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September
20, 2001
A Speech George W. Bush
Could Give to the Nation
By Doug Morris
Good evening, my fellow Americans.
St. Augustine said that "hope
has two beautiful daughters: anger and courage. Anger at the
way things are, and courage to struggle to create things as they
should be." These acts perpetrated against humanity on
Tuesday were acts of anger at the way things are. They were
not courageous acts, but horrendous atrocities, acts of anger
laced with hate. Our first response must be support and compassion
for the victims, and families and friends of the victims. But,
in addition, we should ask ourselves "what conditions led
these fellow humans to develop such anger and hatred, led them
to commit such abominably inhumane acts, and why was it directed
at these particular targets in the United States?"
We should not repress our anger
and indignation at these hateful and callous acts, or our anger
and indignation at all hateful and callous acts, but our anger
must be accompanied not by hate, but with love, and by the courage
to struggle to create a more just world, and THAT my fellow Americans
will require a major effort to question, understand, challenge,
change and raise OUR national consciousness. Please, my fellow
Americans, listen with open ears, open minds and open hearts.
While no loving and decent
human will tolerate acts of terror, we must try to understand
the extremely difficult question: why? For example, what is
the symbolic significance of the Pentagon and the World Trade
Center in the eyes of the world? And here, my fellow Americans
we must search deep into our own history, our own policies, our
own pursuits, our own impositions, and, our own hearts. It is
painful, but, let us be blunt: the war against terrorism has
begun, violently. The two most potent symbols of global military
and economic violence, global military and economic terrorism,
have been struck. These were cowardly and unconscionable acts,
to be sure, and, as in most acts of terror, the innocent suffer
most, the working class, the toiling class, the secretaries,
the firemen, the rescue workers, etc. We must launch a war against
terrorism, non-violently. A.J. Muste, committed pacifist, advised
us that in a world built on violence "we must be revolutionaries
before we are pacifists." That is, we must work to abolish
the institutions of violence, non-violently.
However, make no mistake, my
fellow Americans, the Pentagon IS the center of world military
violence and terrorism. The US is the world's leading exporter
of tools of death and destruction. Let us be honest, we have
been committed to violence as a way to address international
conflicts for many, many years. And a PARTIAL list of the results
of our commitment to violence includes: Korea millions
killed. Vietnam millions killed. Cambodia hundreds
of thousands killed. Laos hundreds of thousands killed.
Iraq hundreds of thousands killed. Guatemala hundreds
of thousands killed. Hiroshima and Nagasaki hundreds of
thousands killed. East Timor hundreds of thousands killed.
Nicaragua tens of thousands killed. El Salvador
tens of thousands killed. Colombia tens of thousands killed.
Dominican Republic thousands killed. Somalia thousands
killed. Haiti thousands killed. Yugoslavia thousands
killed. Panama hundreds killed. And let us not forget
the ways in which we have mistreated the Cuban people for over
40 years now with our embargo and repeated acts of terrorism.
Let us remember my father's words during the buildup to the
US attack on Iraq: "there will be no negotiationswhat we
say goes." "No negotiations" simply means we
prefer violence. "What we say goes" expresses the
arrogance, chauvinism and mystique of invincibility that has
separated the US from the world. Both views express the notion
that the US is above international law and the UN Charter, outside
the family of nations. Is it any wonder that Harvard professor
Samuel Huntington said that in the eyes of most of the world
the US is seen as "THE rogue superpower," considered
"THE single greatest external threat to their societies"?
The world quakes in its boots wondering when we will attack,
and what form of violence will ensue: cruise missiles, helicopter
gunships, chemical or biological agents, nuclear bombs, F18's,
F22's, B52's, fumigation campaigns, IMF/World Bank "Structural
Adjustment Programs," or "Austerity Programs,"
embargoes, sanctions, disappearances, assassinations, massacres,
tortures, cultural cooptation or erasure, etc., etc., etc.
The Bible warns us: "what
ye sew, ye shall reap." Today, sadly, we have experienced
what we have sewn on much of the world. Today, as a country,
we have learned that raining death and destruction on another
country creates a toll far higher than simply destroyed buildings
and dead bodies. Today our freedom came under attack. We thought
we were free to impose military and economic violence anywhere
we chose, with impunity. The freedom from impunity appears to
no longer exist. The World Court attempted to sanction the US
for our commitment to violence but the Reagan Administration
claimed that the World Court had no jurisdiction over our actions.
Yes, we have been, and we are a rogue state, and, my fellow
Americans, it must stop!
Tonight, while many are calling
for vengeance, my fellow Americans we must raise a call of humility,
a humility that does not in any way diminish humanity, but a
humility that raises the respect for, and dignity of, all people,
a humility that allows us to celebrate all human life. Let us
recall the words of that great man of peace, Martin Luther King,
Jr., who said: "The ultimate weakness of violence is that
it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks
to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through
violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie,
nor establish the truth. Through violence you murder the hater,
but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases
hate...Returning violence for violence multiples violence, adding
deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness
cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot
drive out hate: Only love can do that."
