A PERFECT
OBITUARY F0R THE BUSH/CHENEY ADMINISTRATION
Address by Mayor Ross C. "Rocky" Anderson on
October 27, 2007
By David Swanson
AfterDowningStreet.org
Monday 29 October 2007
Salt Lake City, Utah -
Today, as we come together once again in this
great city, we raise
our voices in unison to say to President Bush,
to Vice President
Cheney, to other members of the Bush
Administration (past and
present), to a majority of Congress, including
Utah's entire
congressional delegation, and to much of the
mainstream media: "You
have failed us miserably and we won't take it
any more."
"While we had every reason to expect far more
of you, you have been
pompous, greedy, cruel, and incompetent as you
have led this great
nation to a moral, military, and national
security abyss."
"You have breached trust with the American
people in the most
egregious ways. You have utterly failed in the
performance of your
jobs. You have undermined our Constitution,
permitted the violation
of the most fundamental treaty obligations, and
betrayed the rule of
law."
"You have engaged in, or permitted, heinous
human rights abuses of
the sort never before countenanced in our
nation's history as a
matter of official policy. You have sent
American men and women to
kill and be killed on the basis of lies, on the
basis of shifting
justifications, without competent leadership,
and without even a
coherent plan for this monumental blunder."
"We are here to tell you: We won't take it any
more!"
"You have acted in direct contravention of
values that we, as
Americans who love our country, hold dear. You
have deceived us in
the most cynical, outrageous ways. You have
undermined, or allowed
the undermining of, our constitutional system
of checks and balances
among the three presumed co-equal branches of
government. You have
helped lead our nation to the brink of fascism,
of a dictatorship
contemptuous of our nation's treaty
obligations, federal statutory
law, our Constitution, and the rule of law."
"Because of you, and because of your jingoistic
false 'patriotism,'
our world is far more dangerous, our nation is
far more despised,
and the threat of terrorism is far greater than
ever before.
It has been absolutely astounding how you have
committed the most
horrendous acts, causing such needless tragedy
in the lives of
millions of people, yet you wear your so-called
religion on your
sleeves, asserting your God-is-on-my-side
nonsense - when what you
have done flies in the face of any religious or
humanitarian
tradition. Your hypocrisy is mind-boggling -
and disgraceful. What
part of "Thou shalt not kill" do you not
understand? What part of
the "Golden rule" do you not understand? What
part of "be honest,"
"be responsible," and "be accountable" don't
you understand? What
part of "Blessed are the peacekeepers" do you
not understand?
Because of you, hundreds of thousands of people
have been killed,
many thousands of people have suffered
horrendous lifetime injuries,
and millions have been run off from their
homes. For the sake of our
nation, for the sake of our children, and for
the sake of our
brothers and sisters around the world, we are
morally compelled to
say, as loudly as we can, 'We won't take it any
more!' "
"As United States agents kidnap, disappear, and
torture human beings
around the world, you justify, you deceive, and
you cover up. We
find what you have done to men, women and
children, and to the good
name and reputation of the United States, so
appalling, so
unconscionable, and so outrageous as to compel
us to call upon you
to step aside and allow other men and women who
are competent, true
to our nation's values, and with high moral
principles to stand in
your places - for the good of our nation, for
the good of our
children, and for the good of our world."
In the case of the President and Vice
President, this means
impeachment and removal from office, without
any further delay from
a complacent, complicit Congress, the
Democratic majority of which
cares more about political gain in 2008 than it
does about the
vindication of our Constitution, the rule of
law, and democratic
accountability.
It means the election of people as President
and Vice President who,
unlike most of the presidential candidates from
both major parties,
have not aided and abetted in the perpetration
of the illegal,
tragic, devastating invasion and occupation of
Iraq. And it means
the election of people as President and Vice
President who will
commit to return our nation to the moral and
strategic imperative of
refraining from torturing human beings.
In the case of the majority of Congress, it
means electing people
who are diligent enough to learn the facts,
including reading
available National Intelligence Estimates,
before voting to go to
war. It means electing to Congress men and
women who will jealously
guard Congress's sole prerogative to declare
war. It means electing
to Congress men and women who will not submit
like vapid lap dogs to
presidential requests for blank checks to
engage in so-called
preemptive wars, for legislation permitting
warrantless wiretapping
of communications involving US citizens, and
for dangerous,
irresponsible, saber-rattling legislation like
the recent
Kyl-Lieberman amendment.
We must avoid the trap of focusing the blame
solely upon President
Bush and Vice-President Cheney. This is not
just about a few people
who have wronged our country - and the world.
They were enabled by
members of both parties in Congress, they were
enabled by the
pathetic mainstream news media, and,
ultimately, they have been
enabled by the American people - 40% of whom
are so ill-informed
they still think Iraq was behind the 9/11
attacks - a people who
know and care more about baseball statistics
and which drunken
starlets are wearing underwear than they know
and care about the
atrocities being committed every single day in
our name by a
government for which we need to take
responsibility.
