Pacific Views

Great Oratory

The land of the Bard, or make that the land of Macbeth, produces politicians of exquisite eloquence and astonishing truthfulness. We, the distant offspring of that literate isle, have an unimaginative demagogue who cannot put two sentences together (or even two thoughts) without the help of his speechmakers and even then, the language is wooden and predictable. How often I've wished that this President would have to face without notes a hectoring and inquistional opposition as we see Tony Blair face every week.

I urge you to watch George Galloway's testimony before the Senate committee as a connoisseur of the artform of oratory.

Galloway speaks directly to the Senate panel, without a teleprompter, and indeed, without notes. And he speaks clearly, forcefully, and with words that emphasize, augment and reenforce his argument. Consider this passage:

"But perhaps you were confusing the Daily Telegraph action with the Christian Science Monitor. The Christian Science Monitor did indeed publish on its front pages a set of allegations against me very similar to the ones that your committee have made. They did indeed rely on documents which started in 1992, 1993. These documents were unmasked by the Christian Science Monitor themselves as forgeries.

"Now, the neo-con websites and newspapers in which you're such a hero, senator, were all absolutely cock-a-hoop at the publication of the Christian Science Monitor documents, they were all absolutely convinced of their authenticity. They were all absolutely convinced that these documents showed me receiving $10 million from the Saddam regime. And they were all lies.

"In the same week as the Daily Telegraph published their documents against me, the Christian Science Monitor published theirs which turned out to be forgeries and the British newspaper, Mail on Sunday, purchased a third set of documents which also upon forensic examination turned out to be forgeries. So there's nothing fanciful about this. Nothing at all fanciful about it.

"The existence of forged documents implicating me in commercial activities with the Iraqi regime is a proven fact. It's a proven fact that these forged documents existed and were being circulated amongst right-wing newspapers in Baghdad and around the world in the immediate aftermath of the fall of the Iraqi regime.

Galloway's elocution was an astonishing tour de force and one that will set the bar for memorable 21st century speeches. What is even more astonishing was his indictment of Norm Coleman and other rightwing Senators, the Bush administration and the perfidious Wormtongue Ahmed Chalabi for their illegal and immoral war on the Iraqi people. Galloway put himself squarely on the side of the Iraqi people -- not Saddam, not the terrorists, and not the warmongering governments of George W Bush and Tony Blair. Galloway sides with those who paid in blood for this misgotten war.

"Now, Senator, I gave my heart and soul to oppose the policy that you promoted. I gave my political life's blood to try to stop the mass killing of Iraqis by the sanctions on Iraq which killed one million Iraqis, most of them children, most of them died before they even knew that they were Iraqis, but they died for no other reason other than that they were Iraqis with the misfortune to born at that time. I gave my heart and soul to stop you committing the disaster that you did commit in invading Iraq. And I told the world that your case for the war was a pack of lies.

“I told the world that Iraq, contrary to your claims did not have weapons of mass destruction. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that Iraq had no connection to al-Qaeda. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that Iraq had no connection to the atrocity on 9/11 2001. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that the Iraqi people would resist a British and American invasion of their country and that the fall of Baghdad would not be the beginning of the end, but merely the end of the beginning.

"Senator, in everything I said about Iraq, I turned out to be right and you turned out to be wrong and 100,000 people paid with their lives; 1600 of them American soldiers sent to their deaths on a pack of lies; 15,000 of them wounded, many of them disabled forever on a pack of lies.

What a masterful statement. And what a damning indictment of the poser who took it upon himself to slander and malign George Galloway in order to justify the destruction of the United Nations so that he could make a name for himself.

Posted by Mary at May 18, 2005 12:00 AM | US Politics | Technorati links |