Remarks by Senator Christopher J. Dodd

March 15, 2004

Bishop Gonzalez, Monsignor Jamison, Ambassador Ruperez, Rakela, dignitaries, honored guests, and friends:
I stand here today with a great sense of inadequacy.  I know that nothing that I can say, or, for that matter, that anyone can say can heal the wounds of the families of the victims of last week's horrific attacks.  I know that no words, no matter how eloquent or how moving, can truly be of comfort at this time.

In so many ways, the people of Spain today are feeling the same emotions that we in America felt after we suffered the attacks of September 11, 2001.  Anger.  Fear.  Resolve.  But above all, a profound sense of loss and sorrow.

When I spoke on the Senate floor two and a half years ago, the day after the September 11th attacks, I said that for me, the most difficult aspect of the attacks to get my hands around was the human dimension.  And I feel much the same way today.

Because as much as I try, I simply can't imagine what it must be like to be personally affected by a terrorist attack.  To have a close friend who perished on one of those trains last Thursday.  To have a family member lying in a hospital bed in Madrid right now.  Or to have known someone who was in the World Trade Center, or the Pentagon, or on one of those planes two and a half years ago.

The sheer magnitude of the attack in Madrid is staggering.  200 people lost their lives in a single, senseless act of hate and violence.

But the most difficult thing to comprehend, I think, is that this isn't just one massive tragedy – it's hundreds and hundreds of deep, personal tragedies.  Each one of the men, women, and children whose life ended in Madrid last week has relatives and friends who will forever wonder why their loved one couldn't have left for work or for school just a few minutes earlier or later that morning. 

And lest we forget, there were also 1,500 people who were wounded, many of them severely.  Their lives, and their families' lives, will go on.  But they will never again be the same.

As a person, I still find myself struggling to come to grips with the human side.  What I can do, standing here as a representative of the United States Senate, and as Chairman of the U.S.-Spain Council, is make a promise that just as Spain stood side by side with the United States as we recovered from the attacks of September 11, the American people will stand shoulder to shoulder with the people of Spain today.

Because those who committed this heinous crime did not merely act against the people of Spain – they acted against civilized nations everywhere  – nations that stand for the values of peace, freedom, and democracy.  And I believe that any nation that claims to hold those values has a solemn obligation to do everything it can for the people of Spain during these dark hours.

The philosopher George Santayana – a man born in Spain who spent much of his life in the United States – once said, "The loftiest edifices need the deepest foundations." 

Democracy is, indeed, one of the loftiest and most ambitious institutions man has ever created.  And to strengthen and sustain it requires a deep and enduring sense of trust and friendship – the kind of friendship that the American and Spanish people share today, more so than ever before.

I can still vividly remember reading the Spanish newspapers the day after the September 11th attacks.  And the headlines in the papers from Madrid and Barcelona had a sentence that was so simple, yet so eloquent: "Nosotros somos americanos" I believe I speak for most Americans when I say to the people of Spain today: "Nosotros somos espanoles."

Embassy of the Unites States of America
Serrano 75
28006 Madrid, Spain
telephone: 91587-2200
fax: 91587-2303
(Within Spain use phone numbers without 34)