There have been demonstrations against war in Iraq in various cities around the world today, including Montreal.
Everyone has a right to their opinion, of course. But in too many cases, these demonstrations are simply an excuse for anti-American sentiment to crawl out of the woodwork. And in others, it’s a case of people not being able to tell the difference between Iraq and Vietnam. Even the slogans don’t seem to have changed much:
The point is, Iraq is not Vietnam. And Saddam Hussein is determined not to resolve anything peacefully. He’s not developing large-scale weapons to hold a science fair, you can bank on that.
War is always regrettable, but unfortunately sometimes it is necessary. Appeasement has been proven extremely dangerous again and again, and would be even more dangerous here. This isn’t Bush’s war, or Blair’s war, it’s Saddam’s war.
I found this great link on Instapundit.com that gives us the straight dope on A.N.S.W.E.R., the group organizing these protests, and it’s written by David Corn, who seems to oppose the war himself but doesn’t excuse these groups support of dictators. http://www.laweekly.com/ink/02/50/news-corn.php
I listened to an audio feed of the Washington rally on a local Pacifica station. It had the usual anti-war rhetoric by mainstream leftists like Jesse “hymie-town” Jackson and congressman Conyers of Michigan. There were also had two Arab speakers who excoriated Israel and called Sharon a butcher. I feel sorry for any Jew at that rally who had at least some sympathy for Israel and didn’t know that pro-Pals have taken over the left and anti-war movement in this country.
Agreed with Peter, kind of. Here’s the thing. I’m against the war (right now, because I think other solutions can be deployed). But I refuse to take part in any of these rallies. Because they’re one-size-fits-all things that stake out positions I don’t agree with.
Primary among them is Israel. Now, it so happens that I’m critical of Israeli policy. But at these rallies, you tend to get an overwhelming number of people who are not interested in Israeli policy — they want to dismantle the Israeli state, and are interested in portraying it by all means as an illegitimate, alien intrusion in the Middle East.
I think that’s racist. And I won’t support it. So I don’t go to the rallies.