A heroic American woman

The absolutely essential testimony (redacted, in the interest of space) of Dr. Fiona Hill before Congress today, which every American should read:

Opening Statement of Dr. Fiona Hill
to the House of Representatives
Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence

November 21, 2019

...

Based on questions and statements I have heard, some of you on this committee appear to believe that Russia and its security services did not conduct a campaign against our country—and that perhaps, somehow, for some reason, Ukraine did. This is a fictional narrative that has been perpetrated and propagated by the Russian security services themselves.

The unfortunate truth is that Russia was the foreign power that systematically attacked our democratic institutions in 2016. This is the public conclusion of our intelligence agencies, confirmed in bipartisan Congressional reports. It is beyond dispute, even if some of the underlying details must remain classified.

The impact of the successful 2016 Russian campaign remains evident today. Our nation is being torn apart. Truth is questioned. Our highly professional and expert career foreign service is being undermined.

U.S. support for Ukraine—which continues to face armed Russian aggression—has been politicized.

The Russian government’s goal is to weaken our country—to diminish America’s global role and to neutralize a perceived U.S. threat to Russian interests. President Putin and the Russian security services aim to counter U.S. foreign policy objectives in Europe, including in Ukraine, where Moscow wishes to reassert political and economic dominance.

I say this not as an alarmist, but as a realist. I do not think long-term conflict with Russia is either desirable or inevitable. I continue to believe that we need to seek ways of stabilizing our relationship with Moscow even as we counter their efforts to harm us. Right now, Russia’s security services and their proxies have geared up to repeat their interference in the 2020 election. We are running out of time to stop them. In the course of this investigation, I would ask that you please not promote politically driven falsehoods that so clearly advance Russian interests….

These fictions are harmful even if they are deployed for purely domestic political purposes. President Putin and the Russian security services operate like a Super PAC. They deploy millions of dollars to weaponize our own political opposition research and false narratives. When we are consumed by partisan rancor, we cannot combat these external forces as they seek to divide us against each another, degrade our institutions, and destroy the faith of the American people in our democracy.

***

That is the statement of a true, heroic American.

Comments

[Anne J]

I caught her opening statement this morning. She made a point of expressing that she is non partisan and a strictly "Just the facts, ma'am" witness.

[Tony]

It is quite possible to be partisan and have a "just the facts, ma'am" attitude. Actually, Democratic partisans are much more likely to recognize and reject lies than Republicans are, and that is one of the reasons they are Democratic partisans.

So, Republicans are trying to say that people who have already demonstrated an ability to see through their lies are not qualified to be truthful witnesses. Interesting.

[Tony]

Evidently Trump was on his tweet-machine today. And finally, he put us Democrats into the "human scum" category. I was rather annoyed when he characterized Never-Trump Republicans that way, and left us Democrats out. But today he rectified this slight, and we no longer need to feel ignored.

I hope all Democratic candidates for office take as much pride as I do that Trump has labeled us as "human scum". Just consider from whose addled brain that opinion issues. And I would hope that candidates remind voters often of Trump's opinion of us.

[Mary]

Okay. I'll take the bait. This woman is an American by marriage, preference, and because she says so. It's really good that you accept and embrace her. I hear that nowadays, if you're a man you can claim to be a woman...and the latest idiocy is that if you're white but identify as black then your chosen colour should be respected. Give me a break.

I recognise the Fiona Hill type. I was in a class full of Fionas. At least four of them are well known people in their chosen professions. Two are professors (I'll tell you who they are PM if you think that I'm talking rubbish). It's absolutely not true that a northern accent is a barrier to advancement these days..what is true is that the schools that nurtured the working class intelligence go taken away. The complaint was always that they were elitist institutions, and for the most part they were..but they gave a pathway for the clever poor to do well. They don't exist any more. My old school was transformed into a very inferior version of itself. The only other option was to go private.

Fiona Hill is as American as I am Australian. Maybe you should look out for some homegrown heroes? This woman is born, raised, and of England. Listen to her. And I'm not just talking about her accent.

It's disingenuous to claim that you couldn't make it in the UK these days with that accent. (which is actually quite neutral). British TV is very embracing of all local accents these days. I believe that the UK ambassador to the UK,who was recently sent packing by Trump came from a similar background to this woman. That is, not privileged at all.

Women are going to bring Trump down. Maybe they'll be Russian/Canadian, possibly English, likely they'll say that they're American, maybe you'll claim them as your own. Fiona Hill is a heroic English woman and she always will be.

[Mary]

*Obviously I meant the UK ambassador to the USA, Kim Darroch, from a humble background..grew up on a council estate. I think that makes him poor. He's now a Sir something or other. Good on Theresa for giving Trump another one in the eye.

*got/were taken away.

[David & Son of Duff]

Well, as the lady is English by birth, don't look for any praise from 'DA' who believes England is infested with devils!

[The Dark Avenger]

To paraphrase Harry Truman, I tell the truth about England, and you interpret it as hell.

Mary, glad to know you know more about Ms. Hill’s upbringing and the obstacles she may have faced more than she does.

[Mary]

David, as far as I'm concerned praise from DA would be the kiss of death so I'm unmoved.

What irritates me about this post is PM's highlighting of the ethnicity of this woman as a heroic American. She's not. Aligning yourself with another country and feeling part of it is fine but you can't erase your past, most particularly if all your formative years happened in that place.

The very formulaic speech where the women (Yovanovitch and Hill) carry on about their hard upbringing and how grateful they are to America for allowing them to escape strikes me as a softening up exercise. Get'em to like you before you deliver your opinion.

My Aunty (I have loads of them) lived in Whitley Bay and we visited often. I have visited Bishop Auckland. Northumberland is a beautiful and most underrated county. If you have two parents, one a miner, the other a nurse, you probably have a hard life but you wouldn't be poor.

My cousin was a Maths student at Durham University..her offspring are doctors and a barrister who attended Oxford University. I never heard the last of her! Her brother ran off to America. I met him for the first time in thirty years at my Aunty's funeral. He sounds American, (he said that he couldn't get too far whilst sounding English so he lost the accent) .He looks American. He's very loud. We went out together on the night before he buried his mother and he told me that if he had his time again he would never have left.

That's all I have to say really. No one knows what goes on within families, how much pressure is exerted, how hard it can be to live up to expectations and how easy it is to fall short.

[The Dark Avenger]

American isn’t a specific ethnicity, Mary. Rather, anybody of any “ethnicity” can be American. That you take offense at our gracious hosts’ encomium seems a bit rude to me.

[Mary]

Whatever. I've had enough and I know that you're always going to chip in whenever I say a word. So I won't. The floor is yours.

Just for the record, British people do have a specific ethnicity albeit not singular and it was her ethnicity that I was referring to.

I'm done.

[The Dark Avenger]

You have an ethnicity derived from various stocks.

Indigenous British people are descended from the varied ethnic stocks that settled on the British Isles from the time of the last ice age until the 11th century. Included in these peoples are pre-Celts, Celtic-speaking people, Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Norse and the Normans.[1] Some recent genetic analysis has suggested that the majority of the traceable ancestors of the modern British population arrived between 15,000 and 7,600 years ago and that the British broadly share a common ancestry with the Basque people,[2] although there is no consensus amongst geneticists.[3]

I wish I knew as much about some things as you seem to know about everything.