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Fifth Column
Claiming a partial victory
2003-05-29
They can't go away. They've got nothing else to do in their lives...
Antiwar activists asked Americans to give peace a chance. Seventy percent of Americans said they would not.
Nobody wants to play sixties with us! What's wrong with you people?! Don't you know we know so much more then you?!
Initially buoyed by huge demonstrations held before the Iraq war began, peace activists were disappointed that they ultimately couldn't sway majority public opinion.Today, the movement is going through a period of reflection.
Which is about all they're good at. Hey, it beats working.
"We have to contemplate where we go from here," said Bill Fletcher, cochairman of the United for Peace and Justice campaign, in Washington. "We know it's going to be a challenge."
I've got to contemplate...contemplate...contemplate...
Hey! Lookidat! He fell right into his own belly button! Howdy do dat?
Activists plan a major demonstration in Philadelphia against somthing or other President Bush's policies on July 4, when Bush comes here to open the National Constitution Center. That and other possible activities will be mapped out at a first-ever convention of peace groups, June 7 and 8 in Chicago.
What's a presidential visit without "activists". What's that make everybody else, "inactivists"?
Grab one of his feet! Let's help him get out of there.
Antiwar activists say that even though they could not stop the war, or dissuade a majority of Americans from supporting it, they did not fail. They got their message out and showed they could fill the streets with people opposed to Bush's policies, activists say.
...and a lot of good it did.
I think he's holding on to something in there. Pull a little harder...
"The victory of the marches was to start a debate and get it into the mass media," said Karen Dolan, coordinator of the Cities for Peace project, also in Washington.
Have more die-ins and puke-ins next time. The media loves that.
Cheeze! She jumped right in there with him. Who'da thought a belly-button would have room in it for two full-sized people?
There is no doubt, however, that the war has embittered many of those who worked hard to decry and derail it. "I feel frustration and absolute hopelessness," said Frank Corcoran, a member of Veterans for Peace in Lansdowne. "We mobilized against the war in a way the world has never seen, and we had no effect. My daily routine is to figure out how to live with being so overwhelmed with hopelessness."
Frank. Buddy. Take a pill. Maybe getting a friggin' real job might help. Most of us "inactivists" do it. That's why we don't have time to protest shit.
If he didn't spend so much time hiding in a belly-button, maybe he could find a job, get gainful employment. Now what's he got? Lint!
Several antiwar activists say they have been upset with what they see as the United States' swaggering post-war posturing. "The triumphalism of the administration is unseemly, ugly and arrogant," Fletcher said. "Frankly, it scares the hell out of me."
... he said, poking his head out of the crowded navel. "I'm so frightened! I feel so... so... inadequate!"
I hope it scares the hell out of the Islamist maggots who want to put airplanes into our buildings, too. I really don't care what you think, Bill. If it was up to you, we'd roll over and die.
People say they fret, too, over a chilly zeitgeist that equates dissent with sedition and makes being antiwar akin to being anti-American."People don't realize that we who oppose war are not the enemy," said Ralph Young, a Temple University history professor. "War itself is the enemy."
They're not the enemy. They just support the enemy.
It's a good thing that's an inny. It's pretty crowded in there...
Having absorbed censure for opposing the war, activists also have been compelled to admit that many of their predicted catastrophes regarding the invasion of Iraq never came to pass. Antiwar people and left-leaning thinkers have been enduring the heat of a kind of Chicken Little-frying - ceaseless criticism for "baseless" doom-saying.
They haven't admitted shit. All they do is twist their positions around to make it look like they were right.
"Wolf! Wolf! Quick, hide in here with us!"
Last month, the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal excoriated liberals for "anticipated disasters that haven't come true." Among them: house-to-house street fighting in Baghdad; a postwar refugee crisis; North Korea taking advantage of the war to attack us; and numerous Iraqi oil fields set ablaze. For months, conservative radio and television personalities have hammered antiwar celebrities such as Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins (he of the "What would Jesus bomb?" T-shirt). Diatribes against the couple were so strong and sustained that the Baseball Hall of Fame in April canceled a planned 15th-anniversary celebration of their movie Bull Durham.
"What would Jesus bomb?" I never saw that. That's pretty good. Maybe Tim can sell them in a little booth at the mall when he can't find work. And when did "Bull Durham" become the Greatest Movie of All Time? I missed that.
I liked The Natural better, even if it did have Robert Redford in it...
Despite the opposition, the antiwar movement is still intact, Dolan said.
"We all live in a yellow submarine!"
"The coalitions are staying together, the questions we raise still remain," she said. "It may not be visible. We're not on the streets. But we're still on campuses, on the Internet, in town halls and libraries, and all the activist conferences are continuing."
"Still in this damned belly button. Move over, dammit! You're taking up all the room. No, I meant over there. We can't all be on the left side of the belly button..."
Oh, they just can't wait for another shot. "We coulda been somebody... we coulda been contenders." Well there's always our friend Kimmie. Start thinking up catchy slogans. I think the oil ones are out though.
Chief among the worries of members of the peace movement is what Fletcher calls "regime change-itis" - a series of preemptive U.S. attacks against other sovereign nations. "We see a number of flashpoints ahead," he said.
Ooooooh. Flashpoints. Thanks for the in-depth analysis of the world situation, Bill.
Whether the antiwar movement can have any effect on future foreign policy is hard to say. These days, peace advocates are still trying to come to terms with what happens when a heartfelt message is largely ignored.
Maybe they can stomp up and down and hold their breath...
"We're regrouping," said Bob Smith, coordinator of the Brandywine Peace Community in Swarthmore. "We're in a bit of a lull. We did not stop the war. That was not a defeat for us, but for the country. We were successful because we brought out thousands who resisted the war."
Keep thinking that, Bob. Enjoy yourself in your own little Fantasyland if that's what gets you through the day.
Posted by:tu3031

