http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0914-27.htm
A Call for Debate on National Priorities
by US Senator Robert Byrd
Speech delivered on the floor of the US Senate
September 13, 2005
Chapter 3, Verses 1-8 of the Book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible begins, "To
everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven." It
is time for a national debate, and its purpose is our country's future.
Sometimes it takes a catastrophe to put events into perspective -- to shake
us and sharpen our clarity of vision. The wrath of Katrina, tragic and
devastating for thousands, must certainly have caused many thinking
Americans to consider anew the proper priorities for our country. Who among
us has not wondered if the efforts to rescue and evacuate Gulf Coast
residents suffered because too many National Guardsmen have been detailed
and detained in Iraq? What thinking American has not pondered why we had
such a painfully slow response to a behemoth storm which we knew for days
would likely turn New Orleans into a cauldron of despair. Is there anyone in
our great country that did not feel the painful outrage of the citizens of
New Orleans and Louisiana and Mississippi as they waited for days without
food and water or knowledge about loved ones?
Who among us did not shrink in dread from the specter of our fellow
citizens' bodies floating in the murky flood waters or stacked in hospital
stairwells for want of anywhere else to house them? Could this be happening
in a major American city? Could we be so inept at dealing with this tragedy?
The events of the past several days seem to have reduced our much touted
American know-how and technology to little more than children's toys,
strangely impotent in a real crisis. I know that many Americans cringed, as
I did, at the vision of callous neglect of our poorest and most vulnerable
citizens which flashed around the world, making the United States appear to
be a nation unmindful of its own, a nation unable to handle a disaster about
which it had ample notice, a country loudly touting our form of government
to the world, while failing to provide even the most basic protections to
our own citizens.
If Katrina has any redeeming impact, it must be to cause us to see ourselves
as others must surely see us. I regret to say that the picture cannot be a
pretty one. That image is certainly not one that reflects the humanitarian
goodness and morality of the vast majority of the American people. The
perception of the United States in these troubled times should be a cause of
major concern for everyone who holds public office. Regardless of political
party, it is time to look at where we are, and where we are going.
Few would now argue that the war in Iraq has improved the world's view of
the United States. It was an unnecessary and ill-conceived conflict which
distracted us from our proper course of bombing the terrorist training
grounds of Afghanistan. I have never bought the absurd claim by some that we
are fighting terrorists in Iraq so we will not have to fight them here at
home. That claim is a non sequitur at best and, at worst, a patent
distortion of what has happened in Iraq. The war in Iraq created a hot bed
of terrorism where none existed before. And it insured Osama bin Laden an
endless supply of recruits, now even more fanatic in their hatred after
scandals at Abu Ghraib, and the destruction of so many innocent lives in
Iraq as a result of our invasion.
"For everything there is a season. . ." sayeth the Bible. The season has
come for Americans to look homeward. Instead of continuing to spend billions
in Iraq, let us husband those our hard-earned tax dollars and spend them
here at home. The Iraqi people must slowly find their own way now. Further
U.S. dictated deadlines are counter productive. We cannot force-feed
democracy to Iraq. To keep large numbers of American soldiers in Iraq much
longer only earns the United States more enmity, reinforcing our unfortunate
global image as conqueror not liberator. The Iraqi people must begin to take
it from here. In fact, there is no longer a "war" in Iraq. We started that
conflict and we met the goals established at its outset. Now there is a
slow, festering, internal political struggle pitting Shiite against Sunni,
against Kurd, which will play itself out, perhaps for decades, until it
either devolves into outright civil war or resolves into some sort of
compromise which suits those who live in the country of Iraq. We cannot
resolve Iraq's internal issues. It is time for the United States to begin to
bring our troops home.
The invasion of Iraq was never supposed to be an open-ended peacekeeping
mission, with our troops mired amid the chaos of continuing urban warfare.
We need to bring them home, with a hearty, "Job well done." We should begin
with the National Guard. Obviously, they are needed here. They are an
integral part of our first responder team in the event of a terrorist attack
or if, God forbid, another natural disaster were to strike.
It is time to come home, America. Time to look within our own borders and
within our own souls. There are many questions to be answered and many
missions to accomplish right here on our own soil. We have neglected too
much for too long in our own backyard. "To every thing there is a season, .
.. . a time to break down and a time to build up. . . ."
If we had spent the money a few years back to rebuild those levees on the
Gulf Coast, thousands would be alive today. Perhaps we can finally see the
value of that budgetary stepchild called public works. All across this
country there are years of neglect of the basic infrastructure of the United
States that cry out for attention. We have delayed for decades and the needs
are only growing. There are antiquated sewer and water systems, built a
century ago, in our major cities. Washington, D.C. has water not always safe
to drink. Rural communities live with black mud coming out of their faucets.
There are unsafe bridges, aging reservoirs, schools without adequate heat or
modern learning tools all around our land. Homeland Security needs are
underfunded. Yet, we continue to commit billions to rebuild Iraq, while our
own needs go begging. Is it not now painfully evident to everyone that we
must make basic investments in our own country a national and urgent
priority?
