Anti-War, My Foot The phony peaceniks who protested in Washington. By Christopher Hitchens Updated Monday, Sept. 26, 2005, at 11:19 AM PT Are they really "anti-war"? Saturday's demonstration in Washington, in favor of immediate withdrawal of coalition forces from Iraq, was the product of an opportunistic alliance between two other very disparate "coalitions." Here is how the New York Times (after a front-page and an inside headline, one of them reading "Speaking Up Against War" and one of them reading "Antiwar Rallies Staged in Washington and Other Cities") described the two constituenciess of the event: The protests were largely sponsored by two groups, the Answer Coalition, which embodies a wide range of progressive political objectives, and United for Peace and Justice, which has a more narrow, antiwar focus. The name of the reporter on this story was Michael Janofsky. I suppose that it is possible that he has never before come across "International ANSWER," the group run by the "Worker's World" party and fronted by Ramsey Clark, which openly supports Kim Jong-il, Fidel Castro, Slobodan Milosevic, and the "resistance" in Afghanistan and Iraq, with Clark himself finding extra time to volunteer as attorney for the génocidaires in Rwanda. Quite a "wide range of progressive political objectives" indeed, if that's the sort of thing you like. However, a dip into any database could have furnished Janofsky with well-researched and well-written articles by David Corn and Marc Cooper—to mention only two radical left journalists—who have exposed "International ANSWER" as a front for (depending on the day of the week) fascism, Stalinism, and jihadism. The group self-lovingly calling itself "United for Peace and Justice" is by no means "narrow" in its "antiwar focus" but rather represents a very extended alliance between the Old and the New Left, some of it honorable and some of it redolent of the World Youth Congresses that used to bring credulous priests and fellow-traveling hacks together to discuss "peace" in East Berlin or Bucharest. Just to give you an example, from one who knows the sectarian makeup of the Left very well, I can tell you that the Worker's World Party—Ramsey Clark's core outfit—is the product of a split within the Trotskyist movement. These were the ones who felt that the Trotskyist majority, in 1956, was wrong to denounce the Russian invasion of Hungary. The WWP is the direct, lineal product of that depraved rump. If the "United for Peace and Justice" lot want to sink their differences with such riffraff and mount a joint demonstration, then they invite some principled political criticism on their own account. And those who just tag along … well, they just tag along. To be against war and militarism, in the tradition of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, is one thing. But to have a record of consistent support for war and militarism, from the Red Army in Eastern Europe to the Serbian ethnic cleansers and the Taliban, is quite another. It is really a disgrace that the liberal press refers to such enemies of liberalism as "antiwar" when in reality they are straight-out pro-war, but on the other side. Was there a single placard saying, "No to Jihad"? Of course not. Or a single placard saying, "Yes to Kurdish self-determination" or "We support Afghan women's struggle"? Don't make me laugh. And this in a week when Afghans went back to the polls, and when Iraqis were preparing to do so, under a hail of fire from those who blow up mosques and U.N. buildings, behead aid workers and journalists, proclaim fatwahs against the wrong kind of Muslim, and utter hysterical diatribes against Jews and Hindus. Some of the leading figures in this "movement," such as George Galloway and Michael Moore, are obnoxious enough to come right out and say that they support the Baathist-jihadist alliance. Others prefer to declare their sympathy in more surreptitious fashion. The easy way to tell what's going on is this: Just listen until they start to criticize such gangsters even a little, and then wait a few seconds before the speaker says that, bad as these people are, they were invented or created by the United States. That bad, huh? (You might think that such an accusation—these thugs were cloned by the American empire for God's sake—would lead to instant condemnation. But if you thought that, gentle reader, you would be wrong.) The two preferred metaphors are, depending on the speaker, that the Bin-Ladenists are the fish that swim in the water of Muslim discontent or the mosquitoes that rise from the swamp of Muslim discontent. (Quite often, the same images are used in the same harangue.) The "fish in the water" is an old trope, borrowed from Mao's hoary theory of guerrilla warfare and possessing a certain appeal to comrades who used to pore over the Little Red Book. The mosquitoes are somehow new and hover above the water rather than slip through