Well I’m not a Senator or a Representative. I’ve been to the chamber but only as a visitor. But this is a blog and I can imagine that just for a moment, we could all have our “Jimmy Stewart” moment and get a chance to rise up and speak for the record.
This is what I would say.
Today I rise to speak on Iraq. I rise to speak on Afghanistan. I rise to speak about the wars this nation is now fighting some 5,000 miles away in the dusty plains of Iraq. I rise to speak about the wars this nation is now fighting some 8,000 miles away in the uncountable mountain valleys of the Hindu Kush. I rise to speak about the 120,000 troops in Iraq and the 30,000 in Afghanistan. I rise to speak about the thousands of sailors and Marines currently in the Persian Gulf aboard the various ships of the two carrier groups of the Fifth Fleet.
I further rise to speak about the thousands of unnamed sailors, soldiers and Marines who are stationed in so many other countries and places. I rise to speak about the sailors in Okinawa and aboard the Ronald Reagan. I rise to speak to the soldiers in Germany, in Italy, in Spain. I rise to speak about the sailors in Diego Garcia, the airmen in Kazakhstan and the technicians in Baku. I rise to speak about the half a million service members from Seoul to Johannesburg to Manta to Jolo. The soldiers in Norway. The sailors in Sao Tome. The airmen in the United Kingdom. The troops on patrol right now as I speak in Kosovo. The troops walking the line and guarding that wall in Greece and in the Sinai peninsula. The troops guarding a post in Turkey. The mechanics working a long night to keep aircraft flying in Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya. The sailors keeping a watch in Bahrain, Oman and the Suez Port in Egypt. To the trainers in Colombia, Tajikstan and Jordan.
As I speak this very moment there are American troops on duty in every time zone and on every continent on the planet. The British Empire was once so vast that it was said the sun never set on its lands. What I know for a fact is that there is no corner of the globe, from Mongolia to tiny islands in the middle of the Indian ocean that do not have an American soldier, Marine or airman on duty. I’m not sure are more than a handful of clerks at the Pentagon who could even name all of the countries, principalities, commonwealths and territories that currently have an American service member on duty.
I mention this because it is such a staggering fact that it needs repeating in order to be properly understood. No Empire in the known history of all of human kind has ever been where the United States currently stands. The kings of Sumeria counted back until the 26th generation but in their wildest dreams, their empire stretched barely 200 miles in length. Not the ancient Egyptians, not the Parthians, not the Phrygians, not the Phoenicians, not the Akkadians, the Lydians, the Persians, not the Greeks or Macedonians, not even the mighty Romans ever had such a direct influence over so large a territory of the planet’s surface. Not the Aztecs and not the Mongols, not even the Soviet Union in its heyday and not the British or the Spanish in theirs.
The greatest of all the empires in the past combined never had such tremendous influence over so much territory and what is more important, been able to affect the lives of so many people in all of history. The Egyptian Pharoah Ramses the Great was considered to be the deity incarnate and his power absolute and yet his entire empire contained less than 1 million subjects. Today that is but a small village in China. All of the mightiest empire of the ancient Egyptians could today be contained in one small village in China or a medium sized city in the United States. Even the Roman Empire at its most powerful ruled over 55 million citizens. Today that’s only about the population of California and Texas combined.
And yet as I stand here today, the United States has 702 military bases in 135 sovereign nations and their territories. It is not an empire in the traditional sense but I imagine that the word that defines what the United States is has not yet been invented. Empires that built the pyramids and conquered entire continents are paltry compared to the enormous power and influence that the United States currently has.
And we the few, the paltry 435 members of this body and the 100 of the other body, we few are responsible for this. The few of us who have had the privilege of being elected to these august bodies have been given the tremendous responsibility for this. It is we who ultimately have the power to direct how these forces are used.
The Pentagon’s budget is larger than all but seven of the largest countries of the world. Its expenditures are such that it would take nine zeroes to write out on a blackboard for one year alone. And the American people and indeed the six billion human beings on this planet look to us, to us, this single small group of men and women, to make the wisest and best use of this awesome responsibility as we are able.
The most junior member of this body has more power over the world’s population than did mighty Caesar or Alexander or Huang Tiji or Ahuitzotl or Atuahualpa or Ramses the Great. It is up to us to decide where those troops will go, which walls they will defend, which streets must be patrolled, which waters they will protect and God forbid, which cities must be bombed. Our pen moves and our vote is registered and thousands, millions of lives will be affected at a stroke.
Each of us was elected by a constituency of American citizens to represent them and make the best choices we can for them. But with the tremendous influence and power that the United States, especially via its military presence, has on the globe, in reality we are also tasked with the responsibility of making the best choices we can for the entire planet. I know we didn’t ask for it. I know that I personally struggle to be fit to live up to this charge. I know we need all the strength and wisdom we can possibly get to do what is right. But this is our task and we have been elected to do it and so we must.
And so I say to each of you on this day, as you consider these issues, as you debate in your heart and in your mind the right path in Iraq, in Chad, in Nigeria, in Benin, in Thailand, in Pakistan, in Kuwait, in Korea, in Colombia, in Ecuador, in Iceland, in Kyrgyzstan and yes in Afghanistan as well that you never forget this tremendous responsibility.
I ask that you never forget that it is not just the lives of the Americans who elected you that look to you to make the wisest choice that an imperfect human can make, but that millions and billions of people you may never know, whose language you do not speak, who names you cannot pronounce, whose faiths and appearance may be strange to you, whose countries you cannot even recall, look to you to make the wisest choice you can as well.
Are we doing what’s right? Are we doing the absolute best that we can? Are those troops trained well enough, equipped well enough and protected well enough? Are those troops there to further the interests of those they are sent to protect? Are they making you and I and all of us proud by their actions? Is the world a better place because we sent them there? If so may we retire at night and be at peace because we have done our best. If not, may God have mercy on our souls.
I yield back the balance of my time.
Peace
