Senator Robert Byrd's speech in the US Senate, October 2003, following the outbreak of the Iraq War
Senator Byrd's speech, October 17, 2003
The Emperor has no clothes
Posted on March 13, 2005
Robert C. Byrd is a Democratic Senator from West Virginia, United States. Dean of the Senate, former leader of the Democratic caucus (1977-1998), and then President pro tempore of the Senate (1989-1994 and 2001-2002).
http://byrd.senate.gov
In 1837, Danish author Hans Christian Andersen wrote a wonderful fairy tale which he titled The Emperor’s New Clothes. It may well be the very first example of the power of "political correctness." It is the story of the ruler of a distant land who was so enamored of his appearance and his clothing that he had a different suit for every hour of the day.
One day, two rogues arrived in town, claiming to be skilled weavers. They convinced the Emperor that they could weave the most wonderful cloth, which had a magical property. The clothes were only visible to those whose hearts and spirits were absolutely pure.
The Emperor was impressed and ordered the weavers to begin work immediately. The rogues, who had a deep understanding of human nature, began to feign work on empty looms.
Minister after minister went to view the new cloth, and all returned exclaiming about the beauty of the fabric on the looms, even though none of them could see a thing.
Finally, a grand procession was planned for the Emperor to display his new finery. The Emperor went to view his clothes and was shocked to see absolutely nothing, but he pretended to admire the fabulous cloth, inspect the garments with awe, and, after disrobing, go through the motions of carefully putting on a suit made of the new clothes.
Under a royal canopy, the Emperor appeared before the admiring crowd of his people—who cheered and applauded because they all knew the tale of the rogue weavers and wanted to appear nothing less than pure of heart.
But the illusion dissipated when an innocent child loudly exclaimed, for the whole kingdom to hear, that the Emperor was completely naked. He had no clothes.
This tale seems to me very close to the way the United States was led to war.
We were told that we were under the threat of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, but they have not been seen.
We were told that Iraqi crowds would welcome our soldiers with flowers, but neither crowds nor flowers appeared.
We were led to believe that Saddam Hussein was linked to the attack on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, but no evidence has ever been produced.
We were told in 16 words that Saddam Hussein was trying to buy "yellow cake" (uranium concentrate ready for enrichment) from Africa for the production of nuclear weapons, but this story has gone up in smoke.
We were frightened with visions of atomic mushrooms, but they turned out to be only vapors of our minds.
We were told that the bulk of the fighting was over, but as of October 17, 101 Americans had died in combat since that proclamation made from the deck of an aircraft carrier by our very own Emperor himself in his new clothes.
Our emperor says that we are not occupiers, yet we show no inclination to relinquish the land of Iraq to its people.
Those who have dared to expose the nakedness of the government’s policy in Iraq have been subjected to scorn. Those who have noticed the elephant in the room—that is, the fact that this war was based on lies—have had their patriotism questioned. Those who have spoken aloud what hundreds of thousands of military families across the country were thinking: that our soldiers should return quickly, safe and sound, from the dangers encountered at the other end of the world, have been accused of being cowards. Then we saw the untruths, the deceptions, the falsifications, the fallacious reasoning surrounding this rush to war in Iraq quickly wrapped in the flag.
The right to ask questions, to debate, and to hold a different opinion is under attack. The drums of war are beaten ever louder in an attempt to drown out the voices of those who speak in stark terms of the predicament we are in.
Even in the Senate, our history and tradition as the world’s greatest deliberative body are being trampled. This huge bill was rushed through the House in just one month. There were only three open hearings of the Senate Appropriations Committee for $87 billion, without a single outside witness being called to challenge the government line.
Ambassador Bremer went so far as to refuse to return to the Appropriations Committee to answer additional questions because, I quote: "I don’t have time. My schedule is full, and my duties await me in Baghdad."
