As I write this, it is the evening of June 6, 2008, the 64th anniversary of the D-Day invasion of Nazi-occupied France by United States, British, and Canadian forces. As this day draws to a close, it occurred to me that I did not notice much about it in the press today (big surprise) but I did catch a few recent blog posts about another push for retroactive immunity for the telecommunications companies here and here. It seems that FISA is coming up in Congress again and there is a push to sell us out according to Christy Hardin Smith at firedoglake. The lack of leadership and character by some in Congress is amazing.
To see what real leadership is -- and some of what we need in Congress -- follow me below the fold.
Note: The bulk of this diary comes from this comment I originally wrote last December. I have reformed the comment into a diary today since it is the 64th anniversary of D-Day and a Congressional leadership "test" in the form of FISA and retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies emerging.
True, Congress is much better today than two years ago, but, unfortunately, we still need to "motivate" them once in a while to do was is right. And it is particularly obnoxious that we need to do so around the 64th anniversary of D-Day when incredible displays of leadership by ordinary Americans on foreign soil began the liberation of the continent of Europe from the tyranny of fascism. The consequences of failure of the D-Day invasion would have been catastrophic. But the D-Day invasion was successful despite nearly everything going wrong because of leadership.
The action on June 6, 1944 was captured in the epic motion picture "The Longest Day". It had an all-star cast, was fairly accurate, and truly was a great movie that portrayed a monumental turning point in history when not much went as planned.
Pre-invasion bombing failed to knock out key defensive positions due to cloud cover. Air support for the invasion was lacking. Almost half of the tanks foundered offshore. Some landing units suffered casualty rates of 70%. Several landing boats carrying troops got stuck and couldn't make it all the way in. GIs who left the troop transports too far out drowned under the weight of their own packs. Others were killed by Nazi gunfire as they exited their landing craft. Those who made it onto the beach were pinned down under continual shelling from Nazis pouring down fire at them from well-dug-in positions atop the cliffs overlooking the shore. The carnage at "Omaha" beach was unbelievable. General Bradley considered calling off the invasion and retreating back to England. And then, some real combat leadership from a Brigadier General who ignored the shells and bullets and motivated his soldiers to move inland under the worst conditions imaginable. From the book "The Longest Day" by Cornelius Ryan (pages 264-266):
Along Dog Green and Dog White, a crusty fifty-one-year-old [brigader] general named Norman Cota strode up and down in the hail of fire, waving a .45 and yelling at men to get off the beach. Along the shingle, behind the sea wall and in the coarse beach grass at the base of the bluffs, men crouched shoulder to shoulder, peering at the general, unwilling to believe that a man could stand upright and live.
A group of Rangers lay huddled near the Vierville exit. "Lead the way, Rangers!" Cota shouted. Men began to rise to their feet. Farther down the beach was an abandoned bulldozer loaded with TNT. It was just what was needed to blow the antitank wall at the Vierville exit. "Who drives this thing?" he thundered. No one answered. Men seemed still paralyzed by the merciless gunfire that flayed the beach. Cota began to lose his temper. "Hasn't anyone got guts enough to drive the damn thing?" he roared.
A red-haired soldier got slowly up from the sand and with great deliberation walked over to Cota. "I'll do it," he said.
Cota slapped him on the back., "That's the stuff," the general said. "Now let's get off the beach." He walked away without looking back. Behind him, men began to stir.
This was the pattern. Brigadier General Cota, the 29th Division's assistant commander, had been setting an example almost from the moment he arrived on the beach. He had taken the right half of the 29th's sector; Colonel Charles D. Canham, commanding the 116th, had taken the left. Canham, a bloody handkerchief tied around a wrist wound, moved through the dead, the dying and the shocked, waving groups of men forward. "They're murdering us here!" he said. "Let's move inland and get murdered!" Private First Class Charles Ferguson looked up in amazement as the colonel went by. "Who the hell is that son of a bitch?" he asked and then he and the other men with him got up and headed toward the bluffs.