As loyal Americans, without regard to political
partisanship - as
veterans, as teachers, as religious leaders, as
working men and
women, as students, as professionals, as
businesspeople, as public
servants, as retirees, as people of all ages,
races, ethnic origins,
sexual orientations, and faiths - we are here
to say to the Bush
administration, to the majority of Congress,
and to the mainstream
media: "You have violated your solemn
responsibilities. You have
undermined our democracy, spat upon our
Constitution, and engaged in
outrageous, despicable acts. You have brought
our nation to a point
of immorality, inhumanity, and illegality of
immense, tragic,
unprecedented proportions."
"But we will live up to our responsibilities as
citizens, as
brothers and sisters of those who have suffered
as a result of the
imperial bullying of the United States
government, and as moral
actors who must take a stand: And we will, and
must, mean it when we
say 'We won't take it any more.'"
If we want principled, courageous elected
officials, we need to be
principled, courageous, and tenacious
ourselves. History has
demonstrated that our elected officials are not
the leaders - the
leadership has to come from us. If we don't
insist, if we don't
persist, then we are not living up to our
responsibilities as
citizens in a democracy - and our
responsibilities as moral human
beings. If we remain silent, we signal to
Congress and the Bush
administration - and to candidates running for
office - and to the
world - that we support the status quo.
Silence is complicity. Only by standing up for
what's right and
never letting down can we say we are doing our
part.
Our government, on the basis of a campaign we
now know was entirely
fraudulent, attacked and militarily occupied a
nation that posed no
danger to the United States. Our government,
acting in our name, has
caused immense, unjustified death and
destruction.
It all started five years ago, yet where have
we, the American
people, been? At this point, we are
responsible. We get together
once in a while at demonstrations and complain
about Bush and
Cheney, about Congress, and about the pathetic
news media. We point
fingers and yell a lot. Then most people
politely go away until
another demonstration a few months later.
How many people can honestly say they have
spent as much time
learning about and opposing the outrages of the
Bush administration
as they have spent watching sports or mindless
television programs
during the past five years? Escapist,
time-sapping sports and
insipid entertainment have indeed become the
opiate of the masses.
Why is this country so sound asleep? Why do we
abide what is
happening to our nation, to our Constitution,
to the cause of peace
and international law and order? Why are we not
doing all in our
power to put an end to this madness?
We should be in the streets regularly and
students should be raising
hell on our campuses. We should be making it
clear in every way
possible that apologies or convoluted,
disingenuous explanations
just don't cut it when presidential candidates
and so many others
voted to authorize George Bush and his neo-con
buddies to send
American men and women to attack and occupy
Iraq.
Let's awaken, and wake up the country by
committing here and now to
do all each of us can to take our nation back.
Let them hear us
across the country, as we ask others to join
us: "We won't take it
any more!"
I implore you: Draw a line. Figure out exactly
where your own moral
breaking point is. How much will you put up
with before you say "No
more" and mean it?
I have drawn my line as a matter of simple
personal morality: I
cannot, and will not, support any candidate who
has voted to fund
the atrocities in Iraq. I cannot, and will not,
support any
candidate who will not commit to remove all US
troops, as soon as
possible, from Iraq. I cannot, and will not,
support any candidate
who has supported legislation that takes us one
step closer to
attacking Iran. I cannot, and will not, support
any candidate who
has not fought to stop the kidnapping,
disappearances, and torture
being carried on in our name.
If we expect our nation's elected officials to
take us seriously,
let us send a powerful message they cannot
misunderstand. Let them
know we really do have our moral breaking
point. Let them know we
have drawn a bright line. Let them know they
cannot take our support
for granted - that, regardless of their party
and regardless of
other political considerations, they will not
have our support if
they cannot provide, and have not provided,
principled leadership.
The people of this nation may have been far too
quiet for five
years, but let us pledge that we won't let it
go on one more day -
that we will do all we can to put an end to the
illegalities, the
moral degradation, and the disintegration of
our nation's reputation
in the world.
Let us be unified in drawing the line - in
declaring that we do have
a moral breaking point. Let us insist,
together, in supporting our
troops and in gratitude for the freedoms for
which our veterans gave
so much, that we bring our troops home from
Iraq, that we return our
government to a constitutional democracy, and
that we commit to
honoring the fundamental principles of human
rights.
In defense of our country, in defense of our
Constitution, in
defense of our shared values as Americans - and
as moral human
beings - we declare today that we will fight in
every way possible
to stop the insanity, stop the continued
military occupation of
Iraq, and stop the moral depravity reflected by
the kidnapping,
disappearing, and torture of people around the
world.
