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restoring America’s morale. Can it be that the prospect of bringing these troops home again will prove so unpalatable that he has to go to war? And will.

    Speaking to the Senate, Robert Byrd said,
Many of the pronouncements made by this administration are outrageous. There is no other word. Yet this chamber is hauntingly silent. Onwhat is possibly the eve of horrific infliction of death and destruction on the population of the nation of Iraq—a population, I might add, of which over 50 percent is under age fifteen—this chamber is silent. On what is possibly only days before we send thousands of our own citizens to face unimagined horrors of chemical and biological warfare—this chamber is silent. On the eve of what could possibly be a vicious terrorist attack in retaliation for our attack on Iraq, it is business as usual in the United States Senate.
We are truly “sleepwalking through history.” In my heart of hearts I pray that this great nation and its good and trusting citizens are not in for a rudest of awakenings.
 … I truly must question the judgment of any President who can say that a massive unprovoked military attack on a nation which is over 50 percent children is “in the highest moral traditions of our country.” This war is not necessary at this time. Pressure appears to be having a good result in Iraq.… Our challenge is to nowfind a graceful way out of a box of our own making. Perhaps there is still a way if we allow more time.
    If I were George W. Bush’s karmic defense attorney, I would argue that his best chance to avoid conviction as a purveyor of false morality would be to pray for a hung jury in the afterworld.
    For those of the rest of us who are not ready to depend on the power of prayer, we will do well to find the rampart we can defend over what may be dire years to come. Democracy, I would repeat, is the noblest form of government we have yet evolved, and we may as well begin to ask ourselves whether we are ready to suffer, even perish, for it rather than preparing ourselves to live in the lower existence of a monumental banana republic with a government always eager to cater to mega-corporations as they do their best to appropriate our thwarted dreams with their elephantiastical conceits.

Appendix

NOTES ON A LARGE
AND UNANCHORED UNEASINESS

 
    A word would be appropriate here about the interview I did with The American Conservative , December 2, 2002, a magazine published by Pat Buchanan and Taki Theodoracopulos and edited by Scott McConnell. The piece was titled (by them) “Why I Am a Left Conservative.” Much of what I said there was put into the address to the Commonwealth Club.
    More remains, however, from that magazine and from the interview with Dotson Rader. Since I thinkit can serve the purpose of this book, I include such sections in this Appendix.
    FLAG CONSERVATIVES
    Back when the Soviet Union fell, flag conservatives felt this was their opportunity to take over the world. They felt they were the only people who knew how to run the world. So their lust was fierce. They were furious when Clinton got in. That was one reason he was so hated. He was frustrating the world takeover. That seemed so open, so possible to their point of view, back in 1992. How that contributed to their hatred of Clinton! This attitude, I think, deepened and festered through the eight years of Clinton’s administration. Moreover, they loathed the ongoing increase in sexual liberties. White House principals may not talk to one another in private about this, but a key element in their present thought, I suspect, is that if America becomes an empire, then of necessity everything in America that needs to be cleansed will be affected positively. By their lights! If America grows into the modern equivalent of the Roman Empire, it will be necessary to rear whole generations who can serve the military in all parts of the world. It will put a new emphasis again upon education. Americans, who are