...
Ranging up and down the 1st Division sector, oblivious to the artillery and machine-gun fire that raked the sands, was the 16th's commanding officer, Colonel George A. Taylor. "Two kinds of people are staying on this beach," he yelled, "the dead and those who are going to die."
Everywhere intrepid leaders, privates and generals alike, were showing the way, getting the men off the beach. Once started, the troops did not stop again. Technical Sergeant William Wiedefeld, Jr., stepped over the dead bodies of a score of his friends and, with face set, went up the hill through the mine fields. Second Lieutenant Donald Anderson, nursing a wound -- he had been shot in the back of the neck and the bullet had come out through his mouth -- found that he had "the courage to get up, and at that point I hanged from a rookie in combat to a veteran." ...
Even as the troops began to advance, the first few landing craft began driving right up on the beaches, ramming their way through the obstacles. Coxswains on other boats saw it could be done and followed. Some destroyers, backing up the advance, came so close to the shore that they ran the risk of foundering and, at point-blank range, fired at enemy strongpoints all along the bluffs. Under the covering barrage, engineers began to complete the demolition job they had begun almost seven hours earlier. Everywhere along Omaha Beach the deadlock was breaking up.
As the men found it possible to move forward, their fear and frustration gave way to an overpowering anger. ...
Out of the horror that had been Omaha Beach, troops pressed inland. At one-thirty General Bradley would receive the message: "Troops formerly pinned down on beaches Easy Red, Easy Green, Fox Red advancing up heights behind beaches." By the end of the day men of the 1st and 29th divisions would be one mile inland. The cost of Omaha: an estimated 2,500 dead, wounded and missing.
Total American casualties on D-Day were 6,603 killed, wounded, missing, and captured -- more than 10 times the number of members of Congress (source: "The Longest Day" by Cornelius Ryan, page 279).
I think of what Brigadier General Coda did when I see our representatives in Congress who do not have one-tenth of the guts that he and so many others displayed on "Omaha" beach. Nineteen months ago we went to the polls and took Capitol Hill. I am still waiting for a "General Cota" in the House of Representatives with the courage to stand up and lead the impeachment of that sadistic, brain-damaged, drunken SOB from Texas who has caused so much harm to the reputation of the United States -- reputation bought and paid for the the blood of young Americans who fought tooth and nail for what was right during some very dark times.
But since Congress doesn't seem to be willing to do that, the absolute least we could expect is a modicum of leadership to successfully oppose retroactively immunity for telecommunications companies. The absolute worst that will happen to those in Congress who display such leadership would be to lose an election. And that's the worst thing. None of them will be gunned down by Nazis or blown up by improvised explosive devices. None of them will die. None of them will be wounded. None of them will be missing. None of them will taken prisoners of war. And, in all likelihood, those who stand up and vote the right way will be rewarded with another term in Congress.
Even so, once again, we must act like Brigadier General Cota, or platoon leaders, or drill sergeants, and "motivate" our representatives in Congress to do the right thing and deny the telecommunications industry retroactive immunity.
So, start calling. Here a few numbers courtesy of Christy at firedoglake to get us started:
Speaker Pelosi: 202-225-4965, fax: 202-225-8259
Representative Hoyer: 202-225-4131, fax: 202-225-4300
Senator Obama: 202-224-2854, fax 202-228-4260
Christy says to tell them Senator Bond's bill is unacceptable and that, if any action is necessary, vote to extend the PAA for a year than to give up everything they gained in the bill passed in February. She is right. Let's hit the phones and faxes and once again take Capitol Hill.
To contact your representative, call the Capitol Hill switchboard at 1-202-224-3121 or toll-free at:
1-877 851-6437
1-800 828-0498
1-800 614-2803
1-866 340-9281
1-866 338-1015
1-866 220-0044