it. No matter. The toxic nature of the "water" or "swamp" is always the same: American support for Israel. Thus, the existence of the Taliban regime cannot be swamplike, presumably because mosquitoes are born and not made. The huge swamp that was Saddam's Iraq has only become a swamp since 2003. The organized murder of Muslims by Muslims in Pakistan, Iraq, and Afghanistan is only a logical reaction to the summit of globalizers at Davos. The stoning and veiling of women must be a reaction to Zionism. While the attack on the World Trade Center—well, who needs reminding that chickens, or is it mosquitoes, come home to roost? There are only two serious attempts at swamp-draining currently under way. In Afghanistan and Iraq, agonizingly difficult efforts are in train to build roads, repair hospitals, hand out ballot papers, frame constitutions, encourage newspapers and satellite dishes, and generally evolve some healthy water in which civil-society fish may swim. But in each case, from within the swamp and across the borders, the most poisonous snakes and roaches are being recruited and paid to wreck the process and plunge people back into the ooze. How nice to have a "peace" movement that is either openly on the side of the vermin, or neutral as between them and the cleanup crew, and how delightful to have a press that refers to this partisanship, or this neutrality, as "progressive." http://www.slate.com/id/2126913/
I love it when people post long articles and do not bother to add their own thoughts, not even a line such as "I agree with the writer's arguments." Social justic coalitions are where the anti-war organizers hang out when we are between imperialist actions. Most progresive causes spawn new groups: civil rights techniques led to passive war resistance in the Vietnam era, and also the women's and gay right's movements. The socialists/Communists of the 20s-50s spawned the civil rights movement. Martin Luther King Jr. read Ghandi, who read Thoreau. direct lineage. Do I believe people come to another group's rally/parade/ demonstration to be a show of support? Of course. AIM was security for 3 November' Movement's rally at the Denver Capitol Sept. 24. They had their issue, the counter Columbus Day parade, mentioned over the mike with calls to support them. Some of us will be there, or helping behind the scenes. Do I believe some groups have very interesting ways oif tying Cause A to their cause? Of course. Nothing like a pro-Palestinian activist and a labor leader collaborating about how it is all ultimately a class war. And the Dems and Greens there to find converts, like the Friends and UUs. And Catholic Worker boothies not talking to the Worker's World boothies. BUT we all agree that there need to be some changes made. And we are willing to get out there and unite voices in a harmonic chior as well as a chant.
I still like the episode on South Park spoofing Elian Gonzalez. The angry mob was there and one protestor had the wrong sign. He asked, 'What are we protesting today?' Then he flipped the pages on his sign showing a bunch of other issues until he came on Elian Gonzales. Everyone likes to show up at a protest. .
Thoughtful and a real opinion - not a cut and paste post. I was a member of Vietnam vets against the war. There were many people going in my direction who hated anyone who had ever worn the uniform. However, we all could agree that US troops should leave Vietnam. The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
Funny. The fact is that Cuba has over a 7,3 % economic growth, and it is expected to rise to 9 % later this year. Yes, let's see about that, if "Castro making a shithole out of Cuba" is really true: Literacy Before & After The Revolution 1952 59% 2005 97% Life Expectancy Before & After The Revolution 1955: 59.4 years 2005: 76.6 years Infant Mortality* Before & After The Revolution 1958: 60 2005: 5.8 Infant Mortality Rate Haiti 93.35 Bolivia 57.52 Guyana 38.37 Peru 38.18 Dominican Republic 33.41 Ecuador 33.02 Nicaragua 32.52 Honduras 30.48 Paraguay 28.75 El Salvador 27.58 Mexico 24.52 Trinidad & Tobago 24.20 Suriname 23.48 Colombia 23.21 Panama 19.57 Argentina 17.20 Dominica 15.94 Grenada14.63 Jamaica 13.71 French Guinana 13.22 Barbados 11.71 Costa Rica 10.87 Puerto Rico 9.30 United States7.00 Cuba5.80 Youth Literacy Rate Haiti 67.0% Honduras 86.4% Brazil 95.8% Colombia 97.2% Mexico 97.4% Argentina 98.7% Cuba 99.8% Unemployment Rate Haiti 70% Guadeloupe 27.8% Argentina 25% French Guiana 21% Suriname 20% Paraguay 17.8% Colombia 17% Uruguay 15.2% Dominican Republic 15% Venezuela 14.1% Ecuador 14% Trinidad & Tobago 11.8% Chile 10.1% Puerto Rico9.5% Guyana 9.1% Peru 9% Bolivia 7.6% Canada 7.2% Brazil6.4% United States5.8% Cuba4.1% * Cuban statistics here are slightly lower on Cuba's unemployment, probably because they do statistics more often. Persons Per Doctor Haiti 15,100 Honduras 1,850 Colombia 1,100 Brazil 825 Dominican