Posted on 09/13/2001 7:31:26 AM PDT by NotJustAnotherPrettyFace
NEWS
House International Relations Committee
Henry J. Hyde, Chairman
CONTACT: Sam Stratman, (202) 226-7875, September 12, 2001 Floor Statement of Chairman Hyde Delivered
(WASHINGTON) - Statement of U.S. Rep. Henry J. Hyde (R-IL), chairman of the House International Relations Committee, delivered Wednesday during Congressional consideration of a resolution regarding the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania:
Six decades ago, Sir Winston Churchill wrote words that are just as salient today as they were in his time: “Civilization will not last, freedom will not survive, peace will not be kept, unless a very large majority of mankind unite together to defend them.”
Mounting that defense requires leadership. Freedom will not be defended without leadership. Human decency will not be defended without leadership. America was attacked yesterday because of what she is, and because of what she stands for. America must now take the lead in rallying the forces necessary to defeat terrorism throughout the world.
It’s a standard plot in science fiction: humanity - fractious, divided, conflicted humanity - unites at last to face together the threat of an invasion from aliens. What happened yesterday was not the doing of aliens; it was not something that came from “out there.” It was something that came from below - from that corner of hell where the most wicked sentiments in the human heart fester. Is it possible to imagine that, confronted with evil of this magnitude, humanity, or at least Churchill’s “very large majority of humanity,” will unite to defeat the common enemy? We must hope so. But we must also act, for American leadership is essential in gathering the friends of civilization to the common defense.
Let us be clear, let the American people be very clear, and indeed let the world be clear about what happened yesterday. This was not a ‘tragedy’ in the strict sense of the word: a tragedy, as we remember from Greek drama is something inevitable - a fate from which there is no escape. What happened on September 11, 2001 was no more a tragedy than what happened on December 7, 1941. And here is the full meaning of the analogy that so many have drawn to Pearl Harbor: what happened yesterday was a willful, deliberate act of aggression. Its purpose was destruction: to kill Americans in order to demoralize the American people, destabilize American democracy, and wreak havoc with the American economy. While we extend our love and sympathy to the thousands who did indeed experience wrenching personal tragedies yesterday, we must be clear about the meaning of these acts: these were acts of war against the United States of America, against the American people, and against the rights and freedoms for which America stands in the world. These were acts of demonic evil, whose perpetrators have disqualified themselves from membership in the human race.
Wars have been fought for many reasons in five thousand years of recorded human history: wars have been fought for territory, for ideology, for plunder, for conquest. This war in which we are now engaged - and this is war, not crime in the ordinary sense of the term - is war for civilization itself. It is a war that pits the defenders of human rights, the defenders of democracy, against those who hate America precisely because she is the pre-eminent symbol, the greatest contemporary embodiment, of human rights and democracy. We were a target yesterday because of what we stand for, because of who we are. In defending ourselves, we are defending everyone in the world who believes in the rights of mankind - everyone who believes that democratic politics, not mass violence, is the way to conduct public affairs.
Expressions of resolve are important today, as are expressions of sympathy and solidarity. But there must be more. It is imperative that we understand that we are in a war. It is imperative that we take the steps necessary, in terms of both policy and funding, to make sure that we win that war.
In doing so, we defend ourselves and we defend the hope, which touches hearts around the world, that this new century will see the triumph of freedom and the vindication of the democratic idea in human affairs.
I'm sorry to be a wet blanket on your thread, but Mr. Hyde lost his credibility with me as a leader, when he pimped for the pro-abortionists in their drive to defeat the Lambert Amendment in the RNC a couple of years back.
Then, recently he has been pushing hard for a Commonwealth made up of the entire western hemisphere...he's nuts.
His insistence on calling our republic a democracy is fundamentally harmful to the liberty we prize.
Democracy is mob rule...the tyranny of the majority.
The United States of America on the other hand is a republic...which is a nation made up of laws---laws founded on a constitution, which was originally based on unalienable rights given by God...rights no democratic majorities have the right to remove from any citizen. Again, I'm sorry to have brought this note to what you I'm sure intended to be an inspiring thread.
But I make no apology for pointing out the fallacies in Hyde's thinking processes these days. I vowed a long time ago to speak up each and every time a politician made the false assertion that we were a democracy.
Now, if Henry got up and spoke about defending REPUBLICAN ideals and freedom, I would be the first in line to praise him.
This is a call from a very powerful congressman, Henry Hyde, to fight for a particular ideology.
I agree with him that we are in a war---but in my opinion, it is crucial that we are clear about what we are fighting for.
Free Republic is made up of leaders...dare I say, opinion shapers---if the message isn't honed to accuracy here, where will it be done?
I'm not just nitpicking at his verbiage here---he has demonstrated repeatedly that he has an agenda that harms American sovereignty and independence.
If these conversations aren't had here of all places, because of a false sense of the need for 'unity', then God help our Free Republic.
I believe deeply in unity around the truth---but even in a time of war, I absolutely refuse to unify around a lie.
The truth is not the friend of our enemies, nor is it the enemy of our friends.
I apologize for your being offended; but to take pot shots at an honorable man who, on a completely different and unrelated subject, even one with whom you disagree, especially when he is on your side for the issue at hand, is giving aid and comfort to the enemy....because they're reading this now, and they know that they have a crack in the armor on which they can capitalize. If they can divide us, they have won.
I respect yours and everyone else's right to disagree, and actually encourage it. But let's not air our disagreements in public at this time of crisis. There will be plenty of time to do that later.
Respectfully,
Real Cynic
If we can't critique the public statements of our national leaders, when we think they are misleading the public with their rhetoric, then we can just kiss our Free Republic goodbye.
If we can't critique the public statements of our national leaders, when we think they are misleading the public with their rhetoric, the terrorists have already won...America has ceased to be America.
Sorry...patriotism does not extend to giving elected officials a free pass.
God help us if it ever does.
As for the repetition of your accusation that I am giving aid and comfort to the enemy with my criticism?---it is my opinion that you yourself are giving aid and comfort to those who would destroy American liberty, by suggesting that we should all just sit down and shut up.
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