Imagine a major terrorist attack on the heels of a catastrophe like Katrina.
I have to believe that Osama or one of his henchmen is taking notes as we
struggle with the devastation left in Katrina's wake.
Our economic resources are stretched dangerously thin, and so is our
military might. We have taken on too much, turned our backs on cooperation
with the international community, decided to go it alone and pursue some
grandiose scheme of remaking the world in our own image. By now it should be
clear to all that grand experiments are very, very costly. It is time for a
national epiphany. The sound of Katrina's bugle must be heeded. We cannot
continue to commit billions in Iraq when our own people are so much in need,
not only now, in New Orleans, but all across America for everything from
education to health care to homeland security to securing our own borders.
We need to stop making excuses, stop spinning the facts, and come to grips
with the unpleasant truth. The government of the United States is failing
the American people.
Where is the national debate about our priorities which Katrina should
prompt? What does it take to wake us up? It is a debate that must begin, if
not on this Senate Floor, then in the barber shops and grocery stores of
America and in the print and broadcast media of this great nation.
It is past time for that debate and high time for all of us to realize that
there is nothing more patriotic than taking a good, hard, honest look at our
national priorities. We the people always have that right. A strong republic
depends upon just that kind of periodic soul-searching. Does our moral sense
of ourselves translate into government policies? I believe that, presently,
it does not. We have a disconnect in government policy in everything from a
tarnished U.S. image abroad to a failure to address gasoline shortages, and
skyrocketing prices that will certainly slow our economic engine and take
their toll on working people. Instead of asking the public not to buy more
gas than needed, I wish somebody would ask the giant oil companies to pass
up some profits and help hold down gas prices as a patriotic gesture for our
country. Would that be so outrageous? And why have we not had the vision to
invest in alternative energy sources on a grand scale to free us from the
addiction to foreign oil?
For too long our great land has been allowed to drift toward
balkanization - - a separation between the haves and have nots, with the
lower end of the income scale at risk from a tattered safety net, and a
neglected infrastructure, lacking the jobs and the housing they need, the
health care to stay well, the insurance to cover hospital stays, or the
educational opportunity to prepare for the future. I remember an America
that used to feel more like one country - - an America that shared the
sacrifice of war, and tightened its belt so we could pay for it. Now we
borrow to go to war, and cut taxes to spare those in high brackets from
sacrifice. Where is the sense of shared destiny? It has taken nature's own
weapon of mass destruction, a category 4 hurricane, to remind us that we are
all Americans, and that our government has a moral obligation to serve us
all.
This country is on the wrong track and the course needs correcting.
Continued denial serves no good purpose. Further loss of American life in
Iraq may permanently sour the American people on future military action, and
damage recruitment for our all-volunteer force. "To every thing there is a
season, . . . a time to kill, and a time to heal. . . ." We have seen the
fallacy of sending too many members of the National Guard to the Middle
East. As I speak, we have lost 1,886 sons and daughters in Iraq and there
seems to be no end in sight. We have 137,000 troops still serving in Iraq
with 2,000 more scheduled to go in in October. We are building at least four
semi-permanent bases in Iraq structured to hold 18,000 troops each. That
does not sound like "staying not one day longer than needed" to me.
In truth, most Americans no longer support a massive deployment in Iraq. Nor
do they understand the mission of that continued deployment. Despite
repeated directives by the Congress, the "powers that be" refuse to actually
budget for Iraq, so that a total picture of our fiscal situation is
deliberately obscured. We are driving our country ever deeper into debt, and
stretching every resource we possess to the breaking point. Prudence demands
that we reassess our posture. Our inept and pathetic response to Katrina has
underlined our vulnerabilities and writ them large before the world. The
American people deserve better than this.
I call upon the leaders of this country to come together and to work
together to repair our storm-ravaged Gulf Coast and help salvage the lives
of its victims, but more than that. I call upon the Congress to inventory
our homeland with an eye to the future. Let us look around America and
target our deficiencies. Let us work with state and local communities to
shore up our weaknesses. We must react in a crisis, of course, but, for
God's sake, let us finally understand that we must also anticipate the
future, and be unafraid to commit the resources to make us strong at home.
The lesson of Katrina most surely is that an ounce of prevention is worth
several tons of cure. And we need to also learn that we cannot long remain a
world power if we continue to let America crumble from within. The alarm
bells are sounding and we must answer the call. This is no time to play for
partisan advantage. This is certainly not the season to circle the wagons
and hunker down. We need not stretch our brains to write new talking points
or invent new excuses. And please, oh please, let us not resort to the
trusty bureaucratic ruse of simply reorganizing government agencies once
again.
It is time for real leadership. It is the season for true humility. The
Bible says, "Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a
fall." For years we have been getting it wrong in Washington, but if we have
the will, we can begin to get it right. The American people deserve leaders
with the honesty to take responsibility for failures, and the wisdom to
change when change is so obviously and urgently needed. May God grant us the
grace.
*****
--
Aloha, G-Ride
"Like a quarrelling group of monkeys on a leaky boat, armed with sticks of
dynamite, we are now embarked on an uncertain journey."
.
|
