with the Taliban started with President Trump and Secretary of State Pompeo under the President.
As to whether the situation in the evacuation was entirely avoidable, I am not certain there was a playbook left by President Trump when he left office as to how he would have handled that evacuation.
I will say this for President Biden: I believe, as he did, that it was time for this war to come to an end. There were 2,461 American body bags--American lives lost in the war in Afghanistan. More than 20,000 of our troops were seriously injured during the course of that war. There was $2 trillion spent in 20 years on a war that seemed like it would never end. And we spent most of that money in an effort to build up an Afghan security force that would take care of itself so America could come home. And what happened? As soon as the United States said there would be an end to this, sadly, many of these Afghan soldiers--
uniformed, paid for, and equipped by the U.S. taxpayers--threw their guns down and surrendered, and then, of course, the administration of the Government in Afghanistan left the scene completely.
So I am one who voted for the invasion of Afghanistan for obvious reasons. That is where Osama bin Laden was supposedly hiding out with al-Qaida, responsible for the 9/11 atrocity, which we have noted the 20th anniversary of this week. But I don't believe anyone on the floor in this Senate envisioned a war that would go on to be the longest war in American history. That is what happened.
The second issue raised by the Republican leader notes that the American Rescue Plan was a recipe for inflation, and he called it a
``tax hike upon working families.'' Let's clear up that record.
The American Rescue Plan was suggested by President Biden. The goals of that plan were several. The goals included the administration of coronavirus vaccines across America, which has taken place in one of the most effective efforts ever to make it available. I am sorry that some 30 percent of Americans refuse to be vaccinated, but it has nothing to do with the availability of the vaccine. President Biden kept his word to bring that vaccine to the American people, and that was part of the American Rescue Plan. I don't know if the Senator from Kentucky is questioning the wisdom of that, but it is a fact.
The second thing it did was to provide a $1,400 payment, if you will remember, that had been promised by President Trump, and we completed and kept that promise with the American Rescue Plan, so dollar assistance for families across America, including working families, let me add. And also then came the child tax credits. It was the most extraordinary effort made by our government to help families raising children--cash payments through the end of this year. To argue that this is somehow a tax on working families is to ignore the fact that it is the biggest tax break in the history of this country for working families.
How many Republicans supported us for the $1,400 cash payment to families, for the plan to administer the vaccine across America, for the help for families with children, for more assistance for businesses? Not one. Not one Republican vote in support of the American Rescue Plan.
To hear the theory that was given just a few moments ago by the Republican leader is to ignore the obvious: That plan was essential to this country coming to grips with this pandemic and starting to get this economy back on its feet.
The Senator from Kentucky has characterized our reconciliation bill as reckless, and he talks about the massive tax increases. He forgets one particular element. What we are doing is reversing the tax breaks given by the Trump administration 4 years ago to the wealthiest people in America. Yes, their taxes will go up. But President Biden has made it clear that there will be no tax increases for anyone making less than $400,000 a year. So if we are talking about a new tax burden, it is on people who can certainly afford to pay, and it reverses the tax cut which many of the Republicans--I think virtually all of them--at the time voted for.
September 11
Madam President, I want to tell you about an extraordinary person from my State. Dan Shanower grew up in Naperville, just outside of Chicago--one of five kids in his family. In college, he spent a semester at Washington, DC, as part of American University's Washington Semester Program. He managed to become an intern here on Capitol Hill for U.S. Senator Charles Percy from Illinois.
An opportunity like that can change your outlook on life. I know it changed mine when I was an intern for Senator Paul Douglas. It changed Dan Shanower's mind, and he started thinking about what he could do by way of public service.
He wasn't interested in politics, though. So after college, he enlisted in the Navy. He became an intelligence officer. He served in the Persian Gulf war and in assignments around the globe.
On September 11, 2001, Dan Shanower was on duty at the Pentagon. He was hurriedly gathering papers to brief his superiors on the attack on the World Trade Center, when American Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon and took his life.
