[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 172 (Tuesday, January 1, 2013)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2029-E2030]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


      URGING EUROPEAN UNION TO DESIGNATE HEZBOLLAH AS A TERRORIST 
                              ORGANIZATION

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                        HON. DENNIS J. KUCINICH

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                       Monday, December 31, 2012

  Mr. KUCINICH. Mr. Speaker, I challenge the wisdom of House Resolution 
(H. Res. 834) which urges the governments of Europe and the European 
Union to designate Hezbollah a terrorist organization and imposes 
sanctions.
  This resolution could have an effect opposite to that which was 
intended--to strengthen Israel. The UN Security Council Resolution 
1701, which called for the end of hostilities between Hezbollah and 
Israel, is now being enforced by the United Nations Interim Force in 
Lebanon (UNIFIL) with the participation of European governments. There 
are reports that Hezbollah has been cooperating with UNIFIL in 
stabilizing south Lebanon and that the relationships developed are 
channels for peaceful dialogue in the future.
  Asking Europe to designate Hezbollah a terrorist organization could 
be counter-productive, increase dangers and lessen the effectiveness of 
European troops in UNIFIL. There will be adverse consequences of the 
resolution on the situation in south Lebanon.
  I have visited the region and have worked to end the conflict between 
Israel and Lebanon, even as it was starting. I offered a peace plan to 
try to end the war. I further visited Lebanon and Israel on after the 
war. I visited an apartment house in Qana, south Lebanon, which had 
been destroyed by a bomb which killed fifty women and children.
  I brought the bomb fragment back from the site and kept it on display 
in my office, together with three dog tags of kidnapped Israeli 
soldiers to remind of the great human tragedy of the conflict, and the 
suffering on all sides.
  The passage of this bill means that Congress must take up the 
responsibility of making sure that the Lebanese army is sufficiently 
equipped to protect the country.
  At this very moment America is roaming the world strenuously involved 
in promoting the Art of Governing. In Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Serbia, 
Yemen, Pakistan, Somalia and all points north and south, east and west, 
it is our State Department with its large plans, it is our Central 
Intelligence Agency with its drone strikes, our military by its active 
presence, our Defense Intelligence Agency, and our military contractors 
all of whom are the instructors involved in a show of unparalleled 
force to display not only American power but to make the case for 
American exceptionalism.
  If the machinations concerning the so-called fiscal cliff mean 
anything, they illustrate the conceit that somehow we have a right to 
tell others how to govern their affairs, and use our military to 
enforce our worldview. What is our case for democracy and cooperation 
elsewhere, if we have such difficulty practicing it or demonstrating it 
here at home? Where, with our unemployment, mortgage foreclosures, 
school closings, pension fund collapses, neighborhood violence, oh 
where is our showcase of democracy?
  For all of our foreign entanglements, our military occupations and 
preoccupations, our spy-in-the-sky-surveillance, death dealing from 
drones on high to those who we see as a threat, for all of this--we are 
not safer.
  We may in fact be less safe. There is plenty of evidence to suggest 
that Al Queda has been strengthened by the US support for military 
action in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, Yemen and by 
extrajudicial killings through the use of drones which are exacting a 
high toll on innocent civilians.
  John Quincy Adams once said America ``goes not abroad in search of 
monsters to destroy''. How far we have journeyed from that wise 
aspiration of a Founding Father?
  To paraphrase Shakespeare's Cassius in Julius Caesar: `We act as a 
Colossus bestride the narrow world . . . and petty men walk under (our) 
huge legs.' It is an illusion.
  Through our endless interventions, we have lost our way in the wide 
world, by trying to conquer it. We cannot conquer the world. We cannot 
rule the world. We cannot be the policeman of the world. We cannot 
afford it militarily, financially or spiritually. American control of 
the fate of others in faraway land is an expensive fantasy and can no 
longer be indulged.
  We will spend trillions of dollars in pursuit of a war on terror, 
which has become like a war against apparitions which shift shapes, 
loyalties and directions, consumes lives and money and at the end we 
meet in the distorted mirror of our fears the prophecy of Walt Kelly's 
Pogo: ``We have met the enemy and he is us.''
  The cost of the wars is a threat to our freedom. The money spent for 
war inevitably comes from pressing domestic needs for job creation, 
infrastructure rebuilding, education, health care, retirement security. 
Since 9/11 we have let fear set our priorities and that fear has cost 
us mightily. It is worth recalling President Eisenhower's full warning 
about the undermining of freedom which comes from out of control 
military spending:
  ``Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very 
structure of our society. In the councils of government, we must guard 
against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or 
unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the 
disastrous rise of misplaced power exists, and will persist. We must 
never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or 
democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert 
and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge 
industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods 
and goals so that security and liberty may prosper together.''
  The wars have been a disaster for innocent civilians. More than one 
million innocent Iraqis perished in a war based on lies, a war executed 
by an American president and vice president who flat out lied to the 
Congress, lied to the American people, lied to the media and escaped 
responsibility and accountability because we just moved on.
  We will never recover from the tragedy which we wrought upon the 
people of Iraq, we will never recover from the sordid legacy of 
torture, rendition, indefinite detention, we will never recover from 
the effects of 911 unless America has a deep, searching period of Truth 
and Reconciliation, where the principle decision-makers are required to 
come before a public tribunal to tell the truth or to face the 
consequences of their perfidy. We need such a process not only to set 
straight the historical record, but to remove the dark stain upon the 
soul of this nation which an unjust war fixes firmly.
  There must be a new role for America in the world, where we can work 
with the community of nations for comprehensive international law 
enforcement, to assure security abroad, and protection here at home 
with democratic governance through strengthening our community safety 
forces.
  This is much to be preferred to the architecture of the national 
security state here at home which increasingly requires American 
citizens to give up their civil liberties to achieve a measure of 
security. Big Brother is hard at work in America, assembling huge 
databases of personal information, warrantless wiretaps, tracking phone 
calls, emails and internet searches, watching closely with new networks 
of cameras, new sophisticated drone technology, observing everything 
but the US Constitution.
  Our right to freedom from unreasonable search and seizure has been 
annihilated through the legal acrobatics of high technology.
  It was Benjamin Franklin who wrote ``Those who give up essential 
liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty 
nor safety.''
  What is outermost in the conduct of our foreign affairs is a 
reflection of what is innermost in our domestic affairs. And what is 
innermost in ourselves becomes outermost in our families and our 
communities. This is the ironclad law of reciprocity in human affairs. 
It is not simply `do unto others as you would have them do unto you', 
but as you do unto others, so you do unto yourself.
  It may not be possible for the US to bring peace to anywhere except 
the U.S.
  Peace inside the United States is possible. Peace in our communities, 
our neighborhoods, our homes is possible. Yet the omnipresence of 
violence in our society mirrors the violence which the United States 
visits on nations across the globe.
  The fate of humanity is written not large in the sky, but in a 
cursive across the tablet of our heart. How bold we stand for peace and 
love in our daily lives informs the strength of the impulse of our 
hearts to radiate outward to establish new conditions of our existence 
and in the lives of each person we touch.
  The peace we claim for ourselves is the peace we can give to others. 
But it requires conscious thought in every moment. Peace necessarily 
involves a structured approach, within our lives, intersecting with the 
lives of others. An awareness of the consequences of our every action, 
how it affects us and how it affects others.
  This is not a theoretical exercise. For the past 16 years, this 
Congress has been my human relations workshop in which I have tested 
ideas of conflict resolution, of standing for truth, of fiercely 
engaging in debate, of moving forthrightly into partisan debates, of 
negotiating around partisanship, of alignment with another person on 
matters of personal interest, of even building friendships from the 
broken pieces of partisan battles.
  We are locked into a cultural matrix of thinking which produces 
violence and we are shocked when its heartbreaking effects emerge. It's 
``Us vs. them'' thinking, the evocation of enemies, whoever they are.
  On a global level, this type of thinking justifies war and brings the 
slaughter of innocents.

[[Page E2030]]

Nationally it sows seeds for murder. Yet, war abroad and violence at 
home are not inevitable. We have it within our power to recreate 
America today. Are we not the land of the free, the home of the brave? 
Is there not something uniquely American which gives us the ability to 
transcend our woes and seek a more perfect union? Even at the darkest 
moment we Americans can stand bravely for our freedoms. Mindful of our 
inherent unity, we must break the ``US vs. them'' mindset and move 
beyond survival mode to security through cooperation.
  Let us create an organized structured approach to become architects 
of a new culture of peace, in our homes, our schools, our workplaces.
  This is what the ``Dept. of Peace'' (H.R. 808) is about. Let us 
establish that America's national security and peace at home includes 
jobs, housing, physical and mental health care, education, retirement 
security for all. We are, the land of the free, the home of the brave. 
Freedom and bravery, courage and democracy are our birthright, our 
inheritance, our destiny.
  And let us not propagate to Europe and the European community the 
fears which have infected this county. The Scriptures bid us to make 
peace with our brothers and sisters. This is the higher calling for the 
United States. This should be our new raison d'etre in the world and at 
home. God Bless America.

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