#13  Get out of that fucking navel and get into the real world! Unless we really muff it, Iraq will be a better land in a few years!
Posted by: Katz   2003-05-29 15:32:50  

#12  these people just don't get - even you send a cruise missle(or homicide bomber) up thier asses they would still be agaisnt going after those responsible. and in this war on terror it is a war agaisnt the terror organizations and the states that support them. hell the state dept has been listing the same goddam countries for 20 years!
and the say we see a number of flashpoints -
i have to agree with them on this - i also see a number of flashpoints - just count the number of countries on the state dept list!
Posted by: Dan   2003-05-29 14:59:02  

#11  Several antiwar activists say they have been upset with what they see as the United States' swaggering post-war posturing. "The triumphalism of the administration is unseemly, ugly and arrogant," Fletcher said. "Frankly, it scares the hell out of me."

We won, Saddam (and you)lost. Get over it buddy.

Scott's not far from the truth. There's a time for everything under the sun: The imagery given by the Preacher in Ecclesiastes has God putting down in a little appointment book all the things he's got to get done. Cleaning up the F*cking mess we've made is one such entry.
Posted by: Ptah   2003-05-29 14:59:01  

#10  Follow the money of the leaders and organizers, the ones who get the others to block traffic, break windows, deficate on the sidewalks and generally get others to do mayhem while they stay clear. Track, identify, arrest, harrass. Two can play the game as one.
Posted by: Alaska Paul   2003-05-29 14:18:14  

#9  With the exception of the Quakers (whom I respect but disagree with), this has nothing to do with peace. Virtually all of these people have cheered on every marxist revolutionary movement the world has seen, no matter how bloodthirsty. They are not opposed to war at all -- only to wars waged by "capitalists." Ironies aboud. What about the anarchists now decrying anarchy in Iraq? I am reminded of Ronald Radosh, who saw the light while visting a mental hospital in Cuba after one of his then-fellow marxists informed him that he had to understand that "there is a huge difference between capitalist lobatamies and socialist lobatamies."
Posted by: closet neo-con   2003-05-29 13:48:05  

#8  "The coalitions are staying together, the questions we raise still remain," she said.

The "questions they raise," nobody with a brain or an ounce of moral clarity cares about. The left has become so completely morally bankrupt that all that's left of it is a bunch of empty slogans.

"War is the enemy." You wouldn't find too many holocaust or Saddam prison survivors who would agree with that position.

I think these cranks should rename themselves
"Slogan hurlers for peace" or
"Meaningless cliches united for total inaction" or
"Narcissim united to ignore the suffering of others" or
"Cowards united to avoid inconvenience."

Atleast then they would be honest about what the really stand for.


Posted by: Jonesy   2003-05-29 13:11:25  

#7  Jesus. O.K. It always amazes me to hear what Jesus would or wouldn't do. If you take Revelation to be true prophecy, then one of these days Jesus is gonna put down that little lamb that He's always carrying, pick up a sword and kill 2/3 of the population of the world. Or at least take credit for it. And that will be merciful, it was 99%+ in the Noah thing.
Posted by: Scott   2003-05-29 12:46:43  

#6  Oh, now I know why I should have paid attention to these cranks. Not because their message was coherent and relevant, but because it was "heartfelt." Yeah, that's it.
Posted by: DJ Joey   2003-05-29 12:24:38  

#5  They're regrouping! For what now. No war, only peace. We're for peace, Peace brother. Strip for peace. HO HO HO, Ho Chi Mhin. War is always wrong, ALWAYS. Sheep for peace. Slaughter, I see no slaughter, I see only peace, Pierce your tounge for peace. Drag queens for peace. Professors for peace. Oil for peace, land for peace. Peace and security for me, UN protection for them.
Posted by: Lucky   2003-05-29 11:04:47  

#4  Fight for Peace! Fuck for Virginity! Who would Satan French-Kiss?
Posted by: mojo   2003-05-29 10:07:08  

#3  And if Jesus went ballistic on the moneychangers in the temple, just imagine what he would do if he found a mosque there....
Posted by: Dripping Sarcasm   2003-05-29 10:02:32  

#2  "What would Jesus bomb?"

After he got through with the moneychangers in the Temple?

Mecca. (since you asked)
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut   2003-05-29 09:31:47  

#1  The basic problem these folks have is that the US fought a war that killed less people in one month than the Saddam regime normally did and stopped his ongoing killing. Same thing happened in Afghanistan. These people are so oppossed to the US in anything it does they have taken an inhuman position and do not even see it.

If they had any integrity they would take out a copy of Amnesty Internationals report and start pointing at whom the US should free next on humanitarian grounds (Syria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Burma, Cuba)?
Posted by: Yank   2003-05-29 17:10:29  

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