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Plans to protest the Republican Convention

by Jame Taranto Thursday, Sep. 04, 2003 at 8:20 PM

The Face of the Opposition - If we were conspiracy-minded, we'd have to wonder if the Republicans are behind this.

A Web site called Counterconvention.org promises protests outside the Republican Convention in New York next summer

Imagine:

A million people on the street, representing the diversity of New York, and the multiplicity of this nation--community organizers, black radicals, unions, anarchists, church groups, queers, grandma's [sic] for peace, AIDS activists, youth organizers, environmentalists, people of color contingents, global justice organizers, those united for peace and justice, veterans, and everyone who is maligned by [President] Bush's malicious agenda--on the street--en masse--An overwhelming, festive, and poignant showing with the entire world bearing witness.



If this gathering goes on as planned, it's certain to get wide media attention, and it's hard to imagine such a freak show doing anything other than enhancing the president's re-election chances. Making a similar point is Geoffrey Wheatcroft in the British magazine Prospect. Wheatcroft, who opposed the liberation of Iraq, argues that the idiocy of "antiwar" intellectuals in the wake of Sept. 11 undermined the case for regime continuation:



Because the critics of the Bush administration and Blair government made themselves so ridiculous in the aftermath of 11th September, the proper case against the Iraq war was subsequently much weakened. Sane critics of Bush and Blair must have been embarrassed by the sheer emptiness of the Voices for Peace, one of the instant books which came out in autumn 2001, in which Mark Steel, Ronan Bennett, Annie Lennox ("I'm sorry, but I just don't get it"), George Monbiot ("Let's make this the era of collateral repair"), Anita Roddick ("We must shift from a private greed to a public good") and other usual or unusual suspects were rounded up, along with Adrian Mitchell (yes, also still with us), who rather lamely reprinted his old favourite "Tell me lies about Vietnam," which must have taken a few wrinklies back to the 1960s.

These unthinking "radicals" provoked more than just amusement mixed with irritation--they induced a sense of despair. They simply had nothing to say--as they showed when they were asked for more practical advice.

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Right on

by Mike Friday, Sep. 05, 2003 at 2:22 AM
ElectricRook - -

They simply had nothing to say

Right on... How can a person of conscience oppose the liberation of peoples whose Tyrannical King fed his enemies to a shredder? The younger Prince used the elementary schools as a supply of sexual pleasure? If the Teachers complain, they get to meet the older Prince... The older Prince was the head rapist of the regime, raping the Wives and Daughters of those who spoke aginst the King or Kingdom.

What is your goal, hating Bush, or hating Evil?

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What Price Popularity?

by Ffutal Friday, Sep. 05, 2003 at 9:59 AM

I've just returned from Europe, my first visit to the Continent in three years. It was just as I remembered it: a charming if technologically backward place that still uses the metric system but also doesn't persecute smokers. About the only new thing is the euro, the 12-nation (for now) single currency, which is a boon for tourists since it saves you the trouble of exchanging different varieties of ducats whenever you cross a border.

Europe, in short, hasn't changed much since Sept. 11, 2001, which is not what you'd expect if you'd been listening to certain Americans--specifically, opponents of the Bush administration. To hear them tell it, Europe is full of hostility toward America, resentful over the liberation of Iraq and various other American policies. Having actually visited the place, I didn't see it. Oh, I heard a few disparaging comments about President Bush, but no worse than what I hear here in New York City. (Actually, it's kind of cute that, say, a Belgian would take an interest in America's leadership. Is there a single American who even knows who the head of Belgium is?)

The notion that the Bush administration is wrong because "the rest of the world" objects to its policies may just be a symptom of intellectual immaturity. "Everyone thinks you're wrong" is the sort of argument you expect to hear from elementary-school classmates, not adult policy makers. But there are people who take very seriously the idea that national-security policy is some sort of popularity contest. One of them, indeed, preceded Colin Powell as secretary of state.

In an article for Foreign Affairs, Madeleine Albright opines that while liberating Iraq was justified, it was a bad idea anyway because it "frightens and divides the world." She asserts that liberating Iraq has actually harmed the war against al Qaeda:

"Instead of simply asking others to oppose al Qaeda, [the president] now asks them to oppose al Qaeda, support the invasion of an Arab country, and endorse the doctrine of preemption--all as part of a single package. Faced with this choice, many who staunchly oppose al Qaeda have nevertheless decided that they do not want to be "with" the United States."

http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20030901faessay82501/madeleine-k-albright/bridges-bombs-or-bluster.html?mode=print

She cites no actual evidence (which automatically qualifies her to be an writer and/or editor for Indymedia and all the toadies who post here to prop it up) that disagreements over Iraq have undermined cooperation over al Qaeda. It's worth noting, though, that when Albright was in a position to do something about al Qaeda, she demurred--for precisely the same reason that she now thinks freeing Iraq from Saddam Hussein's rule was a mistake.

The concluding chapter of Richard Miniter's new book, "Losing bin Laden: How Bill Clinton's Failures Unleashed Global Terror" recounts a meeting of President Clinton's national-security team in the wake of the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole. Robert Novak has a useful summary of the meeting, at which Richard Clarke, Clinton's "terrorism czar," advocated a strike against bin Laden but everyone else present opposed it.

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/robertnovak/rn20030901.shtml

Albright says she was against such a strike because there was not yet "definitive" proof that al Qaeda was behind the bombings. "To strike without evidence or any expectation of hitting bin Laden would have turned world opinion against the United States at the very moment we were seeking maximum cooperation in tracking down the terrorist network responsible for the murders," she wrote in an e-mail to Miniter. It is possible that the Sept. 11 attacks would have been averted had Albright and her colleagues been more concerned about American security and less about "world opinion."

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