Bush's
Lies and Simple Truths
by Robert Jensen
Dissident Voice
October 28, 2002
The following is a speech delivered to an antiwar rally by
Robert Jensen,
at the state Capitol steps, Austin, Texas, October 26, 2002.
A few weeks ago Jim McDermott, a courageous congressman from
Washington state, traveled to Baghdad in pursuit of peace and was sharply
criticized, particularly for his comment that George Bush "might
mislead" the American public to build support for an attack on Iraq. He
got only one thing wrong -- the "might."
George Bush HAS misled the American public. He IS
misleading the American public, and we can assume he WILL continue to mislead the
public. In fact, the entire Bush administration has been misleading the public,
sometimes by misdirection, sometimes by fudging the facts, and sometimes by
straightforward, outright lies.
Remember when Donald Rumsfeld told a congressional
committee that Iraq kicked out U.N. weapons inspectors in 1998? That's a lie.
The head of the inspection team pulled the inspectors out after being informed
that the Clinton administration was going to proceed with Operation Desert Fox,
its illegal bombing of Iraq.
Fudged facts? Well, remember Rumsfeld's declaration that
the U.S. had "bulletproof evidence" of a connection between Iraq and
Al Qaeda? For a bulletproof story, there certainly are a lot of holes,
including a report from Czech President Vaclav Havel that suggests there is no
evidence, at least of the long-rumored meeting between one of the 9/11
hijackers and an Iraqi intelligence officer in Prague.
Some lies are not lies, of course, but just
"alternative interpretations." Take the so-called no-fly zones, in
the north and south of Iraq, where U.S. and U.K. planes patrol the skies and
bomb Iraqi targets at will. The U.S. claims these zones are authorized by U.N.
Security Council resolutions. That the rest of the world disagrees and sees it
as a violation of Iraqi sovereignty is of little concern to the U.S. Power
means your alternative explanation can't be challenged.
Misdirection is helpful, too. Take Bush's assertion that if
Iraq could "produce, buy, or steal an amount of highly enriched uranium a
little larger than a single softball, it could have a nuclear weapon in less
than a year." Yes, that's likely true, but it is the equivalent of saying,
"If Iraq had a nuclear weapon, it would have a nuclear weapon."
Creating the other components of a nuclear bomb would be relatively easy; the
fissile material is the issue.
The question isn't whether Saddam Hussein is a nice guy or
not; in case anyone isn't clear on that, he's not. The question is whether he
is a real threat. Given that none of his neighbors feel threatened and are
adamantly against war, that Iraq is far weaker than in 1991, and that all the
world thinks renewed weapons inspection and diplomacy is the proper course, it
leaves the Bush administration only a few choices for dealing with other countries
(mainly threats and bribery, what one British journalist called
"diplomatic kneecapping") and only one choice for dealing with the
U.S. public -- propaganda. They know that the only way they can get the
American people is to frighten us with nightmare scenarios, no matter how
implausible.
Well, on this one point, I actually agree. I am frightened,
but not for the reasons Bush is pushing. International terrorism is a serious
problem that requires serious attention, and there are reasons to be afraid of
future attacks in the U.S. And if the U.S. goes to war against Iraq, the
likelihood of such terrorists attack will increase dramatically. That's a real
reason to be afraid.
But beyond that, I am afraid of other threats.
I am afraid for a country that protects the greed of the
few over the needs of the many, the United States.
I am afraid for a Middle East flooded with weapons sold by
the the #1 arms dealer in the world, the United States.
And I am afraid -- I am terrified -- for a world dominated by
an empire that has acquired such a massive destructive capability, and a
demonstrated willingness to use it. I am afraid of the empire in which I live,
the empire of which I am a citizen. I am afraid of the men sitting in
Washington -- of Rumsfeld and Cheney and Wolfowitz, and of George W. Bush --
who are planning the lives and the deaths of people all over this planet.
But I hope that I am not afraid to resist this madness. I
hope I am not afraid to speak out. That is always easier if one's voice is not
the only voice. So, today I hope we can all find our voices and come together
to speak as one.
--A voice that says no to an illegal and immoral war, and
says yes to international law and diplomacy.
--A voice that says no to an economic system that enriches
the few at the expense of the many, and says yes to an economy that puts need
above greed.
--And, most important, a voice that says no to imperial
America, and yes to a truly democratic America, a democratic America that becomes
part of the world, not a ruler of the world.
We must not only say yes to the vision of a truly new world
order based on justice, but we must commit to the struggle that is necessary to
make that world real. We must be willing to risk our own comforts and our own
privilege, to be impolite when necessary, to agitate, to cause trouble.
In 1857, the great Frederick Douglass made it clear that:
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those
who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation, are men who want
crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and
lightning, they want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This
struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral
and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a
demand. It never did and it never will."
Let us not be unrealistic about this struggle. We have to
ask, who is on our side in this struggle? Is the media on our side? No. Are the
corporations on our side? No. Are the politicians on our side? No.
Who is on our side? Take a minute and look to the person at
your side. That is what we have. We do not have the power of money; we have the
power of people. Many voices into one, not denying our differences but uniting
in our strength, the strength of people of conscience who will not abandon the
struggle.
With that voice, we can confront Cheney and Rumsfeld and
Wolfowitz and George W. Bush with our demand.
We all have many demands for justice, and over time we will
press them all. But today we come together to say, in one voice, that at this
crucial time in our nation's history, in the world's history, the best
traditions of humanity -- the political, moral and spiritual traditions that
have led us here today -- demand that we say, in one voice, loud and
determined, proud and resolute:
NO WAR.
Robert Jensen, an associate professor
of journalism at the University of Texas at Austin, is the author of Writing
Dissent: Taking Radical Ideas from the Margins to the Mainstream and a
member of the Nowar Collective. Email: rjensen@uts.cc.utexas.edu. Other articles are
available at http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~rjensen/home.htm.