What eloquence was displayed on the House floor during the Schiavo debate! The Republicans spoke from their hearts (yes, they do have them!). Here are some of the words spoken by Republicans, calling for Terri Schiavo to be fed and given water:
[Starving to death] It is a process that only the cruelest tyrants in history have used to ``cleanse'' populations. The patient's skin cracks, their nose bleeds, they vomit as the stomach lining dries out, and they have pangs of hunger and thirst. Starvation is a very painful death to which no one should be deliberately exposed. - Phil Gingrey (R - GA)
We are talking about a greater issue: How shall we be judged as a civil society?... How shall we be judged as a civil society? What kind of government shall we have? As a Federal Government, I believe we have an obligation to step forward and say that we shall protect life. - Patrick McHenry (R - NC)
If we allow this course to continue, and if we stand idly by as this human life expires as a result of government-ordered starvation, we will have lost the moral compass passed down to us by our forefathers.
If we as a Nation subject her to the torture and agony of starving and thirsting to death while her brother, her mother and her father are forced to watch, we will scar our own souls. - Trent Franks (R - AZ)
They stood there, pounding their hands on the podium, crying aloud that denying Mrs. Schiavo food and water was "barbaric" "cruel" and "inhumane."
And let us remember the President, who just yesterday reminded us that we have a moral duty to protect those we take under our care:
I urge all those who honor Terri Schiavo to continue to work to build a culture of life, where all Americans are welcomed and valued and protected, especially those who live at the mercy of others.
We are Americans. We have a culture of life where we would never deny any being the basic needs of food and water. After all, the Republicans have said that denying food and water to a non-terminally ill human being is esentially goverment-sanctioned murder.
Unless you're in Iraq, of course.
Yesterday, it was reported that the United States used the denial of food and water in Fallujah as a weapon of war.
GENEVA, March 31, 2005 (AFP) - A UN human rights expert sharply condemned the invasion of Iraq and the global anti-terror drive, accusing the US-led coalition of
using food deprivation as a military tactic and of sapping efforts to fight hunger in the world.
"The situation of the right to food in Iraq is of serious concern," the UN special rapporteur on the right to food, Jean Ziegler, said in a report to the UN human rights commission.
The report also highlighted "widespread concerns about the continued lack of access to clean drinking water" and allegations by British campaigners that water sources were deliberately cut off by coalition forces.
"Those are the allegations, but what is proven is that at Fallujah, denial, the blockade imposed on food and the destruction of water reservoirs was used as weapon of war," Ziegler told journalists.
Jean Ziegler is the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food. A right to food? Yes, there is an international right to food recognized in both the Geneva Conventions and the International Declaration of Human Rights.
As Plutonium Page mentioned a couple dayes ago, Ziegler also presented the report on the disturbing rise in malnutrition among Iraqi children. The United States did not respond to the report that the malnutrition rate has nearly doubled under our watch. But, they did have a response to Ziegler's claim that the US has been using food depravation as a weapon of war:
"First he has not visited Iraq, secondly he's wrong," said US ambassador Kevin Moley.
[...]
"He's taking some information that in itself is difficult to validate and juxtaposing is own views which are widely known about the war in Iraq and suggesting the two are linked," he told journalists.
"Vaccination rates, food aid have improved dramatically since the fall of Saddam Hussein," the US envoy added.
Yeah, that's it. That damn liberal UN guy is lying. And um, he probably wanted Kerry to win anyway.
It's no surprise the US is trying to keep the Fallujah debacle hush-hush. After all, it's big news when 6,000 civilians die in one offensive alone. Then again, maybe not.
So, we've breached the Geneva Conventions in Fallujah by denying the helpless Iraqis, whose lives "depend on our mercy", food and water. So the Red Cresent keeps screaming into the void that Fallujah residents are "dying and starving" and we denied them approval to deliver food & water. So, those starving to death couldn't go to the hospital and get a feeding tube because, well, American snipers were on top of the hospital roof "shooting everyone" to death.. So, civilians like Abu Mustafa pleaded by phone to those outside the locked city that he had no food or water for his children. As long as you take the cameras away from the journalists and beat them up, no one will know, right?
Hey, as Lt. Col. Brandl, commander of the 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, said, "The enemy has got a face - he's called Satan...He's in Fallujah, and we're going to destroy him." And hell, if we have to starve Satan to death, then so be it.
And besides, we know from the Republicans on the House floor that the United States of America should never intentionally allow anyone to starve or dehydrate to death. That, after all, would means we would "scar our souls."
One problem, of course. In Fallujah, there is no "out of control" judiciary to blame. There is no other entity to blame for the deliberate withholding of nutrition except the United States itself.
There is no one else to point to for our war crime. There is no one, not an "estranged husband" or hospice worker we can point to with feigned righteous indignation and yell "it is YOUR fault this person is starving to death!"
It is our scar alone to bear on our souls. It is our head to be hung in shame that we caused thousands of Terri Schiavos in Fallujah. It is our moral failure, and our inability to show mercy when it was needed the most.