"Naturally the common people don't want war: neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. 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. 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 peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country."   Hermann Goering (before being sentenced to death at the Nuremberg trials)

By Marie Cocco
Staff Writer, NY Newsday
http://educate-yourself.org/cn/democratleadersabdicatewarpolicy02oct02.shtml
September 26, 2002

We have seen the soul of the Democratic congressional leadership. It is empty. The grave and unanswered questions that leading Democrats and highly respected Republicans raised about going to war against Iraq have gone mostly unanswered. So Congress is ready to march toward Baghdad.

A congressional resolution is to give President George W. Bush the imprimatur of overwhelming bipartisan support for an offensive military action of unknown duration, with uncertain allied support. The voting could start next week.

Oh, a word will be changed here or there, a comma added or deleted. This is to make it seem as though caution and not capitulation drives these lawmakers. It is a lie.

The point is to get on with it.

"This war is connected to the basest type of politics," said Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), who is waging a lonely struggle in the House against authorization for war. Fewer than two dozen colleagues have stood publicly with him.

Bush's intent to turn the upcoming congressional elections into a referendum on his military and security leadership is plain. If the president's demand for a war vote before November was insufficient proof, his comment at a New Jersey fund-raiser that Senate Democrats are "not interested in the security of the American people" should allay any doubt.

With the stock market in the tank, retirement dreams disappearing, job losses in the millions, budget deficits growing and middle-class incomes shrinking, there is not much else for Bush to crow about.

Democrats very much want to get back to these unpleasant topics. And to make sure they do nothing that allows Republicans to paint them as timid peaceniks of Vietnam-era vintage.

And that, my fellow Americans, is the justification for this war vote, at this time.

Republicans weigh the cost of American blood and treasure against the benefit of steering another Bush clear of a nasty economic patch. Democrats balance them against the enticement of campaign ads about Enron.

Poor Al Gore. He raised in his San Francisco speech the very concerns about an Iraqi invasion voiced just weeks ago by Republicans such as Sens. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) and Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.). But Gore seemed out of sync. Someone forgot to tell him it is unfashionable, now, to think. Kucinich and his small band of congressional naysayers are left to provide relief from this tragic abdication of responsibility.

Kucinich is no political powerhouse. He is the type of quirky congressman who tends to be loved at home but commands little notice in Washington. His official Web site notes proudly that he is "one of the few vegans in Congress." Nonetheless, it provides a helpful link to The Sausage Shoppe in Cleveland (Current special: 8 brats, 8 buns, 8 bucks).

The nation came to know Kucinich as the "boy mayor" of Cleveland, but forgot his name after he was forced from office after one controversial term. He mounted a comeback and won his seat by ousting a Republican incumbent after Newt Gingrich's "Contract with America" proved too much for the middle-class district.

Kucinich sensed early the cynical turn this war debate would take. In March, when Bush declared that "politics ought to stay out of fighting a war," Kucinich begged to differ.

"Before we celebrate an imperial presidency," he said in a floor speech, "let it be said that the lack of free and open political process, the lack of free and open political debate, and the lack of free and open political dissent can be fatal in a democracy."

Few listened then, or hear Kucinich now. He creates annoying static, best tuned out.

Of course, Kucinich might gain a respectful ear if he reminded fellow politicians that he is a liberal who wins in ethnic, Reagan-Democrat neighborhoods; a congressman from a coveted swing district in a coveted swing state. That is an argument too crass for him. But not for the rest of them.

Web posted at : http://www.ccmep.org/2002_articles/Iraq/092602_published_on_thursday.htm

---

More Quotes from the Masters of Manipulation:
http://www.ccmep.org/hotnews2/chilling071102html.htm