Rep. Johnson Slams Omission of "Terror"

Via email:

Today U.S. Congressman Sam Johnson (3rd Dist.-Texas) released the following statement.

According to the publication, Military Times, "the House Armed Services Committee is banishing the global war on terror from the 2008 defense budget. This is not because the war has been won, lost or even called off, but because the committee's Democratic leadership doesn't like the phrase."

A 29-year Air Force veteran, Johnson served in both the Korean and Vietnam Wars. Johnson spent nearly seven years as a Prisoner of War, more than half of that time in solitary confinement.

In January Johnson introduced legislation calling on Congress to support all troops in harm's way and prohibiting Congress from cutting any funding for the armed forces while deployed. Johnson's measure, H.R. 511, has 183 co-sponsors. Recently, Johnson filed a discharge petition to bring his bill to the floor for an up-or-down vote; the petition has 182 signatures and needs 218 signatures to move forward.

"Talk about absurd! Who do the Democrats think flew airplanes into the World Trade Center Towers ?

"What do they call those who behead innocent people and then broadcast the horrendous act on the internet for all of the world to see? What do they call those who plowed into the USS Cole? What would they call Al-Sadr?

"Webster's defines terror as 'violence (as bombing) committed by groups in order to intimidate a population or government into granting their demands.'

"Blatantly ignoring the role of terror is just as bad as tolerating it. It's just a shame that the Democrats in Congress can't figure out that radical jihadists are terror defined."