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Simon Harak’s September 2003 Speech at Marquette — And My Official Introduction to Jesuits

Written by Brian on June 12, 2008 – 8:42 pm -

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During my third or so week of college at Marquette, unfamiliar with the Jesuits beyond the bare bones I had learned in my previous 12 years as a Catholic school student and my initial weeks as a Marquette student, I happened upon a J.U.S.T.I.C.E. presentation about the then-new Iraq War by one Simon Harak. I was in for a shocking anti-American hatefest on a level I wouldn’t have thought possible from a University that wanted to be considered at all serious.

I went with a notebook, as I do almost anywhere, in case I wanted to take notes. From the beginning I could tell that I was in for a presentation by a dark, evil man. As Harak’s imagination spilled from his mind and the power point presentation into Cudahy Hall, I wrote dozens of short-hand notes in my notebook. After, I stashed them away.

The shocking introduction to the Jesuits through an individual deeply possessed with the mission of propagandizing Saddam Hussein’s own rhetoric about his country obviously had an effect on me. While Harak showed up again two years later (while I was in DC, incidently), we did not have to see him again until last Spring, when he showed up on the Theology Faculty teaching THEO 001 and began to prepare for his activist outpost at Marquette, created last summer.

When Harak surfaced in 2005, I remembered my notes from September, 2003 but could not locate them. I tried again once news of Harak’s laughably hypocritical “Center for Peacemaking” formed, again in vain. Today, however, I’ve been cleaning out my old MUSG files and, ta-da, found it. They are brief, but informative.

For the record, I thought I’d transcribe my observations and my in-presentation observations. It will be significantly briefer than my preserved notes as I wrote in shorthand some of his comments and the relationship to his presentation nearly five-years later is not always readily apparent.

Simon Harak’s September, 2003 Iraq War presentation

Harak began with a peculiar comment that I did not write down, and since I want to be accurate I will just say that I am paraphrasing the following sentence. After everyone assembled, he said something to the effect of “I don’t find prayer very useful, but I think we should have a moment of silence.” May not have been those precise words, but Harak dismissed beginning with a prayer in favor of a “moment of silence.”

The following begin my written notes:

- Paints a picture of a fierce, uncontrollable military force against an innocent, defenseless Iraqi people. From the U.S. government point of view, “things have to be silenced.” If things have to be silenced how is it that Leftists like Harak all know “things”?

- Many dead body pictures. No surprise, no idea where they came from. Could be Saddam’s victims or simply more cherry-picked accidents by U.S. military to depict invasion as sinister. “People like you and me” were killed in Iraq — normal people? [Civilians?] Suggests that the U.S. indiscriminately attacks civilians.

- “Homes, schools, hospitals” were destroyed “in every city, every village.” [Echoing an earlier comment that the U.S. military had "unplug[ed] every hospital drug and blood refrigeration unit, every life support machine, every incubator, in the country.”]

- Due to sanctions held up by the Clinton Administration, “500 thousand children under the age of 5 were killed.” No source given. It is “against American law to give” Iraqis medicine. No, it’s against American law for you to contact and propagandize for a foreign dictator. [Daniel tackled well this aspect of Harak's propaganda work for the Hussein regime here.]

- [Interlude: you'll note the comedy of Harak recommending an international force take over Iraq in the above-linked Marquette Tribune story and the fact that the legitimate object of Harak's rath would have been the U.N., which instituted the sanctions itself. As John McAdams noted about Harak's consiracy theories, "One could not determine whether he lacked the intelligence to differentiate between the two theories, or was simply canny and willing to pander to whatever theory audience members happened to believe."]

- Shows pictures of starving and small children, states that the Allied flights over Iraq were “bombing water [facilities] on purpose to spread disease.” No mention of Saddam’s grip on commerce, preventing normal infusion of health care goods and services. Quotes Madeline Albright again [who I am beginning to think must be some kind of estranged celebrity for Harak.]

- The explanation for the war was “weapons of mass destruction” but “20 minutes before the invasion” it became “to liberate people.” The U.S. “bombed population centers” … shows more undated, unsourced pictures of people burying dead. People in the government “don’t want you to see” these pictures.

- More conspiracy theories about oil fields. U.S. “siezed oil fields right away.” Maybe because last time Saddam lit them on fire? [Again, McAdams: "He seemed to imply that Bush really went into Iraq “for oil.” He was unclear as to whether the point was to take control of Iraqi oil, or merely to keep oil flowing to industrial economies. One could not determine whether he lacked the intelligence to differentiate between the two theories" Harak may have given the same presentation on each occasion at Marquette.]

- The policy of the U.S. military was to “kill everything that moved.” Okay, then. The military faced a “human wave of resistance” and the military “cut them all down” [may be a reference to the "population centers" or even the "human shield" movements led by Harak's Saddam-propaganda groups.] The U.S. military killed people with “the same color as food packets.” [i.e., MRE's.]

- U.S. military used depleted uranium. Same conspiracy I’ve heard a hundred times. [McAdams debunks it here.] Shows more pictures of destruction; “Of course the military loves this.”

- Members of the U.S. military were “found looting” [I don't remember but this may have been about the famed museum non-story.] Islam has an “honor based culture” and thus looting violates this culture. Harak recommends that military members “don’t shake hands with Muslims” and “every move the U.S. makes is worse.”

- In the United States, “weapons is the number one export.” [Um, actually, "Among the top U.S. exports in 2006 were autos and auto parts, semiconductors, and civilian aircraft."] The United States is leading a “modern crusade.” The U.S. “economy is based on weapons.”

*******

Some brilliant thoughts from Harak, I know.

Amidst all of his anti-American invasion of Iraq, it is useful to note that Harak is famous for, among other insane commentary, supporting Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait. Harak doesn’t mind violence, even extreme violence; physical force just cannot be used at any time in support of the goals of the United States.

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