War Protestors, My Dears, How Are You? Uh, Huh. Uh, Huh. Uh, Huh. Listen, Shut Up For a Second
Do you want to know why the war protest movement failed so miserably? Let me tell you why. It failed because it consistently succeeded in making a complete and total ass of itself.
Hey, I'm all for freedom of speech, and the right to protest, and the right of the American people to peacefully assemble. And, really, had the anti-war people been able to articulate a better position beyond "give peace a chance" without all the theatrical nonsense, they may have been able to attain some semblance of credibility.
First and foremost, the peace movement was hobbled due to a simple lack of focus, and, more specifically, alternatives. Fine, they wanted peace, but they could never articulate a viable alternative. They would acquiesce that, yes, Saddam Hussein is (was) a murderous oppressive dictator, but their response was, more or less, to allow him to stay in power just to preserve peace. That's like acknowledging a cancerous lesion but refusing to see a doctor for fear of what you might find out. The only other "option" was to allow inspections to continue (again, like 12 years wasn't enough), but even Hans Blix admits that coalition forces will probably get better results finding the goods.
Second, the very fact that war protestors were willing to align themselves with such unsavory elements as International A.N.S.W.E.R., a group whose core socialistic foundation is built around undermining all things Democratic and capitalistic, exposed them as the unwary sheep they were. Perhaps if they had been able to organize on their own, and perhaps if A.N.S.W.E.R.'s role hadn't been discovered, the peace movement would have gained a little more footing. As it was, they were willing to lie down with dogs, and stand up with fleas.
Finally, it was the theater that ultimately doomed the peace movement. I mean, come on. . .human shields?! I mean, come on. . .The Lysistrata Project!? These were the types of moronic exercises that made average, rational, common sense people roll their eyes and wonder if peace activist ranks were filled with rejects from the collective DNA pool. If your cherished peace movement routinely becomes the butt of jokes on every late night talk show from Leno to The Daily Show With John Stewart, chances are you're doing something wrong.
Other, unintended, acts of protest "theater" included the desecration of 9/11 memorials and random acts of violence that totally flew in the face of their "peaceful" agendas. It's hard to gain credibility when a peace movement turns into a looting frenzy. Their hypocrisy knew no bounds (said in best Val Kilmer Tombstone voice).
We stand now on uncertain footing, with the promise of a drastically different world theater. The status quo of Middle Eastern politics is being thrown out the door and a new chapter is about to be written. It's going to occur fast, and at the barrel of a gun, and it's going to be scary, and it's going to be "interesting."
And it's about time.
UPDATE: Okay, at least SOME human shields figured things out on their own. (found via Instapundit)
A group of American anti-war demonstrators who came to Iraq with Japanese human shield volunteers made it across the border today with 14 hours of uncensored video, all shot without Iraqi government minders present. Kenneth Joseph, a young American pastor with the Assyrian Church of the East, told UPI the trip "had shocked me back to reality." Some of the Iraqis he interviewed on camera "told me they would commit suicide if American bombing didn't start. They were willing to see their homes demolished to gain their freedom from Saddam's bloody tyranny. They convinced me that Saddam was a monster the likes of which the world had not seen since Stalin and Hitler. He and his sons are sick sadists. Their tales of slow torture and killing made me ill, such as people put in a huge shredder for plastic products, feet first so they could hear their screams as bodies got chewed up from foot to head."
Buried in War And Seven Feet Of Snow
I'm still in Colorado, because Colorado up and decided to experience its worst snowfall since the solar system was created (according to meteorologists). I'm not kidding when I say I have never seen so much freaking snow. Up here in the mountains, seven feet of the fluffy crystallized water fell in two days. It just kept falling, and falling, and falling.
Melissa and I went skiing in about three feet of fresh powder, an exercise in leg exhaustion not soon to be equalled. People everywhere were just laying down in the snow, too pooped to even try standing up, and snowboarders were poking hopelessly into the snow after their boards came off and probably won't be found again until June sometime.
Denver International Airport was shut down yesterday and the day before, so my flight was cancelled. Not that it would matter anyway, because the two mountain passes back down to Denver are both closed today and are being shelled to trigger avalanches. I would LOVE to watch them trigger avalanches, but it is not to be, because I'm too far away and lack transportation anyway. I finally was able to book a flight for Satuday at 7:25 (the last flight out with two vacant seats for the entire weekend). So, Melissa and I are holed up in my brother's apartment while he and his wife are at work. We pass the time mostly by watching TV, with sex thrown into the mix to vary things up a bit. However, the condom supply is dwindling, so drastic measures may have to be taken to get into town and remedy that situation.
Oh, and there's a war on. Even though it was an anticlimatic segue into the conflict, what with the 48 hour ultimatum and such. The news organizations are, of course, slathering over every detail they can glean, which is par for the course for mass media outlets determined to outdo the other. I found it curious to watch the live feed from Baghdad following the first bombing. Cars and buses just casually going about their day, with the street light flicking from red to green in a predictable, timely fashion. Not the scene of chaos many might expect during war. Even the blog of Salam Pax seems to indicate that this is a war meant to terrorize and decapitate Iraqi leadership more than it is an attempt to terrorize the Iraqi people. I would expound further on this, but I'm on a computer that is not mine, and I'll be able to explore it further once I'm back home.
As an interesting aside, there's almost a dead tie between those people visiting this site looking for "exposed+thongs" and those looking for "salam pax." Strangely, there was one hit from someone looking for "salam+pax+thong+picture." Ooh, Salam, you do look ravishing in that little thong number there. Ooh la la.
