People for Peace and Justice-HOME

People for Peace and Justice
of Utah

a grassroots organization advocating nonviolence and justice

HOME
Texts of rally/event speeches

Speech Delivered by Louis Borgenicht, MD on March 15th at the Capitol Building Rally

A Conservative Government is an organized hypocrisy." -Benjamin Disraeli

As you have heard I have always dealt with grave and often incomprehensible issues partially through sardonic humor. Thus I would like to begin with the prophetic words of one of the 20th century's greatest philosophers, Woody Allen who wrote nearly thirty years ago that, "More than any other time in history mankind faces a cross roads. One road leads to despair and utter hopelessness, the other total extinction. Pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly."

Immediately after I saw the planes hit the WTC on September 11th, 2001 I was flooded, as were many of you, with a variety of mixed thoughts and emotions. One of the most unexpected was the belief and hope that circumstances would force the Bush Administration to change political direction. Up to that point the administration had opted out of the Kyoto Agreement (the President telling us we just had to "get used to global warming"), declared our intention to abrogate the Antiballistic Missile Treaty, announced that we would not participate in the final negotiations on a 1972 Biological Weapons Treaty signed by 143 nations, and declared that the International Criminal Court did not apply to US citizens.

Furthermore the President Bush began to investigate the resumption of underground testing at the Nevada Test Site, resurrected the ill-conceived ballistic defense system know as Star Wars, actively pursued the development of new "low yield" nuclear weapons, and just recently suggested that our military might use such weapons as first strike options in Iraq. These are hardly comforting words from the only nation in history to have dropped nuclear weapons on a civilian population.

In the face of the administration's hubris I felt that the cataclysmic tragedy of 911 had created an unlikely opportunity for the future. I was convinced that the only way to deal with this unprecedented situation would be with aid of allies and compatriots who saw the problem of terrorism as world wide and complex rather than simplistic. Here was an unequaled and unexpected opportunity for the Bush Administration to change direction.

But my idealism was short lived. Within minutes of being told of the tragedy The President declared, "We have been attacked...this means war." The die was cast and there was, as the administration is fond of declaring, "no wiggle room."

To be sure Saddam Hussein is an unsavory character in every respect but the irony is that his military might is partially the result of American largesse. The issue of whether he has WMD. I got my proof this week in an email. It read:
Question: How do we know that Saddam Hussein has WMD?
Answer: We have the receipts.
This week I got an anonymous phone call from a gentleman who said he was a journalist and wanted to ask me a few questions. He would not identify himself and would not say for which publication he worked. The conversation was short and ended with him accusing me of hating both Bush and Israel and loving Saddam. He obviously had not done his homework.

Our opposition to this premeditated, and as the administration says pre-emptive, war is not unpatriotic and we are not lovers of Saddam Hussein.. There is little we can to do control his behavior; that is up to the diplomats of Iraq and the world. Unfortunately the citizens of Iraq have little say in the matter. Our responsibility and concern, on the other hand, is with our president and his administration.

Just to put the current Iraqi situation in perspective I want to tell you about a fact finding mission some physician friends of mine made recently under the aegis of the New York based Center for Economic and Social Rights. Their report is available at the CESR website. It indicated "that the fragile Iraqi health system, already badly damaged by 12 years of economic sanctions, is woefully inadequate to deal with the effects of a new war"and goes on to say:

Iraq has become like a vast refugee camp The population survives largely on government food rations and depends on a fragile public health care system. They are extremely vulnerable. The report concludes that it is unlikely that international relief agencies can avert a major humanitarian disaster if war occurs.

To some of us the latter has already occurred as a result of 12 years of sanctions: it is estimated that over half a million Iraqi children have died of disease and malnutrition due to policies supported by the United States and several other UN members.

As pediatrician I know that for a parent there is nothing worse than the loss of a child. It is simply not the way the universe is supposed to be. Parents are not supposed to out live their children and the loss of a child is held to be a perversion of nature. The residual pain is searing and never ends. The death of a child is the death of a child whether you are Iraqi or American.

