KM32MVP
Well-Known Member
In 1837, Danish author, Hans Christian Andersen, wrote a wonderful fairy
tale which he titled The Emperor's New Clothes. It may be the very
first example of the power of political correctness. It is the story of
the Ruler of a distant land who was so enamored of his appearance and
his clothing that he had a different suit for every hour of the day.
One day two rogues arrived in town, claiming to be gifted weavers. They
convinced the Emperor that they could weave the most wonderful cloth,
which had a magical property. The clothes were only visible to those
who were completely pure in heart and spirit.
The Emperor was impressed and ordered the weavers to begin work
immediately. The rogues, who had a deep understanding of human nature,
began to feign work on empty looms.
Minister after minister went to view the new clothes and all came back
exhorting the beauty of the cloth on the looms even though none of them
could see a thing.
Finally a grand procession was planned for the Emperor to display his
new finery. The Emperor went to view his clothes and was shocked to see
absolutely nothing, but he pretended to admire the fabulous cloth,
inspect the clothes with awe, and, after disrobing, go through the
motions of carefully putting on a suit of the new garments.
Under a royal canopy the Emperor appeared to the admiring throng of his
people - - all of whom cheered and clapped because they all knew the
rogue weavers' tale and did not want to be seen as less than pure of
heart.
But, the bubble burst when an innocent child loudly exclaimed, for the
whole kingdom to hear, that the Emperor had nothing on at all. He had
no clothes.
That tale seems to me very like the way this nation was led to war.
We were told that we were threatened by weapons of mass destruction in
Iraq, but they have not been seen.
We were told that the throngs of Iraqi's would welcome our troops with
flowers, but no throngs or flowers appeared.
We were led to believe that Saddam Hussein was connected to the attack
on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, but no evidence has ever been
produced.
We were told in 16 words that Saddam Hussein tried to buy "yellow cake"
from Africa for production of nuclear weapons, but the story has turned
into empty air.
We were frightened with visions of mushroom clouds, but they turned out
to be only vapors of the mind.
We were told that major combat was over but 101 [as of October 17]
Americans have died in combat since that proclamation from the deck of
an aircraft carrier by our very own Emperor in his new clothes.
Our emperor says that we are not occupiers, yet we show no inclination
to relinquish the country of Iraq to its people.
Those who have dared to expose the nakedness of the Administration's
policies in Iraq have been subjected to scorn. Those who have noticed
the elephant in the room -- that is, the fact that this war was based on
falsehoods * have had our patriotism questioned. Those who have spoken
aloud the thought shared by hundreds of thousands of military families
across this country, that our troops should return quickly and safely
from the dangers half a world away, have been accused of cowardice. We
have then seen the untruths, the dissembling, the fabrication, the
misleading inferences surrounding this rush to war in Iraq wrapped
quickly in the flag.
The right to ask questions, debate, and dissent is under attack. The
drums of war are beaten ever louder in an attempt to drown out those who
speak of our predicament in stark terms.
Even in the Senate, our history and tradition of being the world's
greatest deliberative body is being snubbed. This huge spending bill
has been rushed through this chamber in just one month. There were just
three open hearings by the Senate Appropriations Committee on $87
billion, without a single outside witness called to challenge the
Administration's line.
Ambassador Bremer went so far as to refuse to return to the
Appropriations Committee to answer additional questions because, and I
quote: "I don't have time. I'm completely booked, and I have to get
back to Baghdad to my duties."
Despite this callous stiff-arm of the Senate and its duties to ask
questions in order to represent the American people, few dared to voice
their opposition to rushing this bill through these halls of Congress.
Perhaps they were intimidated by the false claims that our troops are in
immediate need of more funds.
But the time has come for the sheep-like political correctness which has
cowed members of this Senate to come to an end.
The Emperor has no clothes. This entire adventure in Iraq has been
based on propaganda and manipulation. Eighty-seven billion dollars is
too much to pay for the continuation of a war based on falsehoods.
Taking the nation to war based on misleading rhetoric and hyped
intelligence is a travesty and a tragedy. It is the most cynical of all
cynical acts. It is dangerous to manipulate the truth. It is dangerous
because once having lied, it is difficult to ever be believed again.
Having misled the American people and stampeded them to war, this
Administration must now attempt to sustain a policy predicated on
falsehoods. The President asks for billions from those same citizens
who know that they were misled about the need to go to war. We
misinformed and insulted our friends and allies and now this
Administration is having more than a little trouble getting help from
the international community. It is perilous to mislead.
The single-minded obsession of this Administration to now make sense of
the chaos in Iraq, and the continuing propaganda which emanates from the
White House painting Iraq as the geographical center of terrorism is
distracting our attention from Afghanistan and the 60 other countries in
the world where terrorists hide. It is sapping resources which could be
used to make us safer from terrorists on our own shores. The body armor
for our own citizens still has many, many chinks. Have we forgotten
that the most horrific terror attacks in history occurred right here at
home!! Yet, this Administration turns back money for homeland security,
while the President pours billions into security for Iraq. I am
powerless to understand or explain such a policy.
I have tried mightily to improve this bill. I twice tried to separate
the reconstruction money in this bill, so that those dollars could be
considered separately from the military spending. I offered an
amendment to force the Administration to craft a plan to get other
nations to assist the troops and formulate a plan to get the U.N. in,
and the U.S. out, of Iraq. Twice I tried to rid the bill of expansive,
flexible authorities that turn this $87 billion into a blank check. The
American people should understand that we provide more foreign aid for
Iraq in this bill, $20.3 billion, than we provide for the rest of the
entire world! I attempted to remove from this bill billions in
wasteful programs and divert those funds to better use. But, at every
turn, my efforts were thwarted by the vapid argument that we must all
support the requests of the Commander in Chief.
I cannot stand by and continue to watch our grandchildren become
increasingly burdened by the billions that fly out of the Treasury for
a war and a policy based largely on propaganda and prevarication. We
are borrowing $87 billion to finance this adventure in Iraq. The
President is asking this Senate to pay for this war with increased debt,
a debt that will have to be paid by our children and by those same
troops that are currently fighting this war. I cannot support
outlandish tax cuts that plunge our country into potentially disastrous
debt while our troops are fighting and dying in a war that the White
House chose to begin.
I cannot support the continuation of a policy that unwisely ties down
150,000 American troops for the foreseeable future, with no end in
sight.
I cannot support a President who refuses to authorize the reasonable
change in course that would bring traditional allies to our side in
Iraq.
I cannot support the politics of zeal and "might makes right" that
created the new American arrogance and unilateralism which passes for
foreign policy in this Administration.
I cannot support this foolish manifestation of the dangerous and
destabilizing doctrine of preemption that changes the image of America
into that of a reckless bully.
The emperor has no clothes. And our former allies around the world were
the first to loudly observe it.
I shall vote against this bill because I cannot support a policy based
on prevarication. I cannot support doling out 87 billion of our
hard-earned tax dollars when I have so many doubts about the wisdom of
its use.
I began my remarks with a fairy tale. I shall close my remarks with a
horror story, in the form of a quote from the book Nuremberg Diaries,
written by G.M. Gilbert, in which the author interviews Hermann Goering.
"We got around to the subject of war again and I said that, contrary to
his attitude, I did not think that the common people are very thankful
for leaders who bring them war and destruction.
". . . But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine
the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along,
whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a
Communist dictatorship.
"There is one difference," I pointed out. "In a democracy the people
have some say in the matter through their elected representatives, and
in the United States only Congress can declare wars."
"Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can
always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you
have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the
pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It
works the same way in any country."
Sad, sad day.
