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Henry Hyde SpeaksTruth to Power Diane Alden In a recent article in The Christian Century James Wall examines a speech given by retiring Republican conservative Rep. Henry Hyde of Illinois. The speech is as eloquent as many given by another statesman from Illinois, Ronald Wilson Reagan. The media overlooked Hyde's speech, and that is a colossal shame. It was given as he opened a budget hearing of the U.S. House on February 16 of this year titled "Perils of the Golden Theory." [At www.house.gov follow links to the International Relations Committee and then to "speeches."] Hyde states: "It is a truism that power breeds arrogance. A far greater danger, however, stems from the self-delusion that is the more certain companion. For individuals and countries alike, power inevitably distorts perceptions of the world by insulating them in a soothing cocoon that is impervious to what scientists term 'disconfirming evidence.'" Henry Hyde calls them as he sees them. He has great love for his country and puts aside sightless partisanship to consider that his country may be headed down the wrong road. In his speech, Hyde interprets a school of thought that created and is currently implementing U.S. foreign policy. That school of thought, reflected by George W. Bush and his neocon advisers, places "worldwide promotion of democracy" and economic "stability" at the center of policy. Likewise, these ideas involve pre-emptive war. Henry Hyde loves democracy in our constitutional republic. Nonetheless, he also has a firm hold on reality. Hyde understands the limits of power and proportionate goals that any nation or policy is able to achieve in terms of changing history, human nature or entire societies, even for very good reasons. Hyde maintains: "There is no evidence that we or anyone can guide from afar revolutions we have set in motion. We can more easily destabilize friends and others and give life to chaos and to avowed enemies than ensure outcomes in service of our interests and security. ... In a world where the ratios of strength narrow, the consequences of miscalculation will become progressively more debilitating. The costs of golden theories will be paid for in the base coin of our interests." The Christian Century article concludes: "Hyde closed his speech with this final warning: To allow our enormous power to delude us into seeing the world as a passive thing waiting for us to re-create it in an image of our choosing will hasten the day when we have little freedom to choose anything at all.'" I think Rep. Hyde is rightly attempting to warn America and the foreign and military policymakers in the Bush administration. The warning is: You are operating on incorrect philosophical and constitutional premises. Why, where and how we should go to war with other nations or ideologies should not be forced to fit a "theory." Story Continues Below
Hyde is not alone in his concern that so-called neocon foreign policy is turning this nation into something it was never meant to be. An article in the Washington Post a few years ago references C. Boyden Gray, former counsel to President George H.W. Bush, who has combined forces with other conservatives to "educate Americans about the dangers of empire and the need to return to our founding traditions and values." Far too many loyal Republicans think any criticism of the Bush White House or the ideology that now seems to be driving policy is somehow disloyal or makes critics leftist commie bed wetters or supporters of John Kerry. It is difficult for some to understand that Republicans and conservatives are deeply divided on a number of issues, but particularly the direction of the United States post-Cold War geopolitical and economic policy under the last THREE presidents. In regard to Henry Hyde, he is not a hippie leftist peacenik seeking peace at any price. He is a thoughtful person in regard to war and the grand illusions of great empires; he is also particularly concerned about where this constitutional republic we belong to is destined to go. Hazarding a guess, Hyde probably believes in something Catholics, Christians and Jews understand as the "just war" doctrine. I also believe in the "just war" doctrine. It is the bedrock of WHY, WHEN AND WHERE Christendom or Judeo-Christian nations have gone to war in the past. When it isn't followed, the result is usually dreadful. In regard to "just wars," it pains me to say, the type of political theology exhibited by GWB on occasion seems to USE God as a front for pushing an agenda using military might as a tool regardless of the cost to this nation. Frankly, when theory and God are conjoined as a tool for recreating the world along the lines fashioned by some policy elite, the ultimate result is going to be ruinous. Like Hyde, I also sincerely believe in the limits on power that we must request and expect from those who lead us, particularly when limits on power and use of power are clearly defined in the Constitution of the United States. The past several administrations have shown absolutely no respect for those limits. As important to our joint future are the continual turf wars and misuse of power by appointed intelligence "czars" and their lower-level managers, and the use of intimidation and "black ops" tactics against some field operatives in the agencies themselves. The National Security Agency comes to mind, as does the National Intelligence Agency and its scapegoat when things go wrong, the CIA. The problems have been particularly harsh and the careerism truly out of control since the end of the Cold War. One of the greatest problems in the Beltway ruling class is misuse of power on the wrong targets. In any event, the "new" foreign policy of Bush-Clinton-Bush is powered by a philosophy that Hyde alludes to in his speech. He doesn't name it, but anyone who reads and understands knows what it is. Some call it neo-Jacobinism and some neoconservatism. I call it pixilated shoddy policy formation by folks who have spent too much time in the Beltway. This bunch is playing games with our national life, destroying our future in the process. After several years of investigating the "new" post-Cold War philosophy as exhibited by George W. Bush and his administration, the handprints of neoconservatism and a wretched establishment commercial philosophy are all over it. Pre-emptive war is part of this philosophy, a philosophy that has no underpinnings in the U.S. Constitution. In fact, the "new" policymakers are running the constitutional republic into the ground. Frankly, their idea that the United States MUST force or supervise a remake of the entire world is beyond arrogant and into the Land of Oz. In any event, policymakers and ideologues give little consideration that modern warfare has far more catastrophic consequences than when England and France were fighting the Hundred-Years' War in the 1400s. Pre-emptive war should NOT be used as a consistent policy instrument for the United States – no matter how many loopy reasons those in the Beltway give regarding their utopian ideas about the way the world is going to work if they have their absurd way. In Part II, discover who the empire builders are and how deeply flawed their "golden theories" are. Diane may be heard Wednesdays on WNDB-AM on "The Marc Bernier Show," from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Eastern time in Bristol, Tenn. (10 a.m. to noon local time), and 3 to 7 p.m. in Daytona Beach.
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