Here I give you Part II of the Albright speech to honor the Holocaust Memorial Center and, not too incidentally, a fellow traveler named Morgenthau, responsible for the devastating economic strangulation of war-defeated Germany:
The United States has taken the lead in the UN in imposing sanctions on Libya for its failure to turn over for trial those indicted for the bombing of Pan Am 103.
We have called upon Sudan to sever its ties to renegade organizations and to stop shielding suspected assassins.
And we have banned U.S. trade and investment with Iran, the world's number one state sponsor of terrorist acts.
There are some overseas who do not share our approach, who argue that the best way to influence governments that support terrorism is to do business with them, to place profit above principle.
But we believe it is wrong to sign contracts with governments that sponsor terror. Terrorism is evil. And under President Clinton, whether terrorists are wearing robes or business suits, whether they call themselves warriors or diplomats, the United States will speak and act against terrorism in all its disguises, in all its forms.
The Internet has plenty of documentation that Israel violated almost 70 resolutions from 1995 - 1972. Israel was protected by 29 U.S. vetoes from Security Council decisions from 1972 to May 1990. To my knowledge, America did not impose a single sanction to this day! There is obviously a very forgiving and lax standard by which Israel is judged, and a very harsh and unforgiving one for Arab countries!
Albright: Finally, the United States has taken the lead in supporting the first international war crimes tribunal since Nuremberg, because we believe the perpetrators of ethnic cleansing should be held accountable and those who see rape as just another tactic of war must answer for their crimes.
I have visited mass grave sites in both of the regions for which this tribunal was created.
Has Albright visited the mass graves caused by America's bombing campaign in World War II in Germany, or any of the mass graves caused by the expulsions of Germans from Eastern Europe caused by the Yalta and Potsdam Agreements - or, for that matter, the result of her hero, Morgenthal's, murderous plan?
Albright: I have spoken to women whose husbands or sons disappeared after the massacre at Srebrenica and who cling to the fragile hope that their loved ones are still alive.
I have seen in Rwanda a virtual generation of widows, many the mothers of babies conceived by rape. These are women afraid to recall the past and barely able to think of what the future may bring.
In both places, the majority of the victims were not those armed and prepared for war, but rather men and women like you and me, boys and girls like those we know, intentionally targeted and massacred not because of what they had done, but for who they were.
The racialism at the center of Nazi ideology has not been present in these conflicts. This is not the Holocaust. But still, as civilized people, we cannot tolerate atrocities of this magnitude without diminishing and ultimately endangering ourselves.
America not only tolerated thousands of war crimes by its World War II Soviet ally Stalin, but its troops committed thousands of their own, not a single one of which ever made it before an Allied War Crimes Tribunal!
Albright: We all have a stake in seeing that the war crimes tribunal overcomes the many obstacles it now faces to become a powerful instrument of truth. We all have a stake in establishing a precedent that will deter future genocides. And we will all benefit if the tribunal is able--by separating the guilty from the innocent--to lay the foundation for lasting peace.
Let us remember that the scars left on the bodies and in the minds of the survivors of these wars will take time to heal. In too many places, neighbors were betrayed by neighbor and friend divided from friend by fierce and hostile passion. Too many families have assembled at too many cemeteries for us to say that ethnic differences do not matter.
But responsibility for the crimes committed does not rest with any group; it rests with the individuals who ordered and committed those crimes. The wounds opened will heal much faster if--through the work of the tribunal--collective guilt is expunged and personal responsibility is assigned.
If responsibility for war crimes does not rest with a group but with individuals - why was her hero, Morgenthau, not charged with responsibility incurred for the hundreds of thousands of deaths by his Morgenthau Plan? Why not Stalin for Soviet crimes? Why not Truman for Nagasaki or Hiroshima? Why not Churchill for Dresden? Let's begin assigning personal responsibility!
Albright: Many years ago, my father served as Ambassador from what is now the former Czechoslovakia to what is now the former Yugoslavia. He described nationalism then "as a permanent, vital and influential force for good and evil."
It was his experience, as it is ours, that national pride can be the custodian of rich cultural legacies; it can unite people in defense of a common good; it can provide a sense of identity and belonging that stretches across territory and time.
But as we have been reminded of so often in recent years, when pride in "us" curdles into hatred of "them," the result is a narrowing of vision and a compulsion to violence.
In preparing for the 21st century, we know that controlling ethnic hatred and curbing extreme nationalism are among the greatest challenges we will face.
As we seek to calm trouble spots around the world, we understand that there may be times when the geographic separation of violently conflictive ethnic groups may be necessary--at least for a time--to provide each with the security required to end that violence. We should not be blind to that possibility.
But we cannot betray the principle--the truth--that human beings will be stronger and do better when they are able to live together in freedom and to pursue shared goals despite ethnic, religious, and cultural differences.
The United States, at its best, is living proof of that. Our strength rests today on the shoulders and intellectual might of people from a kaleidoscope of different backgrounds, with ancestral roots in virtually every nation on earth. Metropolitan Detroit is a prime example of a community woven together out of diverse threads.
It takes chutzpah or utter gall for Albright to hold up decaying murder-city Detroit as a shining example of what's laudable about U.S. society. She must have thought her audience to be utterly oblivious to U.S. reality. Might it be arrogance of power?
Albright: As Secretary Morgenthau taught us and the Holocaust Memorial Center reminds us, in the end, what matters is not who we are, but what we believe, how we act toward others, and how well we understand the possibilities that exist for each of us during our short stay on earth. That is a doctrine embraced not by one, but by all of the major spiritual traditions. It is a question of ethics. It is a question of humanity.
Eleanor Roosevelt said once that "within all of us there are two sides. One reaches for the stars, the other descends to the level of beasts."
That is not only a statement of fact. It is a presentation of choice.
We can accept that there will be limits on what we can accomplish without unnecessarily limiting what we attempt. We can value the differences of race, culture, and gender that divide us without ignoring the universal values that connect us. We can think of the Holocaust and despair; or we can remember the victims of the Holocaust and vow never to allow despair to excuse inaction.
In making our choice, let us remember that there is not a page of American history of which we are proud that was authored by a chronic complainer or prophet of despair. We are doers.
We have a responsibility in our time, as others have had in theirs, not to be prisoners of history, but to shape history; to see that fascism and totalitarianism never again arise; to speak against bigotry, anti-Semitism and discrimination of all kinds; and to lend a hand to those around the globe who share our aspirations for freedom, peace, and the quiet miracle of a normal life.
Thank you once again for all you are doing to help and support the Holocaust Memorial Center.
And thank you again for the invitation to be here with you tonight."
(end of Albright keynote)
So what do you have in this speech? A clever stringing-together of warm, fuzzy words by a highly skilled speechwriter, devoid of morality, replete with wild leaps of selective memory, drawn from a highly edited US-Jewish historical perspective - in summary, a document to remember!
Thought for the Day:
"Mirrors should reflect a little before throwing back images."
(Jean Cocteau)