[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 153 (Thursday, November 17, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2379-E2380]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       JIMMY BRESLIN GETS IT RIGHT: THE IRAQ WAR IS A LOCAL ISSUE

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, November 16, 2005

  Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I rise to introduce into the Record the 
commentary entitled ``War must be a local issue'', written by Jimmy 
Breslin in the November 9, 2005 issue of Newsday.
  Jimmy Breslin's writing cuts to the heart of an issue and this 
article does just that. He focuses on how the President's lies are 
perpetuated at the local level, in this case by Mayor Michael 
Bloomberg; and how some in the Congress and we as citizens accept those 
lies because we are living ``in a time of National Alzheimer's.''
  Mr. Breslin wrote of the funeral of a 26-year-old marine, Riayan A. 
Teheda at which Mayor Bloomberg spoke two years ago. According to Mr. 
Breslin, the Mayor pronounced of the marine killed in Iraq: ``He died 
to keep the weapons of mass destruction out of the hands of . . .'' 
After those words, Mr. Breslin said ``you heard no more.'' Speaking of 
Mayor Bloomberg, Mr. Breslin wrote: ``He was up there in the presence 
of a gallant New Yorker and he spread a lie and for me it was the start 
of his campaign and it ended with me not voting for him . . .''
  The funeral of Riayan A. Teheda was at St. Elizabeth's Catholic 
Church on Wadsworth Avenue in Washington Heights, which to Mr. Breslin 
was ``more than somewhat local.'' He reports that he had been to the 
funerals of other kids in the Bronx, Ridgewood and in Brooklyn. Mr. 
Breslin concluded: ``If a kid who gets killed is local, then--the war 
is local.''
  When President Bush ``comforts'' the families who have lost their 
sons, daughters, sisters, brothers, fathers and mothers by telling them 
the deaths of their loved ones honors those have died before them, he 
cannot really provide comfort. The parents of a fallen soldier would 
never ask that another family suffer what they have suffered. The 
parents I have met don't believe their sons and daughters need the 
deaths of other sons and daughters to prove their children have died 
honorably. They believe their children died for their country. They 
have died for their country.

  To quote Mr. Breslin again: ``They die in the splendor of bravery, 
the prayer of valor. And fall in vain because the government causes 
them to die in vain.''
  What Mr. Breslin identifies is national leadership that is, ``a fake 
and a fraud and a shill and a sham'' who has now, unwittingly perhaps, 
admitted he was wrong but blames the Democrats who voted to go to war 
because they made the mistake of believing what he told them.
  American soldiers and Iraqis are still dying. The President has still 
not told anyone the real reason we are in Iraq. He has not told the 
truth about the intelligence he and a chosen few had when he took this 
country to war.
  Jimmy Breslin is one of New York's most talented writers. His 
description of New York and of the Nation as having Alzheimer's is 
strong but descriptive in a way hard to put in to other words and have 
the same effect. The people in this country do not know there are two 
wars being fought by a tiny fraction of this population and that their 
sacrifice is being inflicted and endured out of the sight of the Media 
and the American public.

                      [From Newsday, Nov. 9, 2005]

                       War Must Be a Local Issue

                           (By Jimmy Breslin)

       The church was empty at dusk. You stood in the stillness 
     and looked at the place, right there on the side of the 
     altar, where Michael Bloomberg spoke over the casket of a 
     fallen aristocrat of the city, Riayan A. Tejeda, Marine, dead 
     in Iraq at age 26.
       Bloomberg pronounced, ``He died to keep the weapons of mass 
     destruction out of the hands of . . .''
       You heard no more. He was up there in the presence of a 
     gallant New Yorker and he spread a lie and for me it was the 
     start of his campaign and it ended with me not voting for him 
     last night.
       He says of Iraq, ``It is not a local issue.''
       This was almost 2 years ago at St. Elizabeth's Catholic 
     Church on Wadsworth Avenue in Washington Heights, which is 
     more than somewhat local.
       By myself, I have been at the deep grief of another 
     soldier's funeral in the Bronx, one in Ridgewood, another in 
     Brooklyn.
       If the kid who gets killed is local, then--the war is 
     local.
       This war continues without an official protest that would 
     call out the will of the people of the City of New York and 
     might count in a Nation that by now realizes it has been the 
     victim of a president who is a fake and a fraud and a shill 
     and a sham and now is going around with the blind staggers.
       Only the other night, in a television appearance with the 
     opponent, Ferrer, Bloomberg was asked about withdrawing 
     troops from Iraq and--heavens!--you can't do

[[Page E2380]]

     that. Why, that would mean that New York's fallen military 
     would have died in vain. And why you could never say that 
     about the three or four who would be killed on the day after 
     that, and tomorrow and tomorrow.
       They die in the splendor of bravery, the prayer of valor. 
     And fall in vain because the government causes them to die in 
     vain.
       Around this great city yesterday, the day went into the 
     heart of the night without excitement. There was an election 
     for mayor and the streets should have been loud with the 
     shrieks of people crying for your vote. Bloomberg last night 
     finished spending at least $70 million to get re-elected and 
     the money suffocated the election. That is not democracy. 
     Every one of those dollars should form the seeds of a revolt.
       He is the mayor in a time of National Alzheimer's, and New 
     York, too, is stricken. We have Bloomberg silent on a war. 
     And once in this State we had as senators at the same time, 
     Robert F. Kennedy and Jacob Javits. Look at the citizenry 
     here accepting as United States senators, Clinton and 
     Schumer, who both supported the war. The coin has cheapened 
     and no outcry is heard.
       How can Mike Bloomberg be the mayor of this city and not 
     try to put his voice and weight into saving lives?
       Bloomberg follows the smirking, deadly lies of a president 
     who had people getting killed for what? For oil, for Dear Old 
     Dad, for a racist disdain for a guy in an alley with a rag on 
     his head. Bush saw the rag but never noticed the gun the guy 
     carried.
       Last night, Julio Cesar Tejada, the dead Marine's father, 
     stood in the swarms of people going past his building at 602 
     W. 180th St. He is 53 and stocky, with short black hair and a 
     pleasant face. On the sidewalk next to him was the small, 
     permanent grotto to his son. A photo. Flowers. Candles. 
     Prayers in Spanish and English.
       ``How has it been?'' he said. He patted his chest. ``My 
     heart fell apart. I cannot work. I spend all the days going 
     to the doctor.''
       ``The wife?''
       He shook his head. ``It is very bad for her.''
       He said he had to get the Con Edison bill paid. ``They turn 
     off the lights if you don't.''
       At the corner, a young woman, a college student, asked him 
     about Bloomberg clinging to the war. Now I mentioned the 
     speech at his son's funeral.
       Julio shook his head. ``I was too mixed up at the 
     funeral.''
       He said then he was going to vote.
       ``For whom?''
       He shook his head. ``I don't know 'til I get there.''

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