|
2003-05-29 Fifth Column
|
|
Claiming a partial victory
|
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 2003-05-29 07:17 am||
||
Front Page|| [11136 views since 2007-05-07]
Top
|
|
Posted by Yank 2003-05-29 17:10:29||
2003-05-29 17:10:29||
Front Page
Top
|
|
Posted by Dripping Sarcasm 2003-05-29 10:02:32||
2003-05-29 10:02:32||
Front Page
Top
|
|
Posted by mojo 2003-05-29 10:07:08||
2003-05-29 10:07:08||
Front Page
Top
|
|
Posted by Lucky 2003-05-29 11:04:47||
2003-05-29 11:04:47||
Front Page
Top
|
|
Posted by Scott 2003-05-29 12:46:43||
2003-05-29 12:46:43||
Front Page
Top
|
|
Posted by Jonesy 2003-05-29 13:11:25||
2003-05-29 13:11:25||
Front Page
Top
|
|
Posted by closet neo-con 2003-05-29 13:48:05||
2003-05-29 13:48:05||
Front Page
Top
|
|
Posted by Alaska Paul 2003-05-29 14:18:14||
2003-05-29 14:18:14||
Front Page
Top
|
|
Posted by Dan 2003-05-29 14:59:02||
2003-05-29 14:59:02||
Front Page
Top
|
|
Posted by Katz 2003-05-29 15:32:50||
2003-05-29 15:32:50||
Front Page
Top
|
|
21:10 newc
20:17 SteveS
18:44 magpie
18:33 Frank G
18:33 badanov
18:26 Hellfish
18:23 Hellfish
17:40 swksvolFF
17:34 Ebbuger Whuque4103
17:30 Ebbuger Whuque4103
17:02 Melancholic
16:27 Gravilet Snanter4154
16:20 Chaise Speaking for Boskone7897
16:02 Skidmark
16:01 Skidmark
15:46 Skidmark
15:41 Skidmark
15:37 swksvolFF
15:36 Skidmark
15:34 Skidmark
15:27 Skidmark
14:48 NoMoreBS
14:31 NoMoreBS
14:16 NoMoreBS
|
