Rev. Dr. Robin Meyers remarks at the Peace Rally at the State Capital
March 17, 2007 as the Iraq War enters year five.
THE LAST REFUGE OF A SCOUNDREL
Four years ago, following the largest anti-war protests in the history of the
world, my country acted alone as a Rogue Nation, in defiance of the United
Nations which we built precisely to keep other nations from doing what we were
about to do, and invaded the oil-rich nation of Iraq--in defiance of
international law. Bush and Company sold this war to the American people, whose
sons and daughters would do the dying, through an elaborate hoax-lying to us all
about non-existent weapons of mass destruction, terrorist connections, and the
imminent threat of a mushroom cloud.
It began on my birthday, March 20, 2003 (for what it's worth, I am named after
the bird of spring, because my parents wanted to celebrate new life in this part
of the world with the birth of their first son). And so on that day four years ago, as I cut a piece of my birthday cake, I watched in horror as we started dropping the first of over 50,000 bombs on a country that poised no threat to us, or to our freedom. It was war born in deception, and now sustained by delusion. We were not, and we are not defending American against anything in this war--to the contrary, we have made the whole world a more dangerous place by acting alone, and with imperial hubris.
Four years ago, it was not easy to oppose this war-especially not in Oklahoma. After 9/11, many fine young men and women wanted to do something to fight terrorism, and so they walked into recruiting stations all over the country and signed up-believing that they could do something to make the world a safer, not a more dangerous place.
Those soldiers are from largely poor and middle class families, where patriotism and duty to God and country run strong. But in a world where the marketplace decides everything, and money has brought back the class distinctions America worked so hard to mitigate, the young men and women who put on the uniform today
and risk their lives have less hope than ever of affording college, and thus little hope of finding a job that will pay enough to support their families.
So in a world where the president promised to "restore integrity to the White House," while proceeding to ignore the Constitution he swore on the Bible to uphold, his policies have increased poverty, further burdened the middle class, and put a college education out of reach for more and more people. Don't you see? As the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer, we are, quite conveniently, manufacturing soldiers by default, rather than insisting that if a
war must be fought, then everyone's sons and daughters should fight it!
If that is not bad enough, this economic draft with it's automatic deferment for the rich, then consider the blasphemy of those who now try to silence the voices of the majority of the American people who have turned against this war, and elected Democrats to a majority in both houses of Congress to help end it, by telling us that any move to bring them home is anti-soldier, emboldens the enemy, and admits defeat.
Dick Cheney, who is the defacto president of the United States, went so far as to say recently that all such discussions in Washington amounted to a "slow bleed" of our soldiers. Good God in Heaven--how can anyone who is part of an administration which has failed our soldiers so miserably, lecture the rest of us on what discussions we can and cannot have in a free society to end a war that should never have been fought and can never be won.
The "slow bleed" started when we sent soldiers into battle on the cheap, without proper armor, and forced soldiers to forage for scrap metal to protect themselves. The "slow bleed" was what began when Donald Rumsfeld refused to
admit that his plan for the war was a disastrous mistake, and characterized the depth of his misgivings by saying, "Stuff happens."
The "slow bleed" started when neo-conservatives sitting safely in their Washington think-tanks imagined that the invaders would be met with flower and candy instead of with bombs, looting, and now all-out civil war-and then
continued to lie to us about how it was going, about each new corner we had turned, about how a series of puppet governments were getting on top of things, and democracy (which, by the way, has never been established as a colonial project) was just around the corner as well.
The "slow bleed," Mr. Vice President, is what is happening to the countless young men and women returning home without arms or legs, and then lying in hospital beds at Walter Reed in rooms that are not fit for what you love to refer to as our "heroes," but whose injuries are a sad reminder that we are not winning in Iraq, and we will not win in Iraq.
And now history will judge the "slow bleed" you started, and then did not have the courage or the character to put a tourniquet on, to be one of the most shameful episodes in America's dangerous slide toward fascism.
The truth is, other people are doing the "slow bleeding" and the dying, including countless innocent Iraqis, so that Haliburton, the company you still work for can overcharge this nation for work never done in what amounts to
economic treason, and then move its headquarters to Dubia, the new capitol of all things glitzy and tax-friendly, and no-doubt, populated with rich, back-slapping patriots.
Mr. Cheney, Mr. Bush, Mr. Gonzales, we are done with this; we are out of patient, and we are out of time-and not because we don't love our country, but because we do. The game is up, and how dare you suggest that we don't support our soldiers because we want to bring them home in one piece? If patriotism of this kind is the last refuge of a scoundrel, then what do you call dividing the nation falsely into those who support the troops and those who don't? This is the last refuge of a modern scoundrel.
You have no moral authority to lecture the rest of us on what is, or is not moral. We don't want one more year of the poor dying so the rich can drive a Hummer. We don't want the reputation of this country to go down even further. We
don't want you, or anyone in this country to threaten us for having a debate about how to end a war that you should never have started in the first place.
Because you are not kings, and this is not a monarchy. We voted for a new direction, and you have ignored us, and we are the Deciders!
Now that we know the lengths to which you have gone to seize power, control dissent, and circumvent the laws of this land, we have no choice but to do an intervention. There is a cancer on the body politic of this country, and the treatment we are proscribing is dissent-peaceful but forceful non-violent protests and a tireless campaign to take our country back.
We are not a collection of old hippies with nothing better to do today. We represent the views of the majority of the American people who want this war to end as soon as possible.
Dear Washington: the people that you work for have figured out who is doing the "slow bleeding," and who is cashing in-and we're sick of it. We will not be silent, and we will not be shamed for having a debate in what is supposed to be the world's leading Democracy about how to stop the not-so-slow bleeding our soldiers, and start the healing of America's reputation.
Be warned that if you consider your political reputation to be more important the lives of our sons and daughters, your career will be short-lived. And do not think for a moment that we just need to blow off some steam here so that we will feel all warm and fuzzy inside, and then go home to business as usual. We are not going away, because we are the ones who really support the troops, and we are ones who grieve the deaths of the innocent, and we are the ones who have witnessed the perversion of religious faith in the service of death. We are the ones you work for, and we are not happy with the job you are doing.
So listen to what we are about to do-read the names of all the Oklahoma service men and women who have done the real bleeding and the real dying-and make no mistake about it: we read their names with reverence, with profound respect for their families, and for their sacrifice, and with a deep and abiding hope that this list will stop growing longer.
Before I begin by reading the first name, I must tell that there is an Oklahoma statute which may be interpreted to forbid the reading of these names, and that to do so may possibly violate that statute, which carries criminal penalties. We trust that the first amendment is even more powerful, but if you agree to come forward and read names, please know that there are possible consequences to your actions.
Now, who will read the names of the dead?