Navy CDR Dan Shanower was one of 125 servicemembers and civilians who lost their lives in the Pentagon on 9/11; one of the 2,977 Americans lost to the terrorist attacks that fatal day. He was 40 years old. Two years later, the people of Naperville, IL, dedicated a memorial to his honor on the Riverwalk, on the banks of the DuPage River. It was one of America's first 9/11 memorials. This past Saturday, the victims and heroes of 9/11 were remembered at the memorial in Naperville.
Twenty years after the attacks, the remembrances of that year seem to contain a new kind of sadness, not only for those who perished--rest their souls--but for all we have lost in the years since. Amid our shock and grief following 9/11, Americans were sustained by acts of heroism, sacrifice, compassion, and a deep sense of national unity.
I watch ``60 Minutes'' every week. Last night, I saw the program that they dedicated to the New York Fire Department and 9/11. It was touching, emotional, and heartbreaking. I had tears in my eyes as they told the stories of the 343 firemen who went into those buildings to rescue the people who were there. They told their stories even with their voices from radio transmissions and the voices of those victims in the building praying that someone would rescue them. It was a touching moment and a reminder of what true courage looks like.
We have a responsibility now to ask a basic question about our responsibility when it comes to the people in this country. Do you remember the national unity that we felt after 9/11? That tragedy brought us together. Imagine then--fast-forward, if you will, to January 6, 2021, when the insurrectionist mob overran this Capitol.
I was in this Capitol on 9/11, meeting just off the floor. We heard that the first plane had crashed into the World Trade Center, and we went and turned on the television to see if there was any further news and saw in real time the second plane crash into the other tower.
Then a third plane flew into the Pentagon, taking CDR Dan Shanower's life. We only knew from the black, billowing smoke across the Mall that something terrible had happened, and we didn't know what was next. Someone came in and said: We are evacuating the building.
Everybody went pouring out on the east side of the Capitol in front of the Supreme Court building.
Tourists came up to me and said: You work here?
I said: Sure.
Where are we supposed to go? Where is it safe?
I didn't know what to tell them. There was no Capitol Visitor Center or anyplace. I directed them to the train station, the Metro station blocks away.
In the days that followed 9/11, we learned about the heroes of Flight 93. While we were standing on that lawn, thank goodness those passengers stood up and made a difference. They sacrificed their lives to stop that plane from crashing into the Capitol or the White House or whatever its final destination might have been.
Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun-Times did a special column,
``Remembering 9-11'' and particularly Todd Beamer. Todd Beamer was a Wheaton College grad who was a passenger on Flight 93. He managed to get in touch, using an Airfone, with Lisa Jefferson, and they spoke for about 15 minutes as Todd described what was going on in that airplane, and she told him what had happened at the Trade Center and the Pentagon. It was Todd Beamer who made that memorable statement ``Let's roll'' when they tried to take over the plane and gave up their lives in the process. Those were the true heroes.
It is heartbreaking that 20 years later, the gravest threat to America is not just the international terrorism but some terrorism that comes from within. Al-Qaida did not succeed in attacking this Capitol, but 9 months ago, homegrown American terrorists did.
As we speak, workers are preparing to reinstall a security fence around the Capitol to protect it from another gathering of violent White nationalists expected in Washington this weekend.
Former President George W. Bush spoke for many of us on Saturday when he said that the terrorists of 9/11 and the violent extremists at home may come from different cultures--these are his words: ``But in their disdain for pluralism, in their disregard for human life, in their determination to defile national symbols, they are children of the same foul spirit, and it is our duty to confront them.''
We have work of great importance before us. In the next few weeks, the Congress needs to find a plan to fund the government, protect our economy, protect the full faith and credit of the United States, make sure we pay our bills on time as promised. And isn't it ironic that there is resistance to increasing the debt ceiling from the Republican side of the aisle when the increase in the debt ceiling is to pay for the debts incurred under President Donald Trump? It is his administration we are paying for with this vote. And the Republicans, many of whom supported him and continue to, don't want to balance the books and accept that responsibility.
SOURCE: Congressional Record Vol. 167, No. 157
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