In pursuit of an American Churchill

Sen. Zell Miller, Georgia Democrat, faults his party’s leadership in time of war in the last of three exclusive excerpts from his new book, “A National Party No More: The Conscience of a Conservative Democrat” (Stroud & Hall, Atlanta).

British statesman Winston Churchill warned against the dangers of appeasement as German dictator Adolf Hitler’s clouds of war threatened to rain down on England. He pleaded that this evildoer must be stopped and destroyed.

Finally, in desperation, Great Britain turned to Churchill as prime minister. With stirring oratory and unflinching courage, he led his nation out from under the heel of Hitler.

I came to believe that unless America found its own version of Churchill, the same spirit of appeasement, the same kind of softness and self-indulgence, would turn my country into a land cowering before the world’s mad bullies.

I thought the signs evident in the American people and our leaders. I thought our will as a country was vanishing.

I was disgusted when we did nothing in 1993 after terrorists attacked the World Trade Center, killing six and injuring more than 1,000. I was amazed in 1996 when 16 U.S. servicemen were killed in the bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia and we still did nothing.

When our embassies in Tanzania and Nairobi were bombed in 1998, killing 263, our only response was to fire a few missiles on an empty terrorist camp. It was a wimpy response so totally inadequate that, as an American, I was ashamed.

Then came September 11, 2001, “the worst day in our history,” as historian David McCullough has called it. The next day, after a sleepless night, I went to the floor of the Senate and said:

“The victims and their loved ones of this horrible act of war should be in our prayers. The perpetrators and those who give them safe haven should be in our bombsights.

“After Pearl Harbor, a Japanese remarked that the ‘sleeping giant has been awakened.’ I pray that the sleeping giant has again been awakened. … For too long, when terrorist attacks have happened it seems America’s first interest has been to please our friends, and then, if permitted, punish our enemies.

“We must strike the viper’s nest,” I concluded, “even if he’s not there. We know that the Taliban and the government of Afghanistan nurtured Osama bin Laden for years. This diabolical plot was probably hatched there. Certainly similar plots have been — and it’s time for us to respond.

“I say, bomb the hell out of them. If there’s collateral damage, so be it. They certainly found our civilians to be expendable.”

I got a lot of criticism for that statement, especially from some liberal press folks. But months afterward, that’s exactly what our military did in Afghanistan and, two years later, in Iraq.

Fortunately, President Bush moved ahead with plans for a regime change in Iraq. I immediately gave him my full support and told a true story to my colleagues on the Senate floor:

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