Imperialist Watch
2007-01-03 17:08:45 UTC
video:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/01/02/olbermann-special-comment-on-sacrifice/#more-13220
Finally tonight, a Special Comment about "Sacrifice."
If in your presence an individual tried to sacrifice an American serviceman
or woman, would you intervene?
Would you at least protest?
What if he had already sacrificed 3,003 of them?
What if he had already sacrificed 3,003 of them and was then to announce
his intention to sacrifice hundreds, maybe thousands, more?
This is where we stand tonight with the BBC report of President Bush's "new
Iraq strategy" and his impending speech to the nation, which it quotes a
senior American official, will be about troop increases and "sacrifice."
The President has delayed, dawdled, and deferred for the month since the
release of the Iraq Study Group.
He has seemingly heard out everybody. and listened to none of them.
If the BBC is right and we can only pray it is not he has settled on the
only solution all the true experts agree, cannot possibly work: more
American personnel in Iraq, not as trainers for Iraqi troops, but as part of
some flabby plan for "sacrifice."
Sacrifice!
More American servicemen and women will have their lives risked.
More American servicemen and women will have their lives ended.
More American families will have to bear the unbearable, and rationalize the
unforgivable "sacrifice" sacrifice now, sacrifice tomorrow, sacrifice
forever.
And more Americans more even than the two-thirds who already believe we
need fewer troops in Iraq, not more will have to conclude the President
does not have any idea what he's doing - and that other Americans will have
to die for that reason.
It must now be branded as propaganda for even the President cannot truly
feel that very many people still believe him to be competent in this area,
let alone "the decider."
But from our impeccable reporter at the Pentagon, Jim Miklaszewski, tonight
comes confirmation of something called "surge and accelerate" as many as
20-thousand additional troops for "political purposes".
This, in line with what we had previously heard, that this will be
proclaimed a short-term measure, for the stated purpose of increasing
security in and around Baghdad, and giving an Iraqi government a chance to
establish some kind of order.
This is palpable nonsense, Mr. Bush.
If this is your intention if the centerpiece of your announcement next
week will be "sacrifice" sacrifice your intention, not more American
lives!
As Senator Biden has pointed out, the new troops might improve the ratio our
forces, face relative to those living in Baghdad (friend and foe), from 200
to 1, to just 100 to 1.
"Sacrifice?"
No.
A drop in the bucket.
The additional men and women you have sentenced to go there, sir, will serve
only as targets.
They will not be there "short-term," Mr. Bush; for many it will mean a year
or more in death's shadow.
This is not temporary, Mr. Bush.
For the Americans who will die because of you. it will be as permanent as it
gets.
The various rationales for what Mr. Bush will reportedly re-christen
"sacrifice," constitute a very thin gruel, indeed.
The former Labor Secretary, Robert Reich, says Senator McCain told him that
the "surge" would help the "morale" of the troops already in Iraq.
If Mr. McCain truly said that, and truly believes it, he has either
forgotten completely his own experience in Vietnam. or he is unaware of the
recent Military Times poll indicating only 38 percent of our active military
want to see more troops sent. or Mr. McCain has departed from reality.
Then there is the argument that to take any steps towards reducing troop
numbers would show weakness to the enemy in Iraq, or to the terrorists
around the world.
This simplistic logic ignores the inescapable fact that we have indeed
already showed weakness to the enemy, and to the terrorists.
We have shown them that we will let our own people be killed, for no good
reason.
We have now shown them that we will continue to do so.
We have shown them our stupidity.
Mr. Bush, your judgment about Iraq and now about "sacrifice" is at
variance with your people's, to the point of delusion.
Your most respected generals see no value in a "surge" they could not
possibly see it in this madness of "sacrifice."
The Iraq Study Group told you it would be a mistake.
Perhaps dozens more have told you it would be a mistake.
And you threw their wisdom back, until you finally heard what you wanted to
hear, like some child drawing straws and then saying "best two out of three.
best three out of five. Hundredth one counts."
Your citizens, the people for whom you work, have told you they do not want
this, and more over, they do not want you to do this.
Yet once again, sir, you have ignored all of us.
Mr. Bush, you do not own this country!
To those Republicans who have not broken free from the slavery of
partisanship those bonded still, to this President and this
Administration and now bonded to this "sacrifice" proceed at your own
peril.
John McCain may still hear the applause of small crowds he has somehow
inured himself to the hypocrisy, and the tragedy, of a man who considers
himself the ultimate realist, courting the votes of those who support the
government telling visitors to the Grand Canyon that it was caused by the
Great Flood.
That Mr. McCain is selling himself off to the irrational Right, parcel by
parcel, like some great landowner facing bankruptcy, seems to be obvious to
everybody but himself.
Or, maybe it is obvious to him and he simply no longer cares.
But to the rest of you in the Republican Party.
