This is a reprint of a page in the Jan./Feb. 2002 issue of _Adbusters_
magazine.  I am reprinting it without permission, but I don't expect
that its original publishers will mind too much.

"THE SPEECH THAT WAS NEVER MADE.  LEST WE FORGET"

"Fellow Americans, citizens of the world:
        Tonight we are a country awakened to danger and called to defend
freedom.  Our grief has turned to anger, and anger to resolution.
Whether we bring our enemies to justice, or justice to our enemies,
justice will be done.
        We cannot see inside the head of a terrorist, and yet today we
understand clearly what it is he demands.  A terrorist demands hate.
he demands fear.  Above all else, a terrorist demands war.
        But a free people does not bend to the demands of terror.
        Our friends and family members have dies in the thousands, their
bright lights of life made suddenly, brutally dark.  To the world
tonight I say that not one more innocent person will die in the name of
this terrorist act.  Not one more mother's son in America.  Not one
more beloved father in Afghanistan.  Not one more infant child in
Israel or Palestine.
        To the men and women in uniform I say: We all must hope that your
soldiering days are done.  Today you are our officers of law and our
keepers of precious peace.  You have been challenged by a terrible
crime, and make no mistake, the nation's hunger for justice is as
strong as its love of peace.  We look to you, to our police forces and
our troops, to the elected representatives of our citizens, and to our
friends and allies in the international community, to bring the full
weight of law and of human dignity against the wrongdoers and criminals.
        America is ever prepared to act, and to act alone if we must.
Tonight, we know that we can instead act in concert with every nation
on Earth.  The citizens of 80 other nations died with our own in New
York and Washington.  The murder of innocents has been carried not only
to America, but to Iran and Saudi Arabia, to Mexico and El Salvador, to
Japan and South Korea, to Canada and Great Britain, to India and
Pakistan.  The world has been stunned into silence, but only to emerge
with a voice more unified and sure than ever before in our history.
        We will convene a meeting of the United Nations Security Council.  We
ask for the establishment of a world tribunal with authority to seek
out, extradite or arrest and try those responsible for the September 11
attack, and any who conspire to commit similar crimes in the future.
We call on our partners and friends within the United Nations to
establish an international force to carry out this mandate.  Let their
work reach with unrelenting certainty into the shadowy world of terror
and into the network of criminal finance, but above all else let them
reach toward the diplomacy of cooperative effort.  We join all the
world in our expectation that this mandate will be swift and certain.
We have encountered an unprecedented crime against humanity; we demand
unprecedented action.
        And so to the hawks I say: We salute you.
        And to the doves I say: This is your moment.  We leave behind us a
century of war; we see ahead a century of peace.  Already, this new
century is stricken by the deepest of challenges.  We look to you, to
the peace builders, the peace makers and peace keepers, for your wisdom.
        We cannot comprehend terrorism, and yet today we understand clearly
that its aim is to remake the world.  Let us not fulfill the prophecy
of terror by providing it with martyrs and justifications.  Even as we
wipe the blood from our brows and the tears from our eyes, we cannot
forget that we are the world's fortunate citizens.  We must take
extreme care not to provide the movements we deplore with gratuitous
fuel for self-regeneration.
        We know that we, too, can remake the world.  Let us closely examine
our actions on those fertile grounds from which terror grows.  Is there
more to be done to bring peace and justice to Israel and Palestine?
Surely there is.  Is there more to be done to ease poverty and
suffering in the Middle Eastern nations so rich with oil?  Almost
certainly, there is.  Is there more we can do to hear the reasoned and
gentle voices of the many who are struggling to be heard and
understood?  We cannot doubt that there is.
        Let these, too, be our unrelenting pursuit.  And let us be clear:
These shall be our goals because these are not the goals of terror.
Terror demands extremism, fanaticism and war.  We will redouble our
efforts for peace because we are a people that does not bend, does not
buckle in the face of fear.
        And so to the doves I say: We salute you.  Fellow Americans, citizens
of the world, we will meet violence with patient justice -- assured of
our cause, and confident of the victories to come.  In all that lies
before us, may God grant us wisdom, and may he watch over each one of
us.  Thank you."

The speech is followed by these acknowledgments (and if you retransmit
this worthy speech, please include them:)
"With thanks to the many Peace Movement commentators who continue to
argue alternatives to war; special thanks to John Paul Lederach for '
The Challenge of Terror: A Traveling Essay.'  Select lines taken from
President George Bush's 'Address to a Joint Session of Congress and the
American People,' September 20, 2001.  -- James Mckinnon."

I'm interested in your reactions to this phantom address.

Thank you,
Jon