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September 30, 2008 at 13:59:59
Promoted to Headline (H2) on 9/30/08: by Ray McGovern Page 1 of 3 page(s) |
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I don’t have to remind you of the importance of this Thursday’s debate from a political perspective. But as you prepare, I invite you to spare a few minutes to look at the opportunity from a moral and religious perspective. You may wish to examine your conscience regarding how you have acted on key foreign policy issues and reflect on John 8:32: "And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free." The holy days of religious traditions serve a very useful purpose, if we but take the time to pause and ponder. I write you on Rosh Hashanah, the first of ten days focusing on repentance. In Judaism’s oral tradition Rosh Hashanah is the day when people are held to account. The wicked are "blotted out of the book of the living," while the righteous are inscribed in the book of life. Those in the middle are given ten days to repent, until the holiday of Yom Kippur—the solemn Day of Atonement. If that has a familiar ring to it, Joe, we heard it in as many words at Mass last Sunday in the first reading, from Ezekiel 18: "If one turns from wickedness and does what is right and just, that one will live." 
Same Tradition
At Rosh Hashanah the ram’s horn trumpet blows to waken us from our slumber and alert us to the coming judgment. Rabbi Michael Lerner has been a ram’s horn for me. On Sept. 28, he sent a note addressing forgiveness and repentance.
He encourages us to find a private place to say aloud how we’ve hurt others, and then to go to them and ask forgiveness. "Do not mitigate or ‘explain’—just acknowledge and sincerely ask for forgiveness," says Rabbi Lerner. He suggests we ask for "guidance and strength to rectify those hurts—and to develop the sensitivity to not continue acting in a hurtful way."
Again, a familiar ring. Think, Joe, about the instruction we both received as Irish "cradle Catholics." Surely you will remember the emphasis on examining one’s conscience, confessing, and pledging to "sin no more." The phrase comes back, clear as a bell; we were to "confess our sins, do penance, and amend our life, Amen." Remember?
And remember how clean we felt at the end of that therapeutic process? I was reminded of that by Monday’s gospel reading from John 1, in which Jesus says of Nathaniel: "Here is a true child of Israel; there is no duplicity in him." Just think of how Nathaniel must have felt.
Joe, you can feel that clean; but one cannot short-cut the process. You must first come clean on your role in greasing the skids for President George W. Bush’s war of aggression on Iraq. I use "war of aggression" advisedly, for that is the term used by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson to denote "the supreme international crime, differing from other war crimes only in that it contains the accumulated evil of the whole."
There is no getting around that—despite the reluctance of church, state, and the Fawning Corporate Media (FCM) to acknowledge it. I imagine that you, as a lawyer, have moments of acute shame over our country’s flouting of international law and the U.N. Charter, duly ratified by the Senate and thus the law of the land.
And there is no getting away from the important role you played in roping Congress into facilitating that war. Were the war not to have killed, injured, displaced hundreds of thousands, your lame circumlocutions regarding your own culpability would be laughable—on a par with, say, some of the recent comments of your rival for vice president. But they are in no way funny.
Fulsome ProseFor my own penance, I made myself read again through your marathon, "in-depth" interview with the late Tim Russert on Apr. 29, 2007. Your comments are notable for two things: (1) periodic sentences that can be diagrammed only by a German philologist with the patience of Job in waiting for verbs and an empty quiver for dangling participles; and (2) lies.
It is not hard to spot the lies half-hidden in the underbrush of euphemism and circumlocution. I do not refer to relatively harmless ones like your firm denial of any interest in running for vice president. I’m talking about the real whoppers—the ones we used to call mortal sins. Despite the goings-on in Washington in recent years, Joe, I don’t believe anyone has actually passed legislation repealing the commandment against false witness. It’s time you come clean.
Confess What?--For some reason, you were calling for an invasion of Iraq and making unsupported claims about its "weapons of mass destruction" even before President George W. Bush came into office. Later, on Aug. 4, 2002, after it had become clear to many of us that Bush was intent on attacking Iraq, you declared that the U.S. was probably going to war. That was three weeks before Vice President Dick Cheney voiced his spurious "intelligence" and set the terms of reference for the war. And it was a month before the administration launched its marketing campaign for the new "product."
--You became the administration’s most important congressional backer of Bush’s preemptive-with-nothing-to-preempt war advocated by neoconservatives and various oil-thirsty functionaries.