We need you to speak up, right now, in defense of your country's most
precious assets the lives of its citizens who are in harm's way.
If you do not, you are not serving this nation's interests nor your own.
Last November should have told you this.
The opening of the new Congress tomorrow and Thursday, should tell you this.
Next time, those missing Republicans, will be you.
And to the Democrats now yoked to the helm of this sinking ship, you proceed
at your own peril, as well.
President Bush may not be very good at reality, but he and Mr. Cheney and
Mr. Rove are still gifted at letting American troops be killed, and then
turning their deaths to their own political advantage.
The equation is simple. This country does not want more troops in Iraq.
It wants fewer.
Go and make it happen, or go and look for other work.
Yet you Democrats must assume that even if you take the most obvious of
courses, and cut off funding for the war. Mr. Bush will ignore you as long
as possible, or will find the money elsewhere, or will spend the money meant
to protect the troops, and re-purpose it to keep as many troops there as
long as he can keep them there.
Because that's what this is all about, is it not, Mr. Bush?
That is what this "sacrifice" has been for.
To continue this senseless, endless war.
You have dressed it up in the clothing, first of a hunt for weapons of mass
destruction, then of liberation. then of regional imperative. then of oil
prices. and now in these new terms of "sacrifice" it's like a damned game
of Colorforms, isn't it, sir?
This senseless, endless war.
But it has not been senseless in two ways.
It has succeeded, Mr. Bush, in enabling you to deaden the collective mind of
this country to the pointlessness of endless war, against the wrong people,
in the wrong place, at the wrong time.
It has gotten many of us, used to the idea the virtual "white noise" of
conflict far away, of the deaths of young Americans, of vague "sacrifice"
for some fluid cause, too complicated to be interpreted except in terms of
the very important sounding, but ultimately meaningless phrase, "the war on
terror."
And the war's second accomplishment your second accomplishment, sir - is
to have taken money out of the pockets of every American, even out of the
pockets of the dead soldiers on the battlefield, and their families, and to
have given that money to the war profiteers.
Because if you sell the Army a thousand Humvees, you can't sell them any
more, until the first thousand have been destroyed.
The service men and women are ancillary to the equation.
This is about the planned obsolescence of ordnance, isn't, Mr. Bush? And the
building of detention centers? And the design of a 125-million dollar
courtroom complex at Gitmo complete with restaurants.
At least the war profiteers have made their money, sir.
And we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain.
You have insisted, Mr. Bush, that we must not lose in Iraq, that if we don't
fight them there we will fight them here as if the corollary were somehow
true, that if by fighting them there we will not have to fight them here.
And yet you have re-made our country, and not re-made it for the better, on
the premise that we need to be ready to "fight them here," anyway, and
always.
In point of fact even if the Civil War in Iraq somehow ended tomorrow, and
the risk to Americans there ended with it, we would have already suffered a
defeat not fatal, not world-changing, not, but for the lives lost, of
enduring consequence.
But this country has already lost in Iraq, sir.
Your policy in Iraq has already had its crushing impact on our safety here.
You have already fomented new terrorism and new terrorists.
You have already stoked paranoia.
You have already pitted Americans, one against the other.
We. will have to live with it.
We. will have to live with what of the fabric of our nation you have
already "sacrificed."
The only object still admissible in this debate, is the quickest and safest
exit for our people there.
But you and soon, Mr. Bush, it will be you and you alone - still insist
otherwise.
And our sons and daughters and fathers and mothers will be sacrificed there
tonight, Sir, so that you can say you did not "lose in Iraq."
Our policy in Iraq has been criticized for being indescribable, for being
inscrutable, for being ineffable.
But it is all too easily understood now.
First, we sent Americans to their deaths for your lie, Mr. Bush.
Now we are sending them to their deaths for your ego.
If what is reported is true if your decision is made and the "sacrifice"
is ordered take a page instead from the man at whose funeral you so
eloquently spoke this morning Gerald Ford: Put pragmatism and the healing
of a nation, ahead of some kind of misguided vision.
Atone.
Sacrifice, Mr. Bush?
No, sir, this is not "sacrifice." This has now become "human sacrifice."
And it must stop.
And you can stop it.
Next week, make us all look wrong.
Our meaningless sacrifice in Iraq must stop.
And you must stop it.
---
"We talk a great deal about patriotism. What do we mean by patriotism in the
context of our times? I venture to suggest that what we mean is a sense of
national responsibility which will enable America to remain master of her
power-to walk with it in serenity and wisdom, with self-respect and the
respect to all mankind; a patriotism that puts country ahead of self; a
patriotism which is not short, frenzied outbursts of emotion, but the
tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime. The dedication of a
lifetime-these are words that are easy to utter, but this is a mighty
assignment. For it is often easier to fight for principles than to live up
to them." - Adlai Stevenson's 'Nature of Patriotism' Speech, 1952
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/01/02/olbermann-special-comment-on-sacrifice/#more-13220
Finally tonight, a Special Comment about "Sacrifice."