Despite this callous sidelining of the Senate and its duty to ask questions in order to represent the American people, very few dared to voice their opposition to this forced passage of the bill in these Congressional sessions. Perhaps they were held back by the false allegations that our soldiers had an immediate need for new funds.
But the time has come for this politically correct sheep-like attitude that has cowed the members of this Senate to come to an end.
The Emperor has no clothes. This entire Iraqi adventure is based on propaganda and manipulation. Eighty-seven billion dollars is too high a price to pay for the continuation of a war based on... Leading the country to war based on misleading rhetoric and distorted reasoning is a travesty and a tragedy. It is the most cynical of all cynical acts. It is dangerous to manipulate the truth. Dangerous because once you have lied, it is difficult to ever be believed again. Having misled the Americans and stampeded them into war, this government must now try to sustain a policy whose starting premises are false. The President asks for billions from those same citizens who know they were misled about the necessity of going to war. We gave false information to our friends and allies, we insulted them, and now this government is experiencing more than minor difficulties in obtaining help from the international community. Deliberately misleading is dangerous.
The single-minded obsession of this government is now to make sense of the chaos in Iraq, and the propaganda that continues to emanate from the White House, depicting Iraq as the geographical center of terrorism, distracts our attention from Afghanistan and the 60 other countries in the world where terrorists hide. It is sapping resources that could be used to protect us from terrorists on our own soil. There remain many, many chinks in the armor of our own citizens. Have we forgotten that the most terrible terrorist attack in history occurred right here at home!! Yet, this government is cutting back on funds allocated to homeland security, while the President pours billions into security for Iraq. I am powerless to understand or explain such a policy.
I tried mightily to improve this bill. Twice I attempted to separate the reconstruction money in this bill, so that those dollars could be considered separately from military spending. I proposed an amendment to force the government to develop a plan to ensure that other countries assist the troops, and to formulate a plan for the United Nations to enter Iraq and for the United States to leave. Twice I tried to protect this bill from self-satisfied and shifting authorities that turn these $87 billion into a blank check. The American people must understand that we are allocating more aid to Iraq in this bill: $20.3 billion, than we give to the rest of the world! I tried to remove billions destined for wasteful programs from this bill and redirect those funds to better use. But, at every turn, my efforts were undermined by the hollow argument that we must all support the Commander-in-Chief.
I cannot stand by and watch our grandchildren being increasingly crushed under the burden of the billions flowing out of the Treasury for a war and a policy largely based on propaganda and prevarication. We are borrowing $87 billion to finance this adventure in Iraq. The President is asking the Senate to pay for this war by increasing the debt, a debt that will have to be paid by our children and by those same soldiers who are currently fighting this war. I cannot support extravagant tax cuts that plunge our country into potentially disastrous debt while our soldiers fight and die in a war that the White House chose to launch.
I cannot support the continuation of a policy that, contrary to all reason and as far as one can foresee, pins down 150,000 American soldiers, with no end in sight.
I cannot support a President who refuses to authorize the reasonable change of course that would bring traditional allies to our side in Iraq.
I cannot support the politics of zeal and "might makes right" that has created the new American arrogance and the new unilateralism that passes for foreign policy in this government.
I cannot support this foolish application of the dangerous and destabilizing doctrine of preemption that transforms the image of America into that of a relentless tyrant.
The Emperor has no clothes. And our former allies around the world were the first to observe this aloud.
I will vote against this bill because I cannot support a policy based on prevarication. I cannot support spending 87 billion of our hard-earned taxes when I have such doubts about the wisdom of its use.
I began my remarks with a fairy tale. I shall conclude my remarks with a horror story, in the form of a quote from the book Nuremberg Diaries, written by G.M. Gilbert, in which the author interviews Hermann Goering.
"We returned to the subject of war and I said that, contrary to his attitude, I did not think that ordinary people feel much gratitude towards leaders who bring them war and destruction.
"...But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a parliamentary regime or a communist dictatorship.
"There is one difference," I pointed out. "In a democracy, people have a say through their elected representatives, and in the United States, only Congress can declare wars."
