To the Anti-War Protesters
----- Original Message -----
To the Antiwar Protesters: WARNING: Don't read this if you have a need for Lenny Shaw to ALWAYS take the "liberal" side...
From a Recent Participant:
As recently as last month, I was taking part in the protests. I felt then, as I still feel now in some ways, that this was not the time to go to war in Iraq.
But things have changed. The war is, sadly enough, a reality. And your actions are beginning to look self-indulgent, sophomoric, and increasingly ridiculous.
Of course, you have a RIGHT to protest. But the tone, content, and tenor of much of your activity is gradually looking like the "right' to look like self-indulgent fools. And you are alienating the very people that you want to reach. ( Was that EVER your goal anyway?) You are helping George Bush in many inadvertent ways. And worst of all, you may even be damaging the cause of TRUE peace.
I realize that protests have a little bit of theater in them. Complexities do not lend themselves to street burlesque. But your antics are at best facile, and at worst malevolent. Your whole stance is becoming one big bumper sticker.
PEACE IS BETTER THAN WAR ------Well, duh
WAR IS NOT THE ANSWER - OK, so what is your suggestion?. How many of you are actually able to carry out a detailed reasoned defense of the U.N Inspection process? Do many you even know who Hans Blix is?
WE ARE ALL IRAQIS - OK, Are we all Kurds ( gassed by Saddam) Are we all Iranians ( soldier BOYS gassed by Saddam) and are we all, for that matter, Iraqis who have been tortured by Saddam?.
In other words, why are you so damn selective?
Just today, I was reading that Lenny Kravitz, Michael Stipe, Zack de La Rocha , and Meshell Ndegeocello have come out with a new CD..... "WE WANT PEACE".......Again, DUHHHHHHH
As for Bush=Saddam: If it is your intent to irritate and offend then you have succeeded. But that type of moral equivalency is off the page. Here is my analogy to that: Let's say that there is a neighbor in my building who I don't get along with. Let us say that one day a burglar/rapist is loose in my building. To me Bush is that neighbor that I don't like. Saddam is that burglar/rapist.
I have never liked George Bush. I do not like him now. One of the reasons is exemplified by a statement attributed to him..." I don't do nuance". Well, neither do many people at these protests. One is shunned if they do not slavishly adhere to the Canon: America/ Britain/ Israel - BAD.... Third world people- GOOD ( even though few of you have actually ever met any) Saddam Hussein ( Well. we don't like him, but Bush is bad too) Just once I would like some of you to criticize Saddam without adding the "but".
Are you really any better than those idiots renaming French Fries? When I was at a protest last month, one person said..." Anyone who favors this war lacks intelligence"...How is that better than " Anyone who is against it lacks patriotism" ? For peace demonstators, you lack a sense of inner...peace
It is time to change tactics. You are really beginning to remind me of those anti-Clinton folks who would just not let go of Paula Jones etc. and also ( I know I will get it for this one) those who will not let go of Florida 2000...ENOUGH ALREADY ( what really bugs me about that is that many of those people voted for Nader anyway!!!!!...are you listening, Mr. Moore?)
And for the record, let us look at the war so far.
Part of the reason that success is eluding us IS that we are trying to avoid civilian casualties. In an act of pure cowardice and dishonor, Saddam has put his elite band of thugs right in the middle of civilian areas. There is plenty of reason to believe that they are intimidating the populace and many of the regular army, ( most of who were probably pulled out of bed at gun point in the middle of the night and forced to join in any case)
The Republican Guard has already mined the harbor of Umm al Qasr to prevent not only coalition , but Red Crescent ( a Moslem relief organization) from getting humanitarian aid into southern Iraq. They are also blocking British troops from entering Basra by once again, mixing in with the civilians. Cute. The Iraqis starve...Blame it on the Coalition. A move is made to get aid to them, civilians are killed, and blame it on the Coalition.
We were so "rapacious" in our bombing that the lights stayed on in Baghdad.
OH, I can hear you now: " YOU ARE JUST LISTENING TO OUR CORPORATE CONTROLLED MAINSTREAM MEDIA" Don't even go there. I REFUSE to watch FOX NEWS because of their obvious pro Bush slant. I also have some trouble with some of the CNN
correspondents who can never seem to cover your protests without saying the obligatory " IN IRAQ THEY COULD NOT DO THIS" ) again...DUHHHHH)
But, by the same token should I not believe that same CORPORATE CONTROLLED MAINSTREAM MEDIA when they report on the errant U.S. missile that killed civilians in Baghdad? How about that al -Jazeera.... Show any more dead soldier bodies and that will ASSURE that US/British support for the war will hit 95%!
So, if you are REALLY concerned about peace, here is my suggestion:
We obviously cannot just leave....talk about betraying the Iraqi people..... So for those of you back on Earth, if you find this war distasteful ....
Start planning for the aftermath of the war. Stay on Bush's case to make sure that we can influence him to:
1. Work for true democracy for the Iraqi people
2. Get his butt in gear on working for peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
3. Fight for the UN and NOT Bush/Cheney cronies such as Kellogg, Brown, and Root ( a subsidiary of Cheney's Haliburton ) to get in the best position to rebuild Iraq. Let us reaffirm in peace our relationship with this all-important entity that was so badly strained by Bush's bluderbuss diplomacy. ( and as a corollary, support Maxine Waters' ( like me again, liberals? ) bill to prevent contracts for rebuilding Iraq from companies who had personnel within the last five years who are directing the war effort... ( like Cheney, Rumsfield, possibly Bush himself)
ABOVE ALL KEEP THIS IN MIND.
SADDAM IS A PUSTULE A MURDEROUS TYRANT AND PIECE OF SHIT ( and he is not Blue State material)
IT LOOKS SO RIDICULOUS FOR ANYONE INTERESTED IN PEACE, NOT TO MENTION TOLERANCE AND CULTURAL RELATIVISM TO NOT CONSTANTLY ACKNOWLEDGE THAT....THE FACT THAT YOU DO NOT ...THAT FACT ALONE IS PROBABLY MAKING YOU LOOK WORSE THAN ANYTHING.
But, if you are not in fact motivated by peace and political conciousness ( as is my suspicion for most of you) and you just want to party and dress up in cool costumes, and enjoy the age-old art of guerrilla theater, ( it is especially nice in the spring) then may I suggest that you PACK it up. Or drop the war thing, and just have a party, and I would LOVE to come.
Because people are dying, on BOTH sides. And you look frivilous, and even selfish. At least as much as any Corporate Crony of George Bush.
(Real) Peace,
Lenny
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Received on 2003-03-27 17:56:20
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: 2020-02-04 07:16:16 UTC