It is circumstances like these that call physicians to action. In the time honored medical tradition of preventive and public health medicine we believe that when there is no cure for a disease prevention is the only approach. This heinous and cavalier drive to war against Iraq by the Bush administration can be seen as is a disease and thus prevention is the only approach.

The President's disclaimer at his recent surrealistic news conference that, "I have not made up our mind about military action" is dead wrong, both grammatically and conceptually. Clearly, he is hell bent on prosecuting an illegal, immoral, catastrophic, and certainly tragic war. While he has not made up our mind, we have: we want no military action of any kind.

The current administration's narcissistic, treacherous, dichotomous policy towards Iraq claims that we are hated "for our freedom", that we are the ultimate good confronting evil incarnate in Saddam Hussein. Only a few short months ago it was Osama Bin Laden. How soon we forget.

All of this posturing flies in the face of morality and legality according to 300 international lawyers meeting recently in Spain. But this is of little consequence to the President and his Princes of Darkness (Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz) both hawkish conservatives waiting in the wings since the Reagan administration to assume their role in history. The plan to "deal with Iraq"actually was formulated ten years ago by Wolfowitz and now he has the President's ear.

While his advisors may have his ear, God, he claims, has his heart and he reminds us of this daily. It is Bush's special God. It is not Catholic: an emissary from the Pope got short shrift during a recent visit to The White House. The National Council of Churches, which includes the President's United Methodist Church declared the going to war with Iraq "violates God's law and the teaching of Jesus Christ." Ironically, many Jews, like myself, find ourselves opposing a war (and incidentally Israeli anti-Palestinian policies) which the Bush-wacky Christian Right cronies of the President enthusiastically support. In a perverse way, they view the unfolding events in the Middle East as a fulfillment of the prophecies of Armageddon, a hardly comforting prospect. Other believers in God of one kind or another, Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, can expect no welcome ear at the White House.

The uncertainty and unease we all experience daily because of the Bush Administration's reckless and thoughtless policies leave me with a sense of total incredulity. The daily news provides fodder for our curiosity. Here are some of my recent favorites:

First, the social and economic consequences of this war are many. A national debt approaching one trillion dollars. The neglect of our pressing domestic needs in the name of a nebulous war on terrorism. The perversion of our public heath system in the name of fighting bioterrorism. Just to name a few.

Next, The Senate Foreign Relations Committee held hearings this week on the reconstruction of post-war Iraq. General Jay Garner, director of the Pentagon's Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance (a misnomer if ever there was one) who was scheduled to appear at the hearing was suddenly "unavailable" to testify and the hearings were not stymied.

Meanwhile senators on the committee read, the same day, in The Wall Street Journal that three weeks earlier nearly $1 billion was put out to bid to engineering firms (such as Halliburton and Bectel) by the US Agency for Internal Development for the reconstruction of Iraq. You may recall some members of the administration had ties with these corporations. Members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee were fuming about being consciously kept out of the information loop.

Finally, as far as the media is concerned: The DOD has invited over 600 media representatives to join military units deployed in the region. These reporters will be embedded (a strange term devised by the armed forces) in the units to which they are assigned. They will eat, sleep and travel with their units, may not carry weapons, and are discouraged from wearing military apparel. They are advised to bring a flak jacket, Kevlar helmet, and to dress in subdued tones. Mauve perhaps? All this in an attempt to make Gulf War II less dispassionate than the first perhaps.

My view of this policy is more cynical. Our cultural fascination with reality TV may finally have peaked. The Bush administration wants to provide us with the ultimate reality show: war as it has never been seen and you can be sure every channel will carry it. It is not a show we want to see.

My friends, we are engaged in a battle, a battle for the heart and soul of our nation which has been co-opted by a cabal not of our choosing. George W.. Bush tells us he is fighting the Evildoers on our behalf. His view of the world is simplistically black and white and does not allow for shades of gray. You are either with him or against him and we are against him.

Years ago Mahatma Gandhi in viewed the world very differently, in a way which resonates with me as we confront the task before us:
The only devils running around in this world are in our hearts, and that is where all our battles should be fought. March 15, 2003

Back to texts of speeches