If in your presence an individual tried to sacrifice an American serviceman
or woman, would you intervene?
Would you at least protest?
What if he had already sacrificed 3,003 of them?
What if he had already sacrificed 3,003 of them and was then to announce
his intention to sacrifice hundreds, maybe thousands, more?
This is where we stand tonight with the BBC report of President Bush's "new
Iraq strategy" and his impending speech to the nation, which it quotes a
senior American official, will be about troop increases and "sacrifice."
The President has delayed, dawdled, and deferred for the month since the
release of the Iraq Study Group.
He has seemingly heard out everybody. and listened to none of them.
If the BBC is right and we can only pray it is not he has settled on the
only solution all the true experts agree, cannot possibly work: more
American personnel in Iraq, not as trainers for Iraqi troops, but as part of
some flabby plan for "sacrifice."
Sacrifice!
More American servicemen and women will have their lives risked.
More American servicemen and women will have their lives ended.
More American families will have to bear the unbearable, and rationalize the
unforgivable "sacrifice" sacrifice now, sacrifice tomorrow, sacrifice
forever.
And more Americans more even than the two-thirds who already believe we
need fewer troops in Iraq, not more will have to conclude the President
does not have any idea what he's doing - and that other Americans will have
to die for that reason.
It must now be branded as propaganda for even the President cannot truly
feel that very many people still believe him to be competent in this area,
let alone "the decider."
But from our impeccable reporter at the Pentagon, Jim Miklaszewski, tonight
comes confirmation of something called "surge and accelerate" as many as
20-thousand additional troops for "political purposes".
This, in line with what we had previously heard, that this will be
proclaimed a short-term measure, for the stated purpose of increasing
security in and around Baghdad, and giving an Iraqi government a chance to
establish some kind of order.
This is palpable nonsense, Mr. Bush.
If this is your intention if the centerpiece of your announcement next
week will be "sacrifice" sacrifice your intention, not more American
lives!
As Senator Biden has pointed out, the new troops might improve the ratio our
forces, face relative to those living in Baghdad (friend and foe), from 200
to 1, to just 100 to 1.
"Sacrifice?"
No.
A drop in the bucket.
The additional men and women you have sentenced to go there, sir, will serve
only as targets.
They will not be there "short-term," Mr. Bush; for many it will mean a year
or more in death's shadow.
This is not temporary, Mr. Bush.
For the Americans who will die because of you. it will be as permanent as it
gets.
The various rationales for what Mr. Bush will reportedly re-christen
"sacrifice," constitute a very thin gruel, indeed.
The former Labor Secretary, Robert Reich, says Senator McCain told him that
the "surge" would help the "morale" of the troops already in Iraq.
If Mr. McCain truly said that, and truly believes it, he has either
forgotten completely his own experience in Vietnam. or he is unaware of the
recent Military Times poll indicating only 38 percent of our active military
want to see more troops sent. or Mr. McCain has departed from reality.
Then there is the argument that to take any steps towards reducing troop
numbers would show weakness to the enemy in Iraq, or to the terrorists
around the world.
This simplistic logic ignores the inescapable fact that we have indeed
already showed weakness to the enemy, and to the terrorists.
We have shown them that we will let our own people be killed, for no good
reason.
We have now shown them that we will continue to do so.
We have shown them our stupidity.
Mr. Bush, your judgment about Iraq and now about "sacrifice" is at
variance with your people's, to the point of delusion.
Your most respected generals see no value in a "surge" they could not
possibly see it in this madness of "sacrifice."
The Iraq Study Group told you it would be a mistake.
Perhaps dozens more have told you it would be a mistake.
And you threw their wisdom back, until you finally heard what you wanted to
hear, like some child drawing straws and then saying "best two out of three.
best three out of five. Hundredth one counts."
Your citizens, the people for whom you work, have told you they do not want
this, and more over, they do not want you to do this.
Yet once again, sir, you have ignored all of us.
Mr. Bush, you do not own this country!
To those Republicans who have not broken free from the slavery of
partisanship those bonded still, to this President and this
Administration and now bonded to this "sacrifice" proceed at your own
peril.
John McCain may still hear the applause of small crowds he has somehow
inured himself to the hypocrisy, and the tragedy, of a man who considers
himself the ultimate realist, courting the votes of those who support the
government telling visitors to the Grand Canyon that it was caused by the
Great Flood.
That Mr. McCain is selling himself off to the irrational Right, parcel by
parcel, like some great landowner facing bankruptcy, seems to be obvious to
everybody but himself.
Or, maybe it is obvious to him and he simply no longer cares.
But to the rest of you in the Republican Party.
