We’re leaning towards banning ourselves from even mentioning the anti-war movement, as there are plenty of more interesting and more important subjects to blog about, and we’ve said enough (maybe too much) about them already. But even if we do impose a self-denying ordinance on ourselves - some day - that’s no reason not to link to others who’ve produced things that are well worth reading.
One such is James Lileks (link in sidebar -->). The fact that many on the extreme left of the blogosphere hate him and his website counts in his favour as far as we’re concerned, and, though we don’t kid ourselves that he’s any kind of socialist, let alone a Marxist, on his good days he’s a very acute and entertaining observer of the “left”’s dementia and bullshit. In particular, today’s “bleat” is spot on (and the photograph of an especially disgusting placard displayed in San Francisco last Saturday has to be seen to be believed). Highlights of the text include:
“... The other day a variety of people gathered in various cities to say, in essence, put it back. The Movement to Reinstall Saddam commemorated the first anniversary of the Iraq campaign by expressing their outrage at the loss of an ally in the war against America. These people are the fringe of the left; yes. They are the Klan without the sheets. Worse: they don’t have the inbred moonshine-addled mah-pappy-hated-nigras-an-I-hate-’em-too dense-as-a-neutron-star stupidity of your average Kluxer. They didn’t come to this level of stupidity naturally. They had to work at it. I’m sure you’ll find ... people who have cool jobs in San Francisco, people who get grants, write code, run the coffee-frother at a funky bookstore, and have no problem marching alongside someone who spells Israel with a swastika instead of an S.”
“... So what were all these people against, exactly? A free press in Iraq. Freedom to own a satellite dish. Freedom to vote. A new Constitution that might actually be worth the paper on which it’s printed. Oil revenues going to the people instead of Saddam, or French oligopolies. Freedom to leave the country. Freedom to demonstrate against the people who made it possible for you to demonstrate.”
“... These people marched to protest the premature bestowal of freedom by exterior forces. Better the Iraqi people live under the boot for 20 years, and rise up and get slaughtered and rise up again and slaughter those who killed their kin, than have Bush push the FF button and get it over with now. Better they suffer for the right reasons than live better for the wrong ones.”
“... These people want ‘freedom’, but only for themselves. Freedom to preen. Freedom to flatter themselves that they are somehow committing an act of bravery by Speaking Truth to Power. But they’re speaking Nonsense to Indifference. Pictures of Bush as Hitler sieg-heiling away would get them killed if this was truly the country they insist it is. Nothing will happen to them. They know it. They would be killed for doing this in Saddam’s Iraq, of course; they know that too. Doesn’t matter. Bush is worse than Saddam, in the macro sense. Saddam’s sins are an inconvenient obstacle; hard to defend the fellow, but you have to concentrate on the real villains here, the people who truly threaten progressive transnational peace and solidarity and justice and human rights and – What? Did we march on the first anniversary of Saddam gassing the Kurds? I don’t understand the question.”
Stop the War? or just Stop the World, We Want to Get Off?
One such is James Lileks (link in sidebar -->). The fact that many on the extreme left of the blogosphere hate him and his website counts in his favour as far as we’re concerned, and, though we don’t kid ourselves that he’s any kind of socialist, let alone a Marxist, on his good days he’s a very acute and entertaining observer of the “left”’s dementia and bullshit. In particular, today’s “bleat” is spot on (and the photograph of an especially disgusting placard displayed in San Francisco last Saturday has to be seen to be believed). Highlights of the text include:
“... The other day a variety of people gathered in various cities to say, in essence, put it back. The Movement to Reinstall Saddam commemorated the first anniversary of the Iraq campaign by expressing their outrage at the loss of an ally in the war against America. These people are the fringe of the left; yes. They are the Klan without the sheets. Worse: they don’t have the inbred moonshine-addled mah-pappy-hated-nigras-an-I-hate-’em-too dense-as-a-neutron-star stupidity of your average Kluxer. They didn’t come to this level of stupidity naturally. They had to work at it. I’m sure you’ll find ... people who have cool jobs in San Francisco, people who get grants, write code, run the coffee-frother at a funky bookstore, and have no problem marching alongside someone who spells Israel with a swastika instead of an S.”
“... So what were all these people against, exactly? A free press in Iraq. Freedom to own a satellite dish. Freedom to vote. A new Constitution that might actually be worth the paper on which it’s printed. Oil revenues going to the people instead of Saddam, or French oligopolies. Freedom to leave the country. Freedom to demonstrate against the people who made it possible for you to demonstrate.”
“... These people marched to protest the premature bestowal of freedom by exterior forces. Better the Iraqi people live under the boot for 20 years, and rise up and get slaughtered and rise up again and slaughter those who killed their kin, than have Bush push the FF button and get it over with now. Better they suffer for the right reasons than live better for the wrong ones.”
“... These people want ‘freedom’, but only for themselves. Freedom to preen. Freedom to flatter themselves that they are somehow committing an act of bravery by Speaking Truth to Power. But they’re speaking Nonsense to Indifference. Pictures of Bush as Hitler sieg-heiling away would get them killed if this was truly the country they insist it is. Nothing will happen to them. They know it. They would be killed for doing this in Saddam’s Iraq, of course; they know that too. Doesn’t matter. Bush is worse than Saddam, in the macro sense. Saddam’s sins are an inconvenient obstacle; hard to defend the fellow, but you have to concentrate on the real villains here, the people who truly threaten progressive transnational peace and solidarity and justice and human rights and – What? Did we march on the first anniversary of Saddam gassing the Kurds? I don’t understand the question.”
Stop the War? or just Stop the World, We Want to Get Off?
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