"Oh, that is all very well, but, voice or no voice, people can always be brought to follow the orders of the leaders. It is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lacking patriotism and endangering the country. It works the same way in every country."
Robert Byrd, speech delivered before the US Senate on October 17, 2003
In 1837, Danish author Hans Christian Andersen wrote a wonderful fairy tale which he titled The Emperor’s New Clothes. It may well be the very first example of the power of "political correctness." It is the story of the ruler of a distant land who was so enamored of his appearance and his clothing that he had a different suit for every hour of the day.
One day, two rogues arrived in town, claiming to be skilled weavers. They convinced the Emperor that they could weave the most wonderful cloth, which had a magical property. The clothes were only visible to those whose hearts and spirits were absolutely pure.
The Emperor was impressed and ordered the weavers to begin work immediately. The rogues, who had a deep understanding of human nature, began to feign work on empty looms.
Minister after minister went to view the new cloth, and all returned exclaiming about the beauty of the fabric on the looms, even though none of them could see a thing.
Finally, a grand procession was planned for the Emperor to display his new finery. The Emperor went to view his clothes and was shocked to see absolutely nothing, but he pretended to admire the fabulous cloth, inspect the garments with awe, and, after disrobing, go through the motions of carefully putting on a suit made of the new clothes.
Under a royal canopy, the Emperor appeared before the admiring crowd of his people—who cheered and applauded because they all knew the tale of the rogue weavers and wanted to appear nothing less than pure of heart.
But the illusion dissipated when an innocent child loudly exclaimed, for the whole kingdom to hear, that the Emperor was completely naked. He had no clothes.
This tale seems to me very close to the way the United States was led to war.
We were told that we were under the threat of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, but they have not been seen.
We were told that Iraqi crowds would welcome our soldiers with flowers, but neither crowds nor flowers appeared.
We were led to believe that Saddam Hussein was linked to the attack on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, but no evidence has ever been produced.
We were told in 16 words that Saddam Hussein was trying to buy "yellow cake" (uranium concentrate ready for enrichment) from Africa for the production of nuclear weapons, but this story has gone up in smoke.
We were frightened with visions of atomic mushrooms, but they turned out to be only vapors of our minds.
We were told that the bulk of the fighting was over, but as of October 17, 101 Americans had died in combat since that proclamation made from the deck of an aircraft carrier by our very own Emperor himself in his new clothes.
Our emperor says that we are not occupiers, yet we show no inclination to relinquish the land of Iraq to its people.
Those who have dared to expose the nakedness of the government’s policy in Iraq have been subjected to scorn. Those who have noticed the elephant in the room—that is, the fact that this war was based on lies—have had their patriotism questioned. Those who have spoken aloud what hundreds of thousands of military families across the country were thinking: that our soldiers should return quickly, safe and sound, from the dangers encountered at the other end of the world, have been accused of being cowards. Then we saw the untruths, the deceptions, the falsifications, the fallacious reasoning surrounding this rush to war in Iraq quickly wrapped in the flag.
The right to ask questions, to debate, and to hold a different opinion is under attack. The drums of war are beaten ever louder in an attempt to drown out the voices of those who speak in stark terms of the predicament we are in.
Even in the Senate, our history and tradition as the world’s greatest deliberative body are being trampled. This huge bill was rushed through the House in just one month. There were only three open hearings of the Senate Appropriations Committee for $87 billion, without a single outside witness being called to challenge the government line.
Ambassador Bremer went so far as to refuse to return to the Appropriations Committee to answer additional questions because, I quote: "I don’t have time. My schedule is full, and my duties await me in Baghdad."
Despite this callous sidelining of the Senate and its duty to ask questions in order to represent the American people, very few dared to voice their opposition to this forced passage of the bill in these Congressional sessions. Perhaps they were held back by the false allegations that our soldiers had an immediate need for new funds.
