One of Ours

This is not a speech. Two weeks ago I set aside the speech I prepared. This is a cry from the heart, a lamentation for the loss of this country's goodness and therefore its greatness.

Future historians studying the decline and fall of America will mark this as the time the tide began to turn -- toward a mean-spirited mediocrity in place of a noble beacon.

For me the final blow was American guards laughing over the naked, helpless bodies of abused prisoners in Iraq...I cannot remain silent when that country is in the deepest trouble of my lifetime.

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Our greatest strength has long been not merely our military might but our moral authority. Our surest protection against assault from abroad has been not all our guards, gates and guns, or even our two oceans, but our essential goodness as a people. Our richest asset has been not our material wealth but our values.

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Our founding fathers believed this country could be a beacon of light to the world, a model of democratic and humanitarian progress. We were...

What has happened to our country? We have been in wars before, without resorting to sexual humiliation as torture, without blocking the Red Cross, without insulting and deceiving our allies and the U.N., without betraying our traditional values, without imitating our adversaries, without blackening our name around the world.

Last year when asked on short notice to speak to a European audience and inquiring what topic I should address, the chairman said: "Tell us about the good America, the America when Kennedy was in the White House." "It is still a good America," I replied. "The American people still believe in peace, human rights and justice; they are still a generous, fair-minded, open-minded people."

...Thirty years ago, America's war in Vietnam became a hopeless military quagmire; today our war in Iraq has become a senseless moral swamp.

...Surely America, the land of the free, could not lose the high moral ground invading Iraq, a country ruled by terror, torture and tyranny -- but we did.

Instead of isolating Saddam Hussein...we have isolated ourselves. We are increasingly alone in a dangerous world in which millions who once respected us now hate us.

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All this is rationalized as part of the war on terror...On the contrary, our conduct invites and incites new attacks and new recruits to attack us.

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True, we have not lost either war we chose or lost too much of our wealth. But we have lost something worse -- our good name for truth and justice...

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We are no longer the world's leaders on matters of international law and peace. After we stopped listening to others, they stopped listening to us. A nation without credibility and moral authority cannot lead, because no one will follow.

...We are deemed by many to be dangerously aggressive, a threat to world peace...

Yet we are also charged...with...indifference -- indifference toward the suffering of millions of our fellow inhabitants of this planet who do not enjoy the freedom, the opportunity, the health and wealth and security that we enjoy; indifference to the countless deaths of children and other civilians in unnecessary wars, countless because we usually do not bother to count them; indifference to the centuries of humiliation endured previously in silence by the Arab and Islamic worlds.

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...If we can but tear the blindfold of self-deception from our eyes and loosen the gag of self-denial from our voices, we can restore our country to greatness...

Iraq’s Foreign Minister has told the United Nations Security Council that his new government wanted United States-led troops to stay, but said Baghdad needed some control over how long they would remain in the country.

However, Hoshiyar Zebari disagreed with France, Germany, China and others who want a fixed deadline for the force’s withdrawal, subject to renewal.

He also opposed a veto over US-led military operations.

“I stress that any premature departure of international troops would lead to chaos and the real possibility of a civil war in Iraq,” he said.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell earlier made clear Iraq would not be given a veto over US troop movements.

In an interview with the Middle East Broadcasting Centre, Mr Powell said: “You can’t use the word ‘veto’.”

“There could be a situation where we have to act and there may be a disagreement, and we have to act to protect ourselves or to accomplish a mission,” Mr Powell said...

Check out this strange story on Salon. It's a memoir of a young Palestinian terrorist by a young woman who knew him while he was being protected in the 1980s by Yugoslavia's Communist regime. The essay attempts to show how the young man came to recognize at one point the humanity of those Israeli civilians he was about to murder. But the euphemisms in the piece are priceless. Take this sentence:

The recent (and bumbling) Achille Lauro assault, during which young Palestinian commandos hijacked a Mediterranean cruiser and killed an elderly, wheelchair-bound American tourist, coupled with those ghastly shootouts at the Rome and Vienna airports, had made a mockery of the Titoist soft spot for resistance groups and rendered dinner chats with Western diplomats unbearably awkward...

The problem with the Achille Lauro hijacking was that it was "bumbling"? If only they'd killed more Jews more effectively! Notice also that it was somehow "during" the "assault" that a murder took place. Hmmm. Wouldn't it be more, er, accurate to say that the hijacking occurred in order to murder civilians? Notice also here the unequivocal use of the term "commando" for "terrorist." ...Elsewhere in the piece, the terrorists are called "operatives." Like Valerie Plame. The author knew that her friend was about to kill innocent civilians but glosses over this ugly fact by saying:

Looking back now on that snowy afternoon at Abu Moses' place, the last time I would see him, it took longer than one might expect for me to comprehend what the trip to Cyprus meant. Indeed, months of denial and doubt.

It appears those months of denial and doubt are now indeed years. And denial has morphed into excuse. And excuse into euphemism. Who is the author? We are told: "D.N. Rosina is the pseudonym of a Bay Area writer now reporting from the Middle East." So there's a reporter out there who thinks that terrorists are commandos. Who is she reporting for? Why has she decided to remain anonymous? And why have the editors of Salon decided to grant her that anonymity?

Iraqi police have captured a top lieutenant of Islamic armed fighter Abu Musab Zarqawi, the US-led occupation has said.

"Iraqi police forces detained Umar Baziyani, a known terrorist and murder suspect, on May 30 here," a statement said on Friday.

"Baziyani, an associate of terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, is known to have ties to several extremist terrorist groups in Iraq and is believed to be responsible for the death and injury of scores of innocent Iraqi citizens."

US occupation forces, which called Baziyani one of Zarqawi's "most valuable officers," said he was divulging information...

IN THE NAME OF GOD THE COMPASSIONATE THE MERCIFUL

Dear Mr. President

Calm seas and easy winds do not test a ship’s worthiness, but it is the tempest and the hurricane that show her true metal. Strength is measured by the intensity of stress that can be withstood. And here we see you standing like a mountain towering over the raging elements.

And you know Mr. President when the lion marches into the bush, the wild dogs, the monkeys, the hyenas and all the other beasts of the wild scurry and run and hide at a safe distance, some perched high in the trees, others hiding in holes under the ground, and each will find his favorite refuge. Yet they will start their squeaking, screaming, barking, hissing and generally making a deafening din and clamor, while apprehensively and attentively watching every move and gesture of the King in great trepidation. Some of the monkeys might dare toss some coconut shells perhaps in his direction, but from a very safe remoteness, and some parasites, too small and contemptible to be observed might give him a sting or two; but all that cannot bother the great one much. It is the racket and noise though that can be most annoying. But who dares to come within range, for they all know very well what fate awaits them then.

But the great noble ship sails on and on braving the elements, majestic, white sails and white flags of honor fluttering high in the sky, for she is carrying bounty and prizes to far off lands hungry for the great gifts. May God bless her course and her mission and grant her safe journey and triumphant return. Amen.

Salaam

Alaa