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| Fifth Column |
| Islam On-Line covers the anarchokiddies... |
| 2002-10-01 |
| After two days of anti-globalization protests that saw hundreds arrested, a regime change in Washington instead of Baghdad was only one of the slogans digging at U.S. foreign policy made at an anti-war rally, September 29, in Washington. "Some people are talking about a regime change in Baghdad," said Damu Smith, head of Black Voices for Peace, at the start of the rally in Dupont Circle. "I'm beginning to think we need a regime change right here in Washington, DC!" It's the execution of dissidents that bothers him... Protestors and police differed over the number of demonstrators present for the rally and march up Massachusetts Ave, past several embassies, to the home of Vice President Dick Cheney. D.C. police chief Charles Ramsey put the number flatly at 1,500, but organizers said as many as 5,000 people came out to protest the impending attack on Iraq and the policies of U.S. President George W. Bush. Takes a lot of people to lug those puppets around. Another bunch is saying it was 10,000. In Peacetalk, that means "a whole lot"... "Al-Qaeda had a First Strike policy, too," one sign held up by demonstrators proclaimed. Others demanded more simply, "No blood for oil," "Don't bomb Iraq," and "End the sanctions." Originality's just running rampant among these guys. How about "U.S. troops out of Vietnam!"... Smith, whose group was established after September 11 last year and has since been active in collaborative demonstrations for peace and civil liberties, encouraged listeners to unite across racial, cultural and gender lines, saying, "We cannot be divided." Sure we can. Y'see, all us, who believe in this country and don't hate the things she stands for, we're over on this side. You, and your buds, and the people who give you money so you can be a professional activist, you guys stand on that side. See where the division is? The rally's speakers included singing artist Michelle Shocked, an Iraqi representative from the group "Seeds for Peace," Institute for Policy Studies fellow Phyllis Bennis, and many others, including musical performances. I liked the bongos best... Speaker Mike Zmolek, with the National Network to End the War Against Iraq, warned that military action against Iraq could be a repeat of the Gulf War in terms of the impact on Iraqi society and infrastructure. "Let us call for inspections to proceed," he said, "because it's the only way forward right now." No it's not. We can go in, beat them up, hang Sammy, and let them start screwing things up in a different manner entirely... And Bennis said that the "moment of choice" had come to decide between democracy and empire. "We need the U.N. to be calling the shots, not Washington," she said. Ummm... Why? So far Washington's been doing a better job of it than the U.N. And they've been right more often than the U.N. has. The march led demonstrators, carrying everything from signs to giant puppets and drums, to a barrier blocking their path to the gate guarding the vice president's house. At the front of the barrier, where police formed a second barrier with their motorcycles, the chanting became zealous. "This is what democracy looks like!" the demonstrators shouted about their expression of freedom of speech. "That is what hypocrisy looks like!" they said of what Cheney symbolized. Not really. That's what a bunch of kiddies with nothing better to do looks like. Cheney's what a successful person who knows something looks like. As with the last several anti-war and anti-globalization protests in Washington, the protest brought all kinds of people together under the collective anti-Bush administration cause. Rachel Solomon, a Jewish student who leads a Near East Club at her Rockville, Maryland, high school, said that "fighting Bush" was the only way to work against the rising violence in the Middle East. "You can't really get rid of the problems in the Middle East until you get rid of Bush," she told IslamOnline. She knows that, because she's in the 10th grade, where you start knowing everything. She'll retain her knowledge of everything until she's in her twenties, probably, at which point she'll become an adult. It will seem like a long time to her, because children really hate it when adults ignore them. Everything she knows for certain will become uncertain, murky. Black and white will become shades of gray. Either she'll get married and/or have a family and forget about all this, or she'll become depressed by the knowledge of her own limitations and die by her own hand, an embittered, lonely woman with 17 cats... Another protestor, Anne-Claire Marshall, volunteered to help hold a sign in front of the Egyptian embassy with a message of support proclaiming, "Egypt rejects any military action against Iraq." That's what they said the other day. They didn't paint it on a sign, though. When it's all over, assuming we win, they'll have been on our side from the beginning. That's the way it usually works... "I think it's appalling that we're using our power across the globe," Marshall said. "We feel like our problems are more important than people's problems across the globe." That implies that people's problems across the globe aren't ours, have no effect on us, have nothing to do with us, in fact... University of Maryland student Ariel Vegosen was one of those arrested on Friday; after spending 26 hours in custody wearing plastic handcuffs, she came out again to protest the use of military force against Iraq. "I think it's really important that people use their voices to stand up against this war," she said, "because this is not what our country is supposed to be about." "The handcuffs were kinda kinky, though. I'm thinking of buying a pair..." |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #4 "We feel like our problems are more important than people's problems across the globe." satis dixit. A compelling condemnation of the Anti-War Left. Self-centered and justifying that self-centeredness as social conscience. America doesn't want to be the policeman, but we're the only ones that can. |
| Posted by: billhedrick 2002-10-02 09:39:21 |
| #3 "... embittered, lonely woman with 17 cats." I would amend that to read, "... embittered, lonely woman with 17 paranoid cats." |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2002-10-02 09:34:56 |
| #2 "... embittered, lonely woman with 17 cats." Ouch! Remind me not to find myself in yer crosshairs, Fred. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2002-10-02 08:53:17 |
| #1 "Regime change in Washington?" It's called an "election". It happens every four years in this country (two years, in the case of the House). It's part of that thing called "democracy" that these guys were yelling about, but don't really seem to understand. |
| Posted by: Patrick Phillips 2002-10-01 12:13:58 |