But the time has come for this politically correct sheep-like attitude that has cowed the members of this Senate to come to an end.
The Emperor has no clothes. This entire Iraqi adventure is based on propaganda and manipulation. Eighty-seven billion dollars is too high a price to pay for the continuation of a war based on... Leading the country to war based on misleading rhetoric and distorted reasoning is a travesty and a tragedy. It is the most cynical of all cynical acts. It is dangerous to manipulate the truth. Dangerous because once you have lied, it is difficult to ever be believed again. Having misled the Americans and stampeded them into war, this government must now try to sustain a policy whose starting premises are false. The President asks for billions from those same citizens who know they were misled about the necessity of going to war. We gave false information to our friends and allies, we insulted them, and now this government is experiencing more than minor difficulties in obtaining help from the international community. Deliberately misleading is dangerous.
The single-minded obsession of this government is now to make sense of the chaos in Iraq, and the propaganda that continues to emanate from the White House, depicting Iraq as the geographical center of terrorism, distracts our attention from Afghanistan and the 60 other countries in the world where terrorists hide. It is sapping resources that could be used to protect us from terrorists on our own soil. There remain many, many chinks in the armor of our own citizens. Have we forgotten that the most terrible terrorist attack in history occurred right here at home!! Yet, this government is cutting back on funds allocated to homeland security, while the President pours billions into security for Iraq. I am powerless to understand or explain such a policy.
I tried mightily to improve this bill. Twice I attempted to separate the reconstruction money in this bill, so that those dollars could be considered separately from military spending. I proposed an amendment to force the government to develop a plan to ensure that other countries assist the troops, and to formulate a plan for the United Nations to enter Iraq and for the United States to leave. Twice I tried to protect this bill from self-satisfied and shifting authorities that turn these $87 billion into a blank check. The American people must understand that we are allocating more aid to Iraq in this bill: $20.3 billion, than we give to the rest of the world! I tried to remove billions destined for wasteful programs from this bill and redirect those funds to better use. But, at every turn, my efforts were undermined by the hollow argument that we must all support the Commander-in-Chief.
I cannot stand by and watch our grandchildren being increasingly crushed under the burden of the billions flowing out of the Treasury for a war and a policy largely based on propaganda and prevarication. We are borrowing $87 billion to finance this adventure in Iraq. The President is asking the Senate to pay for this war by increasing the debt, a debt that will have to be paid by our children and by those same soldiers who are currently fighting this war. I cannot support extravagant tax cuts that plunge our country into potentially disastrous debt while our soldiers fight and die in a war that the White House chose to launch.
I cannot support the continuation of a policy that, contrary to all reason and as far as one can foresee, pins down 150,000 American soldiers, with no end in sight.
I cannot support a President who refuses to authorize the reasonable change of course that would bring traditional allies to our side in Iraq.
I cannot support the politics of zeal and "might makes right" that has created the new American arrogance and the new unilateralism that passes for foreign policy in this government.
I cannot support this foolish application of the dangerous and destabilizing doctrine of preemption that transforms the image of America into that of a relentless tyrant.
The Emperor has no clothes. And our former allies around the world were the first to observe this aloud.
I will vote against this bill because I cannot support a policy based on prevarication. I cannot support spending 87 billion of our hard-earned taxes when I have such doubts about the wisdom of its use.
I began my remarks with a fairy tale. I shall conclude my remarks with a horror story, in the form of a quote from the book Nuremberg Diaries, written by G.M. Gilbert, in which the author interviews Hermann Goering.
"We returned to the subject of war and I said that, contrary to his attitude, I did not think that ordinary people feel much gratitude towards leaders who bring them war and destruction.
"...But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a parliamentary regime or a communist dictatorship.
"There is one difference," I pointed out. "In a democracy, people have a say through their elected representatives, and in the United States, only Congress can declare wars."
"Oh, that is all very well, but, voice or no voice, people can always be brought to follow the orders of the leaders. It is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lacking patriotism and endangering the country. It works the same way in every country."
