What We Stand For
  by William Edelen

The integrity of the United States of America is in question more than at any time since the Vietnam disaster. During my 82 years of life, including tours of duty as a Marine pilot in WWII and Korea, I have never seen the United States held in such contempt by so many.

The question on the lips of civilized people around the world is: "What does the United States now stand for in terms of human and moral values?"

President Bush has a fantasy that we are going to create an Iraqi democracy. Several Marine Corps Generals have departed from the White House party line. Marine General Anthony Zinni, former Head of Central Command for US Forces in the Middle East, said: "They are about to do something that will ignite a fuse in this region and cause them to regret the day they ever started this operation..."

As for the prison abuse scandal, the Red Cross had tried to tell the Bush administration how extensive the atrocities were but found that the White House gang did not want to listen.

One of the most magnificent plays ever written is "Judgment At Nuremberg," by Abby Mann. I know of no other play that so eloquently speaks to the times we are living in today and the climate that has been created by the Bush White House in this nation.

In the movie version, Spencer Tracy played American Judge Haywood, Burt Lancaster a German judge on trial for his crimes.

The German (Lancaster) spoke about the Third Reich. "There was above all, fear: fear of today, fear of tomorrow, fear of our neighbors. Hitler said, ' There are devils among us - Communists, Liberals, Jews, Gypsies! Once the devils are destroyed, your miseries will be destroyed.' What about us who knew better, who knew the words were lies? Why did we sit silent? Why did we participate? Because we loved our country. What difference does it make if racial minorities or political opponents lose their rights? It is only a passing phase we are going through. The country is in danger, we were told."


"But one day, we looked around and found that we were in even more terrible danger. What was to be a passing phase had become our way of life. I looked around at the other judges, and I knew well that I made my life excrement because I walked with them.

 

Judge Haywood (Tracy) had been under intense pressure from the Senate to go soft on sentences, but his closing statement was strong:

"This trial has shown that ordinary men can delude themselves into the commission of crimes and atrocities so vast and heinous as to stagger the imagination. There are those in our country, America, today who speak of the protection of the country. Of survival. The answer to that is: SURVIVAL OF WHAT? A country is WHAT IT STANDS FOR WHEN STANDING FOR SOMETHING IS THE MOST DIFFICULT. BEFORE THE…WORLD, LET IT NOW BE NOTED HERE THAT THIS IS WHAT WE STAND FOR: JUSTICE, TRUTH, AND THE VALUE OF A SINGLE HUMAN BEING."

The integrity of the United States is at the lowest point of my lifetime. Is there anyone in Washington who will stand up and say, "before the world, this is what we stand for: justice, truth, and the value of a single human being"?

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