It's No Fairy Tale: Truth-Teller From Across The Sea Exposes Senators' Lies
No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.322 / Virus Database: 266.11.14 - Release Date: 5/20/2005
It's No Fairy Tale: Truth-Teller From Across The Sea Exposes Senators' Lies
Thomas J. Nagy
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
May 20, 2005
Thomas J. Nagy
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
May 20, 2005
Tuesday, in the splendor of the U.S. Senate's Dirksen Palace, I witnessed a re-enactment of "The Emperor's New Clothes." But this version was electrifying and restored my hope that the United States' pampered nobility, its senators, can serve us, just as the Constitution intended.
The updating of the children's fable showed me that there is an alternative to bowing and kowtowing to the tin pot Caesars of Washington, D.C., who have nothing in common with the rest of us but much in common with the equally privileged plutocrats, the K Street lobbyists, who "service" the senators with money and obsequiousness in exchange for "access."
But back to the fable in which a solitary brave lad does the unthinkable: He unmasks the pomposity of the uncaring, lazy and stupid nobility.
At the Dirksen Office Building hearing room, George Galloway, member of the British House of Parliament, played the role of the brave lad. Galloway poured out fire, dignity and, above all, truth before today's Joe McCarthy, Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., and his poodle, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich. Galloway exposed their lies that massacre U.S. service members and Iraqis alike while making the world more dangerous for children everywhere.
Galloway told the senators what they did not want to hear. He accused them of abetting the killing of more than 1,600 U.S. troops, 88 British troops and more than 100,000 Iraqis with lies and blunders in supporting the continued occupation of Iraq and the betrayal of U.S. and international law and ideals.
Galloway refused to accept the senators' claim that his humanitarian work for the people of Iraq was in exchange for millions of dollars. Like the naked majesty in the fable, Coleman and Levin fell deeper into cloud cuckoo land hurling accusations based on the testimony of unnamed Iraqi officials, a couple of named Iraqis in U.S. custody (the issue of torture was delicately bypassed) and translations of suspicious documents purporting to originate in Baghdad.
Coleman and Levin ended their performance by producing mysterious papers purporting to bear Galloway's initials. This might have been less farcical had Galloway not won libel suits against both The Christian Science Monitor and the London Telegraph over similar, crudely forged documents foisted on the gullible to silence him and serve as a pretext for purging him from the Labor Party. (Galloway responded by forming his own party, Respect, and winning re-election as an independent. Timid Democrats, take note!)
Despite being British Prime Minister Tony Blair's most formidale adversary and, hence, under the 1984-style surveillance of British intelligence, not a shred of even vaguely credible evidence could be introduced or even alluded to of any impropriety by Galloway.
There must be hope for the United States when it can enjoy reasoned discourse and political courage even if its source is a humane truth teller from across the sea. Perhaps George Galloway, M.P., may awaken whatever remains of moral courage among our senators. If not, let's recall the whole gutless, merciless bunch for whom the blood of not merely the Iraqi people but our own sons and daughters counts for so little.
Thomas J. Nagy, Ph.D., is on leave from George Washington University School of Busines, where he is an associate professor of expert systems.
© 2005 Seattle Post-Intelligencer
The updating of the children's fable showed me that there is an alternative to bowing and kowtowing to the tin pot Caesars of Washington, D.C., who have nothing in common with the rest of us but much in common with the equally privileged plutocrats, the K Street lobbyists, who "service" the senators with money and obsequiousness in exchange for "access."
But back to the fable in which a solitary brave lad does the unthinkable: He unmasks the pomposity of the uncaring, lazy and stupid nobility.
At the Dirksen Office Building hearing room, George Galloway, member of the British House of Parliament, played the role of the brave lad. Galloway poured out fire, dignity and, above all, truth before today's Joe McCarthy, Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., and his poodle, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich. Galloway exposed their lies that massacre U.S. service members and Iraqis alike while making the world more dangerous for children everywhere.
Galloway told the senators what they did not want to hear. He accused them of abetting the killing of more than 1,600 U.S. troops, 88 British troops and more than 100,000 Iraqis with lies and blunders in supporting the continued occupation of Iraq and the betrayal of U.S. and international law and ideals.
Galloway refused to accept the senators' claim that his humanitarian work for the people of Iraq was in exchange for millions of dollars. Like the naked majesty in the fable, Coleman and Levin fell deeper into cloud cuckoo land hurling accusations based on the testimony of unnamed Iraqi officials, a couple of named Iraqis in U.S. custody (the issue of torture was delicately bypassed) and translations of suspicious documents purporting to originate in Baghdad.
Coleman and Levin ended their performance by producing mysterious papers purporting to bear Galloway's initials. This might have been less farcical had Galloway not won libel suits against both The Christian Science Monitor and the London Telegraph over similar, crudely forged documents foisted on the gullible to silence him and serve as a pretext for purging him from the Labor Party. (Galloway responded by forming his own party, Respect, and winning re-election as an independent. Timid Democrats, take note!)
Despite being British Prime Minister Tony Blair's most formidale adversary and, hence, under the 1984-style surveillance of British intelligence, not a shred of even vaguely credible evidence could be introduced or even alluded to of any impropriety by Galloway.
There must be hope for the United States when it can enjoy reasoned discourse and political courage even if its source is a humane truth teller from across the sea. Perhaps George Galloway, M.P., may awaken whatever remains of moral courage among our senators. If not, let's recall the whole gutless, merciless bunch for whom the blood of not merely the Iraqi people but our own sons and daughters counts for so little.
Thomas J. Nagy, Ph.D., is on leave from George Washington University School of Busines, where he is an associate professor of expert systems.
© 2005 Seattle Post-Intelligencer
posted by Kevin @ 6:53 PM
0 comments
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home