Robert Byrd, speech delivered before the US Senate on October 17, 2003
Gregory Lhomme Hounsfield alerted me to this text, which he found on the site , which also presents the English version. . We deemed it useful, so that the maximum number of people could become aware of it, to reproduce the English version here as well:
**Robert C. Byrd **is a Democratic Senator from West Virginia. Currently a Senior member of the Senate, he led the Democratic party from 1977 to 1998, and has presided over the Senate on two occasions from 1989-1994 and from 2001-2002.
He made the following speech on the floor of the Senate, October 17, 2003.
In 1837, Danish author, Hans Christian Andersen, wrote a wonderful fairy tale which he titled The Emperor’s New Clothes. It may be the very first example of the power of political correctness. It is the story of the Ruler of a distant land who was so enamored of his appearance and his clothing that he had a different suit for every hour of the day.
One day two rogues arrived in town, claiming to be gifted weavers. They convinced the Emperor that they could weave the most wonderful cloth, which had a magical property. The clothes were only visible to those who were completely pure in heart and spirit.
The Emperor was impressed and ordered the weavers to begin work immediately. The rogues, who had a deep understanding of human nature, began to feign work on empty looms.
Minister after minister went to view the new clothes and all came back exhorting the beauty of the cloth on the looms even though none of them could see a thing.
Finally a grand procession was planned for the Emperor to display his new finery. The Emperor went to view his clothes and was shocked to see absolutely nothing, but he pretended to admire the fabulous cloth, inspect the clothes with awe, and, after disrobing, go through the motions of carefully putting on a suit of the new garments.
Under a royal canopy the Emperor appeared to the admiring throng of his people - all of whom cheered and clapped because they all knew the rogue weavers’ tale and did not want to be seen as less than pure of heart-.
But, the bubble burst when an innocent child loudly exclaimed, for the whole kingdom to hear, that the Emperor had nothing on at all. He had no clothes.
That tale seems to me very like the way this nation was led to war.
We were told that we were threatened by weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, but they have not been seen.
We were told that the throngs of Iraqi’s would welcome our troops with flowers, but no throngs or flowers appeared.
We were led to believe that Saddam Hussein was connected to the attack on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, but no evidence has ever been produced.
We were told in 16 words that Saddam Hussein tried to buy "yellow cake" from Africa for production of nuclear weapons, but the story has turned into empty air.
We were frightened with visions of mushroom clouds, but they turned out to be only vapors of the mind.
We were told that major combat was over but 101 [as of October 17] Americans have died in combat since that proclamation from the deck of an aircraft carrier by our very own Emperor in his new clothes.
Our emperor says that we are not occupiers, yet we show no inclination to relinquish the country of Iraq to its people.
Those who have dared to expose the nakedness of the Administration’s policies in Iraq have been subjected to scorn. Those who have noticed the elephant in the room - that is, the fact that this war was based on falsehoods - have had our patriotism questioned. Those who have spoken aloud the thought shared by hundreds of thousands of military families across this country, that our troops should return quickly and safely from the dangers half a world away, have been accused of cowardice. We have then seen the untruths, the dissembling, the fabrication, the misleading inferences surrounding this rush to war in Iraq wrapped quickly in the flag.
The right to ask questions, debate, and dissent is under attack. The drums of war are beaten ever louder in an attempt to drown out those who speak of our predicament in stark terms.
Even in the Senate, our history and tradition of being the world’s greatest deliberative body is being snubbed. This huge spending bill has been rushed through this chamber in just one month. There were just three open hearings by the Senate Appropriations Committee on $87 billion, without a single outside witness called to challenge the Administration’s line.
Ambassador Bremer went so far as to refuse to return to the Appropriations Committee to answer additional questions because, and I quote : "I don’t have time. I’m completely booked, and I have to get back to Baghdad to my duties."
