American Peace Activist Shocked Back To Reality (from Para Pundit). Also check out See men shredded, then say you don’t back war. Now, I’m not going to say that the US government is invading Iraq for humanitarian reasons-how stupid do you think I am, George Bush the elder famously stood by and shut his eyes to slaughter and mayhem throughout southern Iraq 12 years ago. But from a perspective of compassion and ignoring the Realpolitik implications, it should be a no-brainer. Anti-death penalty activists often assert that those who favor the right of the state to kill should watch someone being executed. If they can’t stand it, they shouldn’t support the death penalty (pro-life activists make the same case when they display fetuses to people). Well, peace activists should perhaps look at pictures and listen to the tales of atrocity before they go out and march “for the Iraqi people.” This is the most common refrain that I hear from the peace activists, that they are doing it “for the Iraqi people,” and not their own righteous ego.
Let me qualify this by noting that I don’t care about the Iraqi people that much. I always thought sanctions were pretty stupid, but I never marched against them or wasted my time over this sort of stuff. My concern is for friends and family first, Americans second, and the rest of the world later on. As you can see, I’m not a big believer in universal love a la Mo-Ti. If you read this blog my concern with the Iraqi invasion has more to do with the reprecussions that it might have for the American polity, not that we’ll cause more suffering for the Arabs and Kurds. Gods know they’ve been through enough already that to “suffer” surely has a different meaning for them.
Nevertheless, living in an affluent town filled with liberals, the hearts have been bleeding all week. “For the Iraqi people,” “War never solves any problems,” “There has never been a good war,” “We should find an alternative.” Stop feeling, and think, just for one moment. We can’t alleviate most of the world’s suffering and barbarity, but if this act of gross-foreign-policy myopia (according to some) makes a difference, shouldn’t you put the silly red paint bottle away and wash your hands for gods’ sake!
On a personal and disturbing note, there is a woman that I am familiar with at the local Starbucks. She’s a retiree from Brooklyn and I’ve heard her talk about how all her cousins were killed in the Holocaust. The other day, she was reading The Nation and ranting on about how war only causes more suffering and no war was ever a good war. I realized that if she couldn’t get the dots, well, perhaps there is no hope for the Looney Left*.
* I’m not asserting that the United States intervened because of the liquidation of the Jewry during World War II. I have read that the allies strangely didn’t bomb the camps and it seems clear that the liberation of the few Jews left was a side-effect of the wider war. Nevertheless, better a war save them then negotiations and inspections, no?
Comments are closed.