We need you to speak up, right now, in defense of your country's most
precious assets the lives of its citizens who are in harm's way.
If you do not, you are not serving this nation's interests nor your own.
Last November should have told you this.
The opening of the new Congress tomorrow and Thursday, should tell you this.
Next time, those missing Republicans, will be you.
And to the Democrats now yoked to the helm of this sinking ship, you proceed
at your own peril, as well.
President Bush may not be very good at reality, but he and Mr. Cheney and
Mr. Rove are still gifted at letting American troops be killed, and then
turning their deaths to their own political advantage.
The equation is simple. This country does not want more troops in Iraq.
It wants fewer.
Go and make it happen, or go and look for other work.
Yet you Democrats must assume that even if you take the most obvious of
courses, and cut off funding for the war. Mr. Bush will ignore you as long
as possible, or will find the money elsewhere, or will spend the money meant
to protect the troops, and re-purpose it to keep as many troops there as
long as he can keep them there.
Because that's what this is all about, is it not, Mr. Bush?
That is what this "sacrifice" has been for.
To continue this senseless, endless war.
You have dressed it up in the clothing, first of a hunt for weapons of mass
destruction, then of liberation. then of regional imperative. then of oil
prices. and now in these new terms of "sacrifice" it's like a damned game
of Colorforms, isn't it, sir?
This senseless, endless war.
But it has not been senseless in two ways.
It has succeeded, Mr. Bush, in enabling you to deaden the collective mind of
this country to the pointlessness of endless war, against the wrong people,
in the wrong place, at the wrong time.
It has gotten many of us, used to the idea the virtual "white noise" of
conflict far away, of the deaths of young Americans, of vague "sacrifice"
for some fluid cause, too complicated to be interpreted except in terms of
the very important sounding, but ultimately meaningless phrase, "the war on
terror."
And the war's second accomplishment your second accomplishment, sir - is
to have taken money out of the pockets of every American, even out of the
pockets of the dead soldiers on the battlefield, and their families, and to
have given that money to the war profiteers.
Because if you sell the Army a thousand Humvees, you can't sell them any
more, until the first thousand have been destroyed.
The service men and women are ancillary to the equation.
This is about the planned obsolescence of ordnance, isn't, Mr. Bush? And the
building of detention centers? And the design of a 125-million dollar
courtroom complex at Gitmo complete with restaurants.
At least the war profiteers have made their money, sir.
And we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain.
You have insisted, Mr. Bush, that we must not lose in Iraq, that if we don't
fight them there we will fight them here as if the corollary were somehow
true, that if by fighting them there we will not have to fight them here.
And yet you have re-made our country, and not re-made it for the better, on
the premise that we need to be ready to "fight them here," anyway, and
always.
In point of fact even if the Civil War in Iraq somehow ended tomorrow, and
the risk to Americans there ended with it, we would have already suffered a
defeat not fatal, not world-changing, not, but for the lives lost, of
enduring consequence.
But this country has already lost in Iraq, sir.
Your policy in Iraq has already had its crushing impact on our safety here.
You have already fomented new terrorism and new terrorists.
You have already stoked paranoia.
You have already pitted Americans, one against the other.
We. will have to live with it.
We. will have to live with what of the fabric of our nation you have
already "sacrificed."
The only object still admissible in this debate, is the quickest and safest
exit for our people there.
But you and soon, Mr. Bush, it will be you and you alone - still insist
otherwise.
And our sons and daughters and fathers and mothers will be sacrificed there
tonight, Sir, so that you can say you did not "lose in Iraq."
Our policy in Iraq has been criticized for being indescribable, for being
inscrutable, for being ineffable.
But it is all too easily understood now.
First, we sent Americans to their deaths for your lie, Mr. Bush.
Now we are sending them to their deaths for your ego.
If what is reported is true if your decision is made and the "sacrifice"
is ordered take a page instead from the man at whose funeral you so
eloquently spoke this morning Gerald Ford: Put pragmatism and the healing
of a nation, ahead of some kind of misguided vision.
Atone.
Sacrifice, Mr. Bush?
No, sir, this is not "sacrifice." This has now become "human sacrifice."
And it must stop.
And you can stop it.
Next week, make us all look wrong.
Our meaningless sacrifice in Iraq must stop.
And you must stop it.
---
"We talk a great deal about patriotism. What do we mean by patriotism in the
context of our times? I venture to suggest that what we mean is a sense of
national responsibility which will enable America to remain master of her
power-to walk with it in serenity and wisdom, with self-respect and the
respect to all mankind; a patriotism that puts country ahead of self; a
patriotism which is not short, frenzied outbursts of emotion, but the
tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime. The dedication of a
lifetime-these are words that are easy to utter, but this is a mighty
assignment. For it is often easier to fight for principles than to live up
to them." - Adlai Stevenson's 'Nature of Patriotism' Speech, 1952