Despite this callous stiff-arm of the Senate and its duties to ask questions in order to represent the American people, few dared to voice their opposition to rushing this bill through these halls of Congress. Perhaps they were intimidated by the false claims that our troops are in immediate need of more funds.
But the time has come for the sheep-like political correctness which has cowed members of this Senate to come to an end.
The Emperor has no clothes. This entire adventure in Iraq has been based on propaganda and manipulation. Eighty-seven billion dollars is too much to pay for the continuation of a war based on falsehoods.
Taking the nation to war based on misleading rhetoric and hyped intelligence is a travesty and a tragedy. It is the most cynical of all cynical acts. It is dangerous to manipulate the truth. It is dangerous because once having lied, it is difficult to ever be believed again. Having misled the American people and stampeded them to war, this Administration must now attempt to sustain a policy predicated on falsehoods. The President asks for billions from those same citizens who know that they were misled about the need to go to war. We misinformed and insulted our friends and allies and now this Administration is having more than a little trouble getting help from the international community. It is perilous to mislead.
The single-minded obsession of this Administration to now make sense of the chaos in Iraq, and the continuing propaganda which emanates from the White House painting Iraq as the geographical center of terrorism is distracting our attention from Afghanistan and the 60 other countries in the world where terrorists hide. It is sapping resources which could be used to make us safer from terrorists on our own shores. The body armor for our own citizens still has many, many chinks. Have we forgotten that the most horrific terror attacks in history occurred right here at home !! Yet, this Administration turns back money for homeland security, while the President pours billions into security for Iraq. I am powerless to understand or explain such a policy.
I have tried mightily to improve this bill. I twice tried to separate the reconstruction money in this bill, so that those dollars could be considered separately from the military spending. I offered an amendment to force the Administration to craft a plan to get other nations to assist the troops and formulate a plan to get the U.N. in, and the U.S. out, of Iraq. Twice I tried to rid the bill of expansive, flexible authorities that turn this $87 billion into a blank check. The American people should understand that we provide more foreign aid for Iraq in this bill, $20.3 billion, than we provide for the rest of the entire world ! I attempted to remove from this bill billions in wasteful programs and divert those funds to better use. But, at every turn, my efforts were thwarted by the vapid argument that we must all support the requests of the Commander in Chief.
I cannot stand by and continue to watch our grandchildren become increasingly burdened by the billions that fly out of the Treasury for a war and a policy based largely on propaganda and prevarication. We are borrowing $87 billion to finance this adventure in Iraq. The President is asking this Senate to pay for this war with increased debt, a debt that will have to be paid by our children and by those same troops that are currently fighting this war. I cannot support outlandish tax cuts that plunge our country into potentially disastrous debt while our troops are fighting and dying in a war that the White House chose to begin.
I cannot support the continuation of a policy that unwisely ties down 150,000 American troops for the foreseeable future, with no end in sight.
I cannot support a President who refuses to authorize the reasonable change in course that would bring traditional allies to our side in Iraq.
I cannot support the politics of zeal and "might makes right" that created the new American arrogance and unilateralism which passes for foreign policy in this Administration.
I cannot support this foolish manifestation of the dangerous and destabilizing doctrine of preemption that changes the image of America into that of a reckless bully.
The emperor has no clothes. And our former allies around the world were the first to loudly observe it.
I shall vote against this bill because I cannot support a policy based on prevarication. I cannot support doling out 87 billion of our hard-earned tax dollars when I have so many doubts about the wisdom of its use.
I began my remarks with a fairy tale. I shall close my remarks with a horror story, in the form of a quote from the book Nuremberg Diaries, written by G.M. Gilbert, in which the author interviews Hermann Goering.
"We got around to the subject of war again and I said that, contrary to his attitude, I did not think that the common people are very thankful for leaders who bring them war and destruction.
". . . But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship."
"There is one difference," I pointed out. "In a democracy the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives, and in the United States only Congress can declare wars."
"Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."
**Richard Byrd **
http://byrd.senate.gov