Republic 795 United States 470 Cuba 290 Today, Cuba has over 20,000 health workers (30 000 expected by the end of this year) in Venezuela, with over 5,000 more spread around the world in over 66 additional countries. Beyond the 100,000 foreign patients treated every year in Cuba, the government currently accepts more than 76,000 students from poor countries, offers them a high-level university education and covers all of the costs. Close to 6,000 new foreign students will be accepted next year. The Latin American Medical School of Havana is one of the most famous in the Americas and has trained tens of thousands of health professionals from more than 123 countries. When the US (that is to say, their CIA agents) planted explosives on a civilian airplane in 1976, did they know they were about to killl 24 young athletes on Cuba's gold-medal fencing team, and South American students about to begin free medical study in Cuba? The government currently accepts more than 76,000 students from poor countries, offers them a high-level university education and covers all of the costs. Close to 6,000 new foreign students will be accepted next year. The Latin American Medical School of Havana is one of the most famous in the Americas and has trained tens of thousands of health professionals from more than 123 countries. In the small Central American nation of Belize, the Cuban medical brigade comprised of 103 people allowed more than 1,257,000 patients, the majority of whom had never received a doctor's visit, to receive care during the past five years. In 2004 nearly 400,000 patients in that country were treated by the Cubans. Currently nearly 160 students from Belize are being trained in Cuban universities. The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) recognized Cuban excellence in science by awarding it a gold medal for the invention of a vaccine against the haemophilus influenza bacterium, type B, the first in the world created from synthetic antigens. Every year this bacterium leads to half a million deaths worldwide among children under five. This is the sixth time WIPO has recognized Cuba, an exceptional accomplishment for a Third World nation. Sources include UNESCO, UNDP, UNSD, EPICA, CIA World Fact Book, UNICEF & the Cuban Ministry of Public Health. PS: Did you know Cuba was an apartheid state before the Cuban revolution? Blacks and White had to go to different beaches, toilets, lived in different areas, and White people were favored upon Black people? After the revolution, Black people and White people became equal. Racist laws were removed. Is removing racist laws making a shithole out of Cuba?
Can people stop turning every thread into a cuba bashing contest? Why do yo really believe cuba;s bad? Becuase the media's fed it to you no doubt. It's far better than most other third world countries, especially in light of the economic embargo placed upon it.
Keep in mind Cuba stole itself back from the Mob, and America has never forgiven it for this. JFK was involved with organized crime (they iced him when he turned his back on em) - and his embargo etc. was for them. No government will ever admit it was wrong. The embargo continues.
I went to cuba 2 years ago, i dont know about those stats, what i can assure you that people in cuba starve to death. I saw it, i went to the children hospital in Havana and its a sad reality.
OMFG!!! I can't believe we're having this argument............ GO to Miami and ask the hordes of Cuban exiles and dissidents what they think of Castro
If Cuba isn't so bad and neither is Castro, then why the hell are all these Cubans trying to cross a fucking ocean on inflatable tubes and "boats" made of '57 Chevys to land on our beaches?? They risk everything to get here and yet some of you say "Oh it's not so bad, that's just the evil media's government-sponsored,anti-Castro hype...look their infant mortality rate is lowered since the 1950s!" I shake my head at this non-earth logic.
Wait until Communism comes back into this thread. He'll tell you that you're wrong and what you saw didn't really happen. They weren't starving. Or he'll start talking about how capitalism kills thousands of people every day.
Just because a country isn't as successful as America doesn't mean it's bad. Should we place an embargo on Mexico? - lots of people come across the border from there every day, and have nothing good to say about the country.
Yeh exactly, sure cuba struggles. It's a thrid world country with a trade embargo on it. Now communism isnt in cuba nor has it been anywhere. I have my issues with cuba., alck of workers control for instance. However i stna din solidarity with it agains imperialism. And most cuban exiles are rich beugoirse who didnt want to live in socialism.
Not only is it senseless it is punishing cubans for being cuban - like you can actually help where you are born or something...it's shameful that we are actually doing it.
