Where has all the reason gone?
November 20, 2003 ~ 3:10 p.m.
Well, as the tidal wave of the Great Unwashed rolls across London today, I can only reflect on the miserable existence of the Socialist Workers Party, Marxist Student Bodies from local universities, the Stop the War Coalition and various other amoebas. I mean, how miserable to be so bitter and obsessive about something that you have to go to such lengths as to inconvenience the police force, put the security interests of two major nations on edge and antagonize the world�s lone superpower, all while announcing to the world how much you hate the United States of America, yet offering no viable alternatives with whom to culture and nurture a mutually beneficial relationship.
Protests since President Bush�s arrival here earlier this week have been sporadic, but the big rally is slated for today. The Stop the War Coalition itself says they hoped to mobilize 100,000 protestors. That is a massive protest, admittedly; however, let�s put some perspective into this. With London being as close as it is to continental Europe, you can bet that a large percentage of this one hundred thousand will be non-British protestors. They were well informed about when to come over to heckle the President, because the STWC has dipped their tentacles abroad to capture willing international recruits to their ranks. Also, in a city of 8 million, this means only a measly 1.25% of London�s population is going to be at today�s rally. (To extrapolate that same number to account for the entire 57 million living in the U.K., it barely even registers at 0.18%.) Again, I know 100,000 is a huge number to look at, but elsewhere in this city, people have commitments, people have jobs, people have lives. Hell, I daresay that many of them don�t even give a goddamn. After all, a recent poll revealed that a majority of Brits approved of Bush�s visit, not necessarily because they like him, but figured it was only fair that he be given the chance to explain Iraq first-hand to the British.
What motivates these people? A hatred for war? If war is the primary hatred of the liberal-Left, how come there was no such thing as a Stop the War Coalition during the two Yugoslavian wars? There was genocide, ethnic cleansing to use the euphemism of those times, going on and it was horrible. Although I, and a majority of my collegiate colleagues, opposed the excursion into the Balkans in 1993, I heartily supported the 1999 war against Slobodan Milosevic. That was a war worth of fighting, and it was good to see a worldwide consensus that the butchery in Bosnia could not be allowed to continue. Liberals�and most conservatives�allied together in their support for the 1999 Yugoslavian war; but, in essence, it was a cause c�lebr� of the liberal-Left.
It was only because the United States worked in cahoots with an explicit U.N. condemnation of the atrocities that Milosevic was committing, and because Clinton was in power, that the world did not denounce the war. If the war was OK with the European Union and the U.N., then, by golly, it was OK with everyone.
Condemnation of the U.S.�and of the British government�is occurring on a massive scale over a war that was no less right or necessary than the war of four years ago. Can anyone tell me what the difference between Milosevic�s and Saddam�s butchery was�and even assuming there is a difference, exactly why it should matter? In both countries, the disintegrating Yugoslavia and Iraq, there was a dangerous fanaticism combined with irrational irredentism that precipitated a complete betrayal of human rights, civilian torture, and mass genocide. Why was it OK to rescue those in Bosnia-Herzegovina from the wrath of a brutal dictator, but not those in Iraq?
Nobody expected the Iraqis to permanently work the Americans into their folklore as their eternal heroes, but we knew that they realized what was happening, and why it was happening and we commanded their support. This was a war to liberate them and topple the leader of perhaps the most dangerous rogue state in the whole of the Middle East; besides, Iraq was, to use a crude phrase, doable. We had the means, so we took Saddam out. Our crime was not being sensitive enough to the concerns of Saddam�s loyal comrade countries�France, Germany and Russia, whose concern over human rights and genocide suddenly no longer mattered.
Unfortunately, both the U.S. and U.K. governments �sexed up� their dossiers with apparent evidence of Iraq�s arsenal of weapons of mass destruction, fomenting further bitterness amongst a population already affronted with the horrible reality that the U.N., after several of their own resolutions against the state of Iraq failed to secure a mandate, was cast aside and the war occurred without its sanction. How terrible indeed!
Don�t fool yourselves: The debate over Saddam�s weapons of mass destruction has not had closure yet, and it won�t until the Ba�athists and international terrorists currently running riot have been subdued and Iraq has its own government. Then, perhaps it�ll be safe for those in the know to state, declaratively, just what happened to those weapons.
The larger point I wish to ask is, so what? If we had declared, from the start, that this was a mission to earn the people of Iraq their human rights, would those currently protesting Bush and �his� war have hopped on board without complaint? Or would they still have bitched that this was not the right time? Yes, I think so too.
Even better, imagine Clinton was still the President and he went ahead with this war. The liberal-Left would have been silenced. They would have been all too complicit because they could finally back up their formerly hawkish talk of removing Saddam Hussein behind the �right� leader. But no, because El Presidente happened to be a Republican, a conservative, this war could never stand. What upsets the Left the most is that they did not accomplish the deed. For all their dark mutterings about Saddam�s regime, they did fuck all to help bring it to an end, especially when they had their chance. They could have hopped on board�and to their credit, brave liberals like Nat Hentoff and Christopher Hitchens did�and proven their resolve. Now they must live with the stigma of failure�which, of course, liberals never do. They just turn successful leaders like George W. Bush and Tony Blair into figures of hate to a degree that is frighteningly fetishistic, a cover-up for their own incompetence.
I read on a recent Associated Press article on the President�s visit that Dubya�s reception could not possibly differ more than the warm welcomes accorded to Bill Clinton. It hardly comes as a surprise that Clinton would be the American darling of the socialist, hard Left population of Britain, now would it? Think about it. Clinton wanted to tie the United States up with even more red U.N. tape and went about downsizing and demoralizing the U.S. military. Of course Clinton was guaranteed such cushy, admiring receptions during state visits to the U.K. Now, enter Bush, with his plans to grant his people tax cuts, put an end to any talk of American socialized medicine and�oh no!�reinstate levels of defense spending commensurate with the U.S. military�s needs. Bush wrote the script for frosty European welcomes long before there was a 9/11, a War on Terror and an Iraq war.
In �Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,� Hunter S. Thompson recalls a scene in which he discovers his attorney�a burned-out refugee from the Love Generation, in Thompson�s own paraphrased words�totally zonked on acid and muses that the tune playing on the radio, �Where Have All the Flowers Gone?�, was terribly ironic to the situation.
�No flowers in this town,� writes Thompson. �Only carnivorous plants.�
Basically, that sums up my attitude on this fine day as the tidal wave of whiners chokes and clogs up the city and attacks my flag, my country and my people. The carnivorous plants are taking root and the voices of reason, temperance and moderation will only be interpreted as �EAT ME.�
� M.E.M.
|
[Sign My Guestbook]
[View My Guestbook]
|
Copyright � 2001-2007 by M.E. Manning. All material is written by me, unless explicitly stated otherwise by use of footnotes or bylines. Do not copy or redistribute without my permission.
AMERICA FOR TRUE AMERICANS!