This is the first group blog of the Revolutionary Alliance. Written independently and posted simultaneously, they represent our thoughts on a matter of current interest. Other participants are:
“Breaker, one-nine, you got the Guitar-Picker on the old CB Ra-di-dio. I’se just cruisin’ down the street here lis’nin’ to my old 8-track when I seen this full-blown commotion up ahead. They’s more people up there than there are fleas on a hound-dog’s butt. Anybody got a ideer what that’s all about?”
Whoa, sorry. I had a ’70’s flashback there. Although I (truthfully!) never did drugs of any sort, anti-war protests can take me back 30-35 years in a heartbeat.
As most of you know by now, the misguided organization “United for Peace & Justice” has organized a three-day mass protest in Washington, DC. According to their web site:
United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ) is calling for a mass civil resistance action at the White House on Monday, September 26, 2005. The tone, theme and content of the action will create a wide gate through which many people who are opposed to this war can come and take that next step of open demonstration and civil resistance1. It will be a solemn, disciplined action that remembers and mourns the precious lives lost on both sides of this war while forcefully resisting the Bush White House that is principally responsible for the carnage and suffering2. This is President Bush’s war and the actions of that day will insist that Bush end the war and bring our troops home now. Lobbying activities on Capitol Hill will point out that the war is also the result of decisions made by members of Congress and insist that Congress do its part to bring all the troops home, but the mass action at the White House will focus on the President and his Administration that “fixed” the intelligence and deceived Congress itself in order to take the country to war3.
A couple of notes here:
- What are they resisting? The consequences of the actions they took? Arrest for blocking a public thoroughfare?
- Bush is responsible for the carnage and suffering? What twisted logic! I blame Al Qaeda for being so stupid as to think that America was going to be the paper tiger under Bush that it was under Clinton. I blame the illegal combatants flooding Iraq to serve as human targets for our troops there. I blame the Sunnis in Iraq who cannot bear the thought that they will be treated equally under the new constitution rather than being the masters they were under Saddam Hussein (they should be grateful they’re not forced into subservient positions like the Shi’ites were!)
- Bush didn’t “fix” anything. He might have made a decision based on what has turned out to be unreliable information, but he didn’t lie, he didn’t fix, and he didn’t start a war “unilaterally”. We have about 30 coalition partners in Iraq, and providing support for us in many other ways (for more on prominent Democrats who believed that Hussein had WMDs while Clinton was in office, see Snopes.com).
Like petulant children who do not get their way, the protesters block decent, law-abiding citizens going about their daily business — or even doing the tourist thing at our nation’s capitol — while throwing their little temper tantrums.
Why not write their congressmen and women? I think I’ve got the answer to that: airtime. You don’t get on TV or the front page of major newspapers by writing a letter to your representative. Check this photo of Sheehan. She’s smiling! Fox News reports:
Sheehan, carrying a photo of her son in his Army uniform, was among hundreds of protesters who marched around the White House and then down the two-block pedestrian walkway on Pennsylvania Avenue. When they reached the front of the White House, dozens sat down — knowing they would be arrested — and began singing and chanting “Stop the war now!”
Police warned them three times that they were breaking the law by failing to move along, then began making arrests. One man climbed over the White House fence and was quickly subdued by Secret Service agents.
(Emphasis added.) Two questions emerge immediately: How stage-managed is that? and What’s newsworthy about it? What’s news about a few protesters? While many in America have indeed become disillusioned with the war — or rather, Bush’s handling of it (or is it his lack of “face time” telling us about it?) — they are not yet so disillusioned that they will join protests.
AP reports:
Sheehan, 48, was the first taken into custody. She smiled as she was carried to the curb, then stood up and walked to a police vehicle while protesters chanted, “The whole world is watching.”
“The whole world is watching”? Watching what??? This isn’t Bull Connor unleashing the dogs against protesters in segregated Birmingham, Alabama, this is a group of middle-aged hippies trying to regain the glory years and accomplish the same thing for the terrorists that they accomplished for the Viet Cong in the ’70’s! There’s one difference, though. In the ’70’s, the battlefield was Viet Nam. If we pull out of Iraq, the battlefield will be the United States of America — the suburbs, malls, places of worship, and tourist attractions.
Mitzy Kenny of Ridgeley, WV lost her husband in Iraq in 2004. When asked about the demonstrations, she reponded:
“I would like to say to Cindy Sheehan and her supporters: Don’t be a group of unthinking lemmings. [These demonstrations] can affect the war in a really negative way. It gives the enemy hope.”
Somebody tell Cindy she needs to check her messages. The 1970’s called. They’re tired of the 21st century, and want to go back where they belong.
More at StoptheACLU.com.
TD
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