What does the anti-war crowd have to say
Here’s what I got in my email from some of the “progressives” I attend school with. I’ve mostly refrained from making detailed comments–but I’ll leave it to you to form your own opinion. [As usual, names and addresses have been removed]
Hey everyone. The democrats just lost the presidential election. We just
captured Saddam Hussein. Here’s to four more miserable years.
Note: I don’t recall any republicans formally stating that this was a slam-dunk for the election. Rather the White House is a “Gloat Free Zone”
wrong analysis, kedar, just wait to see how the capture is gonna invigorate the resistance movement. did the capture of al quaeda teachers and leaders stop the movement? no, it simply made more people angry and new leaders emerged with al quaeda now being probably bigger than before bush’s attack on afghanistan. also, remember that the ordinary iraqis do not think of saddam as a tyrant, as bush is portraying him in the us (dictator, though, he be), but think of him as an elected leader, who managed to stay in power with the help of the military. mind elected here, coz its very, very important. the invasion of iraq cannot but bring about counter-resistance, and the movement up to now has grown without saddam. now, religious zealots are simply gonna use him as a sacrifice example to gather more converts to fundamentalism. did u see how quickly al quaeda and other muslim groups forgot that saddam was fighting against muslim religious influence by trying to create a totaly civil state? they forgot past hurts and used him, when he fell, to inspire hatred. saddam is a nobody in iraq now. his capture cannot change the situation, coz iraqis are not fighting for the recreation of his state, but for their release from us occupation. if anything, the situation worsens from now on with things becoming very very troublesome for the current administration
Think of Saddam as an elected leader? What are you smoking? And the Iraqi military didn’t keep him in power…he killed all deserters. How long have you had your head under the sand? BTW, the rest of your analysis isn’t on target–you aren’t well versed in the ways of the ME I assume.
How can we care about electoral politics at a time like this? This is an incredible day. A man responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths, rapes, and tortures was caught and is going to stand trial. A man whose evil is orders of magnitudes greater than anything we’ve ever faced is no more. This is a day to celebrate the triumph of everything good in the world – human rights, the rule of law. Let’s take today to celebrate with the Iraqis! If we can’t be happy at this, haven’t we lost our sense of perspective? Whether or not you supported this war, today is nothing but unmitigatedly positive.
Common sense?
visit this site [previous poster], to see how the 1983 prez reagan ‘s envoy to iraq,
donald rumsfeld (sounds familiar?) embraces saddam. also read the
declassified information on us dealings with saddam. if saddam does go to an
international court, then what will happen with involved us politicians?
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB82/press.htm
First off, I don’t think Saddam is going to the ICC. Second, we supported Iraq for a time during the Iran-Iraq war because of the greater picture within the Cold War. The USSR backed Iran (and we were still very angry at Iran over 1979)…don’t forget the historical context. Oh, and the US isn’t a signatory to the ICC anyway.
wow, every time i watch the mainstream media it blows my mind. its like a cartoon. this war gets more and more like GI JOE every day. i think i actually heard someone on msnbc slip up and say “we got snake eyes! now his footsoldiers will be helpless mwahahahaha!”
sure, its great that he was caught and will be ‘brought to justice’ and whatnot, but the analysis from the corporate media scares me to death. i mean it doesnt even make any sense. there are all these people on tv saying “well i guess this proves all the antiwar people wrong!” as if this has any relevance to an antiwar argument. nobody argued that the US didnt have the military might to “win” and nobody said we shouldnt go to war because we are too inept to capture saddam.
i just think its really important to watch out for the standard propaganda we get from the mass media. the capture of saddam is no doubt symbolically important. its wonderful news. but the way it seems to be being received here is entirely distorted. every time there is a war, the mass media chooses one singular figure to absolutely demonize. this one figure is who we are fighting, not the country. this one figure embodies the worst evil this planet has ever seen. saddam saddam saddam. showdown with saddam, the free world versus saddam. blahblahblah. i mean if thats repeated enough (and supplemented with flashy graphics), everyone starts to believe it. people think the only reason we fought this war was saddam – getting rid of this ONE person – and nothing else.
because people have bought in to that, now that we have caught him its like the entire war has found its purpose, and carried itself into fruition. that kind of mindset is really simplistic and really dangerous.
i think the only practical significance of this is a (hopefully temporary) boost in bush’s approval rating
p.s. im not saying anyone on this list has that mindset! my comments werent directed at anyone in particular. im saying that thats the atmosphere the corporate media is building/has built.
Note: I think this person really smoked up too much. Perhaps a Kucinich supporter? This person is a bit too radical or of the deep end I think. The mass corporate media? Huh? And yes, there were those in the anti-war crowd who did hope (and who continue to hope) that we lose.
Finally: GI Joe is a real American hero
Then a link to an article in “The Nation” was sent out. But I try to hold some standards here–and I refuse to link to that rag.
Update Rush Limbaugh has also visited the lefty sites and found some stuff. And it looks like he found the enterance to DU
