[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 144 (Thursday, September 11, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1769-E1770]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        MOVING FORWARD FROM 9/11

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                        HON. DENNIS J. KUCINICH

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, September 11, 2008

  Mr. KUCINICH. Madam Speaker, America must move from the errant, 
retributive justice

[[Page E1770]]

of 9/11 to a healing, restorative process of truth and reconciliation.
  Before the Congress adjourns, I will bring forth a new proposal for 
the establishment of a National Commission on Truth and Reconciliation, 
which will have the power to compel testimony and gather official 
documents to reveal to the American people not only the underlying 
deception which has divided us, but in that process of truth seeking 
set our Nation on a path of reconciliation.
  We suffer in our remembrance of 9/11, because of the terrible loss of 
innocent lives on that grim day. We also suffer because 9/11 was seized 
as an opportunity to run a political agenda, which has set America on a 
course of the destruction of another nation and the destruction of our 
own Constitution. And we have become less secure as a result of the 
warped practice of pursing peace through the exercise of preemptive 
military strength.
  It is not simply 9/11 that needs to be remembered. We also need to 
remember the politicization of 9/11 and the polarizing narrative which 
followed, locking us into endless conflict, a war on terror which has 
wrought further terror worldwide and which has severely damaged our 
standing worldwide as an honorable, compassionate nation. As we were 
all victims of 9/11, so we have become victims of the interpretation of 
9/11.
  Our government's external response to 9/11 was to attack a nation 
which did not attack us. Indeed on the first anniversary of 9/11, the 
Bush administration issued a well-publicized stern warning to Iraq 
which was part of a campaign to induce people to believe Iraq had 
something to do with 9/11.
  The deliberate, systematic connection of Iraq with 9/11 has led 
America into a philosophical and moral cul-de-sac as over one million 
Iraqis and over 4155 U.S. soldiers have died in a war which will cost 
over $3 trillion. Additionally, soldiers from 23 other countries have 
died in the Iraq war.
  We attempt to unite Iraq by further dividing it. We talk about 
restoring Iraq while taking steps to place control of its vast oil 
wealth in the hands of U.S. oil giants. And we intend to impose upon 
the Iraqi people the cost of rebuilding a country which our government 
ruined, keeping a once prosperous nation lashed to debt and poverty for 
a long, long time. Iraq has paid for 9/11. We all continue to pay for 
9/11.
  The heartbreaking loss of the lives and injuries to America troops 
further binds us to the Administration's illogic of the Iraq war: We 
remember our troops' sacrifice by demanding more sacrifice; we support 
our troops by continuing the war.
  The dominant color of our new national security since 9/11 is neither 
red, white nor blue. Every day is orange. Everyday reminders of fear of 
9/11 become banal. Yet we no longer hear the airport announcements nor 
see the orange-colored warnings because they have commonplace standards 
in our new national security state, as is the PATRIOT Act, wiretapping, 
and a host of invasions of privacy and diminution of civil liberties. 
The Constitution has been roundly attacked by the very people who took 
an oath to defend it.
  There is a powerful desire across America for change, not necessarily 
from control by one political party to another, but a change from 
living with lies to living with truth.
  Over two dozen nations, facing peril within and without, deeply 
divided by politics and war have travelled down a path of restoring 
civil society through a formal process of reconciliation. At some point 
within each of those countries it was understood that the way forward 
is shown through the light of truth. This process is not without pain 
because it requires a willingness to study evidence to which eyes had 
been averted and ears had been closed. But in the process of truth and 
reconciliation, nations found new strength, new resolve, and new 
commitment.
  The South African Truth and Reconciliation enabled that nation to 
come to grips with its past through a public confessional, bringing 
forward those who committed crimes and having the power to grant 
amnesty for full disclosure of crimes against the people. Of course, 
our path may necessarily be different: High U.S. government officials 
stand accused in impeachment petitions of violating national and 
international law. Our continued existence as a democracy may depend 
upon how thoroughly we seek the truth. I will call upon the American 
people to join me in supporting this effort.
  The truth can move us forward, as a unified whole, so that we can one 
day become a re-United States. September 11 is the day the world 
changed. It is the day America embraced a metaphor of war. If we are 
open to truth and reconciliation, we may one day be able, once again, 
to embrace peace.

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