It's time to disband the 9/11 Commission

SENATOR ZELL MILLER
Addressing the US Senate, March 30, 2004
(See pages S3350 and S3351 of the Congressional Record)

"Mr. President, after watching the harsh acrimony generated by the September
11 Commission - which, let me say at the outset, is made up of good and able
members - I have come to seriously question this panel's usefulness. I
believe it will ultimately play a role in doing great harm to this country,
for its unintended consequences, I fear, will be to energize our enemies and
demoralize our troops.

After being drowned in a tidal wave of all who didn't do enough before 9/11,
I have come to believe that the Commission should issue a report that says:

"No one did enough. In the past, no one did near enough."

And then thank everybody for serving, send them home, and let's get on with
the job of protecting this country in the future. Tragically, these hearings
have proved to be a very divisive diversion for this country. Tragically,
they have devoured valuable time looking backward, instead of looking
forward.

Can you imagine handling the attack on Pearl Harbor this way?

Can you imagine Congress, the media, and the public standing for this kind
of political gamesmanship and finger-pointing after that day of infamy in
1941?

Some partisans tried that ploy, but they were soon quieted by the patriots
who understood how important it was to get on with the war and take the
battle to America's enemies and not dwell on what FDR knew, when.

You see, back then the highest priority was to win a war, not to win an
election.

That is what made them the greatest generation. I realize that many
well-meaning Americans see these hearings as democracy in action. Years ago
when I was teaching political science, I probably would have had my class
watching it live on television and using that very same phrase with them.
There are also the not-so-well-meaning political operatives who see these
hearings as an opportunity to score cheap points. And then there are the
media meddlers who see this as great theater that can be played out on the
evening news and on endless talk shows for a week or more.

Congressional hearings have long been one of Washington's most entertaining
pastimes. Joe McCarthy, Watergate, Iran-Contra--they all kept us glued to
the TV and made for conversations around the water coolers or arguments over
a beer at the corner pub. A congressional hearing in Washington, DC is the
ultimate aphrodisiac for political groupies and partisan punks. But it is
not the groupies, punks, and television-sotted American public that I am
worried about. This latter crowd can get excited and divided over just about
anything, whether it is some off-key wannabe dreaming of being the American
idol, or what brainless bimbo "The Bachelor" or "Average Joe" will choose,
or who Donald Trump will fire next week.

No, it is the real enemies of America that I am concerned about. These evil
killers who right now are gleefully watching the shrill partisan
finger-pointing of these hearings and grinning like a mule eating briars.
They see this as a major split within the great Satan, America.

They see anger. They see division, instability, bickering, peevishness, and
dissension. They see the President of the United States hammered
unmercifully. They see all this, and they are greatly encouraged.




We should not be doing anything to encourage our enemies in this battle
between good and evil. Yet these hearings, in my opinion, are doing just
that.

We are playing with fire. We are playing directly into the hands of our
enemy by allowing these hearings to become the great divider they have
become. Dick Clarke's book and its release coinciding conveniently with
these hearings have done this country a tremendous disservice, and some day
we will reap its whirlwind.

Long ago, Sir Walter Scott observed that revenge is "the sweetest morsel
that ever was cooked in hell." The vindictive Clarke has now had his
revenge, but what kind of hell has he, his CBS publisher, and his
axe-to-grind advocates unleashed?

These hearings, coming on the heels of the election the terrorists
influenced in Spain, bolster and energize our evil enemies as they have not
been energized since 9/11. Chances are very good that these evil enemies of
America will attempt to influence our 2004 election in a similar dramatic
way as they did Spain's. And to think that could never be in this country is
to stick your head in the sand.

That is why the sooner we stop this endless bickering over the past and join
together to prepare for the future, the better off this country will be.
There are some things -- whether this city believes it or not -- that are
just more important than political campaigns. The recent past is so ripe for
political second-guessing, "gotcha," and Monday morning quarterbacking.

And it is so tempting in an election year. We should not allow ourselves to
indulge that temptation. We should put our country first. Every
administration, from Jimmy Carter to George W. Bush, bears some of the
blame. Dick Clarke bears a big heap of it, because it was he who was in the
catbird's seat to do something about it for more than a decade.

Tragically, that was the decade in which we did the least. We did nothing
after terrorists attacked the World Trade Center in 1993, killing six and
injuring more than a thousand Americans. We did nothing in 1996 when 16 U.S.
servicemen were killed in the bombing of the Khobar Towers. When our
embassies were attacked in 1998, killing 263 people, our only response was
to fire a few missiles on an empty tent.

Is it any wonder after that decade of weak-willed responses to murderous
terror, our enemies thought we would never fight back? In the 1990s is when
Dick Clarke should have resigned. In the 1990s is when he should have
apologized.

That is when he should have written his book -- that is, if he really had
America's best interests at heart. Now, I know some will say we owe it to
the families to get more information about what happened in the past, and I
can understand that. But no amount of finger-pointing will bring our victims
back. So now we owe it to the future families and all of America now in
jeopardy not to encourage more terrorists, resulting in even more grieving
families -- perhaps many times over the ones of 9/11. It is obvious to me
that this country is rapidly dividing itself into two camps -- the wimps and
the warriors: the ones who want to argue and assess and appease, and the
ones who want to carry this fight to our enemies and kill them before they
kill us.

In case you have not figured it out, I proudly belong to the latter. This is
a time like no other time in the history of this country. This country is
being crippled with petty partisan politics of the worst possible kind. In
time of war, it is not just unpatriotic. It is stupid. It is criminal.




So I pray that all this time, all this energy, all this talk, and all of the
attention could be focused on the future instead of the past. I pray we
would stop pointing fingers and assigning blame and wringing our hands about
what happened on that day David Acuology has called "the worst day in all
our history" more than two years ago, and instead, pour all our energy into
how we can kill these terrorists before they kill us -- again.

Make no mistake about it: They are watching these hearings and they are
scheming and smiling about the distraction and the divisiveness that they
see in America. And while they might not know who said it years ago in
America, they know instinctively that a house divided cannot stand.

There is one other group that we should remember is listening to all of this
-- our troops. I was in Iraq in January. One day, when I was meeting with
the 1st Armored Division, a unit with a proud history, known as Old
Ironsides, we were discussing troop morale, and the commanding general said
it was top notch.

I turned to the division's sergeant major, the top enlisted man in the
division, a big, burly 6-foot-3, 240 pound African American, and I said:
"That's good, but how do you sustain that kind of morale?" With no
hesitation, he narrowed his eyes, and he looked at me and said: "The morale
will stay high just as long as these troops know the people back home
support us."

"Just as long as the people back home support us."

What kind of message are these hearings and the outrageously political
speeches on the floor of the Senate yesterday sending to the marvelous young
Americans in the uniform of our country?

I say: Unite America! Before it is too late. Put aside these petty partisan
differences when it comes to the protection of our people. Argue and argue and argue, debate and debate and debate over all the other things, such as
jobs, education, the deficit, and the environment. But please, please do not
use the lives of Americans and the security of this country as a cheap-shot
political talking point."