Check out these photos of the protests this weekend. Notice the "hundreds of thousands" -- uh, that is, thousands -- well, hundreds, anyway, of protestors. Notice also the carefully nuanced and subtle nonverbal statements (i.e., vandalism). And then read this letter from "veterans of movements against the war," which contains this exhortation:
...if everytime they bombed a community of hospital elsewhere: our schools were closed--by students and workers, our businesses were shutdown, the city and rual streets made into autonomous zones--of play and struggle, the malls, banks, and oil HQs that benefit from the war were trashed, and recruitment centers torched, and the police made to use tactics of war on our own citizens--They may rethink their imperialist war. (All sic.)They link to this website.
(Via the Portable Matthew.)
Posted by Andrea Harris at January 21, 2003 08:32 AMIs this a great country or what? Don't want to fight to stay free? Then go right ahead and protest. It's a free country- but only because someone else fought for it. Geesh.
We have a small pile of peaceniks that show up every Friday at the intersection outside my office. Give peace a chance? I want a t-shirt that says, "Give war a try".
Jeez, and Oliver Willis was, last time I looked, still beating the hundreds of thousands drum.
Posted by: David Perron at January 21, 2003 at 10:22 AMNothing like some good old-fashioned violence and destruction to advance the cause of "peace." Or something.
ANSWER and its ilk don't want peace. They want the other side to win. I'll be charitable and say most of the opposition to the war isn't based on such evil, but the mass of useful idiots being duped by the would-be "vanguard of the revolution" only have their own near-criminal stupidity to blame. The soft left is only too happy to engage in willful blindness with respect the totalitarian dementia being spewed by the all-encompassing hatefest of the Permanent Protest People.
Posted by: David Jaroslav at January 21, 2003 at 11:46 AMActually it was hundreds of thousands. 200,000 in fact. I should know, I was there.
Smell that? That's revolution, baby!
Go for it guys. We'll shoot you, too, and raise the moral IQ of two nations at once.
Please, please, we're begging, do something really overt so we can do what we've always wanted to do to self-proclaimed commies.
Posted by: Eric Pobirs at January 22, 2003 at 12:17 AMIt's really sad to see such hostility in those who claim to hold "American values" and are so quick to threaten people for being politically opposed to them.
Property destruction is a way of attacking the tools of war (Oil companies, INS, Military recruiters, Capitalists) where peaceful protests won't suffice.
ANSWER is indeed a commie organization, but don't worry too much about them. Commies are more interested in talking and handing out newspapers than actually taking action.
Try fighting for what YOU believe in, rather than what your government believes in. Feel free to email me to talk more about this: Guido@coloradicals.org
Posted by: Guido at January 22, 2003 at 11:28 AMGuido,
Property destruction is not protected speech, but crime. You want to go to prison for your asinine beliefs, be my guest. As for communists being more interested in talking than taking action, the bloodbath that was the 20th century speaks for itself.
Posted by: David Jaroslav at January 22, 2003 at 12:29 PMYes, the protestors were so angry at the US war machine that they...they...smashed windows at the INS office.
This is like unto the riots in LA after the Rodney King incident, where thousands of blacks were so upset about racial injustice that they were driven to steal television sets.
Sorry...did I say blacks? I meant American African-Americans.
Posted by: David Perron at January 22, 2003 at 08:27 PMThis is one of the worst mediums for discussion. I really shouldn't keep responding, especially since everything I say is falling on deaf ears, but, oh well.
I don't think I ever said the property destruction was "protected" or legal. Why does that matter? Whats revolutionary about following the rules of the system that you oppose?
Yes, the commie leaders of the USSR were insane murderers, but I wasn't talking about them. I was talking about the "modern" socialist movement.
David Perron I don't even know what to say to that. A hint of racism, no? Blah.
It's very sad to me to see so many people following your IDIOT president into the middle east to die for absolutely nothing. You ARE being lied to, and it should piss everyone off so much that you HAVE to express it. Until they stop lying, until they stop sending us to die, they will not be safe from us.
Posted by: Guido at January 23, 2003 at 12:38 PMThe protesters are like petulant children who hate their parents for the security and wealth they've been provided so they delude themselves in thinking about imagined hardships and injustices they've endured. They seem to ignore the fact that they're free to protest with they're asinine slogans and vandalism with no retribution in defense of a murderous dictator. Too bad they all don't have the opportunity to go to Iraq or one of the socialiast paradises like NK, China or Cuba where they could protest against injustice and see how it goes over there. I guess basing your revolution on calling the president an idiot pretty much sums up the intellect of your leaders and followers. Hopefully your parents don't cut off your allowance.
Posted by: Jack Tanner at January 23, 2003 at 02:50 PMGee, Guido, how does it feel to be a living, breathing cliché?
Posted by: Andrea Harris at January 23, 2003 at 11:16 PMI think this whole thread is one big cliche.
Aaaand I'm spent. Email me for some healthy discussion, if not, see you in the streets.
Posted by: Guido at January 24, 2003 at 02:21 AM