It is time that we joined the
world, not as its major purveyor of violence and destruction,
but as a peaceful participant who will work to end violence,
end racism, end classism, end sexism, rather than increase them.
The proposed Pentagon budget, the "violence" budget,
for next year is $330 billion dollars. I am tonight proposing
an immediate 50% decrease in this spending that promotes violence,
and calling for a redistribution those funds to help ameliorate
problems of hunger, poverty and poor-health around the world.
It is a call to reach out with love, and a call to find the
courage to struggle to create a more just, peaceful, healthful
and equitable world, a world in which human creativity is celebrated
rather than the human capacity for great violence.
Tonight we must call on the
world to forgive us OUR sins, forgive us OUR sordid and calamitous
acts of violence that we have pursued without pause for over
50 years. Let this be the beginning of our reconciliation with
the world. We now, to some degree, understand the pain, misery
and suffering we have caused, the turmoil we have perpetrated,
the hate we have elicited, the destruction we have imparted,
the physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual scars and
unconscionable hurt we have created and that much of the world
has endured because of our rapacious and destructive pursuit
of wealth, power and privilege at the expense of human concerns
and human lives. We humbly beg the forgiveness of all humanity,
as we pray that you will offer your support, your compassion,
your understanding, and your love in our time of suffering, mourning
and loss.
This is not a time, as it is
never a time, to seek vengeance, but a time to seek the courage
to forgive, to harbor the power of anger to be used in acts of
love, and to uncover insights that will allow us to direct our
indignation at the institutions of power, violence and greed,
many of which, sadly, are centered in the US, and begin to transform
them in order to increase our love for the victims of that power,
violence and greed, including those who died and were injured
in the attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center.
When I attended the G8 meetings
in Genoa recently I saw a banner in the street that said, "you
are 8, we are 6 billion," and it struck me deeply. We have
pursued for too long the interests of the few at the expense
of the many. Wealth, privilege and power inequalities exacerbate
every day. We have created, protected, endorsed and now imposed
on the rest of the world an economic system, symbolized by the
World Trade Center, and protected by the Pentagon, that must
produce and expand in order to profit and survive, an economic
system that treats everything as a commodity to be exploited
whether it is water, food, air, soil, the rest of the environment,
animals, fish, or our fellow humans, a system that puts corporate
profit interests above human interests. This must stop. We,
who represent and serve power, should have listened sooner.
Let this horrible tragedy
serve as our wake up call. Let us begin tonight to transform
this monster before it is too late. This act of terror, infamous
and abominable, will pale in comparison to the growing terrors
of increasing global militarism of which we are the primary cause,
increased global warming of which we are the primary cause, and
intensifying environmental destruction of which we are the primary
cause and which may soon make much of the world uninhabitable
for humans, and surely increase human suffering, misery and death.
If we are to overcome these
acts of terror, and more importantly prevent future acts of terror
against humanity, we must act out of a sense of hope and faith
that the future is unfinished, that it is there to be created;
and, we must be driven by a judicious anger at the way things
are, anger at the monster we have created, anger that can be
harbored in momentous acts of love, and the courage to struggle
in cooperation, understanding, support and solidarity with the
rest of humanity to create a world in which all will be happy
to live.
Tonight, and in the days and
weeks to come, we must find the courage to not only reach out
with love and understanding, but to find the courage to self-reflect
honestly about what WE have done to the world so that we can
understand why things are the way they are, and what we can and
will do to struggle to create things as they should be
a world of less violence and greater peace; a world of diminished
arrogance and greater humility; a world where more people do
not die of hunger every two years than were killed in both World
Wars combined, but a world in which all people have access to
the great and nourishing bounties of the earth; a world of less
disease and greater health; a world of less hate and greater
love; a world of less vengeance and greater understanding; a
world of less greed and greater sharing; a world of less destruction
and greater creativity; a world of less disparity and greater
equality; a world of less fundamentalism and more progressivism;
a world of less mysticism and more humanism; a world of less
criminality and greater justice; a world of less separatism and
more solidarity; a world in which we live both an examined life
and a committed life; a world of less militarism and more artistry;
a world of less vilification and more celebration; a world in
which life is worth living; a world in which we understand well
the lesson of Rousseau who said "the fruits of our labor
belong to us; the fruits of the earth belong to everyone; and,
the world itself belongs to no one."
So, in closing, my fellow Americans,
allow us to support one another in our quest through hope, and
anger, and courage, to make love our aim during this time of
crisis, and in the future. And, let us remember and reflect
upon the words stated in Corinthians 13:1-3: "though I may
speak with the voice of angels; though I may understand all the
mysteries; though I may have all the knowledge; though I may
give all to feed the poor; though I may give my body to be burnedif
I have not love, I have nothing at all."
Thank you. Good night, and
blessings, peace, justice, solidarity and love for all humanity.
And now, my fellow Americans,
in order to assist us in developing a much deeper understanding
of all of these issues, I have invited MIT professor Noam Chomsky
to share his views. Professor Chomsky will have unlimited time.
Thank you. Professor Chomsky, welcome. CP
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