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| 9 comments |
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Unvarnished Honesty
This is an excellent article, which nails the conundrum in which Biden now finds himself. But there is no such thing as unvarnished or even varnished honesty when it comes to players at this political level. Admitting mistakes and asking for forgiveness are considered weaknesses, and are akin to political suicide for those in high places, who may even have the good conscience to privately consider such attributes - which I doubt Biden has. No, I'm afraid you'll see the same obfuscatiuon, shallow evasiveness and lies - both overt and by omission - in this next theater of the absurd know as the presidential and vice presidential "debates". by Bill Cain (3 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 434 comments [67 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Tuesday, Sep 30, 2008 at 3:32:09 PM  (0+)
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Wow. You tell 'em Ray ;)
Great article. I like this idea, telling truth to the people... What a concept. Unfortunately the possibilities of this happening are about the same as Harvard bestowing an honorary Doctorate on Gov. Palin ;) by Steve Windisch (jibbguy) (17 articles, 0 quicklinks, 4 diaries, 360 comments [54 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Tuesday, Sep 30, 2008 at 3:36:43 PM (0+)
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Should we be asking Republicans...
to confess as well? Or do we expect that they will simply refuse or invoke the Fifth Amendment? by John Sanchez Jr. (9 articles, 0 quicklinks, 25 diaries, 1791 comments [148 recommended, 3 rejected]) on Tuesday, Sep 30, 2008 at 4:28:43 PM (0+)
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A Biden Confession
would win the Hearts and Minds of the American people, steal them right away from the Pugnacious Palin. Senator Biden recanting his egrarious errors on Thursday would provide Barack with the real support the world needs for, and from, the President. History would forgive Joe almost anything for a confessional which achieves the improbable: a President Obama who leads his People. by hommedespoir (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 55 comments [32 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Tuesday, Sep 30, 2008 at 4:47:22 PM (0+)
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"Strategery"
a confession of that magnitude is hard to imagine coming from any politician - even their apologies are generally sans apology. but, biden acting on this wisdom would do more than "win the Hearts and Minds of the American people, steal them right away from the Pugnacious Palin," it could very well stop Palin in her tracks as Ray explains at the end of the article. It would be taking a lethal weapon out of her hands. In fact, one that has been the official RNC strategy - to attack the Democrats who originally supported the war only to turn around and blame Bush and other Republicans. Strategically, it would be a smart move. Does anyone really think Palin could think on her feet quickly enough to respond to that? Not me. Spiritually, it would do wonders for Biden personally and for everyone affected by the hell that is the Iraq war. by Cheryl Biren-Wright (30 articles, 41 quicklinks, 8 diaries, 485 comments [8 recommended, 2 rejected]) on Tuesday, Sep 30, 2008 at 6:36:46 PM (0+)
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Amen, Ray
To speak impeccably is blessed. To steel one's self with forgiveness and to give forgiveness is the epitome of wisdom. Brother Wolfie thinks that the choices we have should include none of the above. I will give Cynthia McKinney the vote she surely has deserved. by Wolfie (9 articles, 0 quicklinks, 33 diaries, 1208 comments) on Tuesday, Sep 30, 2008 at 7:30:26 PM (0+)
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Once again ...
Ray McGovern shows that there was a time when there was "intelligence" was actually in an intelligence agency. And not just intelligence by morality. If there's anything wrong with our agencies it's that there are not enough people such as Mr. McGovern it them. by Mr M (8 articles, 0 quicklinks, 66 diaries, 2845 comments [654 recommended, 27 rejected]) on Tuesday, Sep 30, 2008 at 8:43:44 PM (0+)
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Confession
“Nothing spoils a confession like repentance” Tnut. by Tnut (16 articles, 0 quicklinks, 16 diaries, 49 comments) on Tuesday, Sep 30, 2008 at 10:01:17 PM (0+)
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Informative Article
What's good for the "soul" is good for the "mole"? There is the strategy side to this play. Yet, true confession resulting in Forgiveness must be accompanied by a contrite spirit. And "this" is found in the Heart -- if one has a heart. by boomerang (0 articles, 7 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 556 comments [215 recommended, 1 rejected]) on Wednesday, Oct 1, 2008 at 5:37:56 AM (0+)
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