The Racism of the Anti War Movement

8/28/2005


By Jim Forsyth, News Radio 1200 WOAI

Like most Texas reporters, I have made the pilgrimage to interview Cindy Sheehan and her anti war comrades parked in front of Crawford. One of the made-for-television signs held up behind Cindy during the news event I attended was particularly disturbing. "Iraq," read the sign held aloft by two prosperous looking white women "is Arabic for Vietnam."

By holding this sign, I presume they would favor that the Iraq war end the same way the war in Vietnam ended. I also presume that this means they would not oppose the same fate for the people of Iraq that befell the people of Vietnam and Cambodia after the end of US involvement there, which was one of the more horrible in the sorry annals of twentieth century tyranny. But in 1975, we were told by the anti war crowd that, after all, they were only Asians, they probably couldn't understand democracy anyway, and knew it wouldn't work 'for them.' Its sad to see the same attitude repeated today, that its not worth the blood of white Americans like Casey Sheehan to win freedom and democracy for 'those people,' in this case, brown skinned Arab Muslims.

Even if you drink every last drop of the anti war Kool Aid, even if you are convinced that President Bush was ordered by the Chairman of Halliburton to start the Iraq war and that he intentionally lied to the American people about the existence of weapons of mass destruction, the simple fact is that today, there is demonstrably more freedom for the people of Iraq and for the people of Afghanistan, some 50 million brown skinned Muslims. Yes, there is dawdling over the drafting of an Iraqi constitution, but before April of 2003, metal shredders and rape rooms awaited any Iraqi who breathed the word 'constitution.' Yes, a brutal insurgency continues to threaten the Iraqi people, an insurgency which has killed some 25,000 Iraqi civilians since April of 2003. But Saddam Hussein, even by conservative estimates, butchered 1.5 million Iraqis during his 25 years in power (not counting the one million who died in the war he started with Iran). So Saddam and his goons killed an average of 60,000 people a year, while the insurgency has killed 25,000 in two and a half years. Despite the hand-wringing over the insurgency, the devil's arithmetic would indicate that life for the average Iraq is actually safer today than it was under Saddam. But they're brown skimmed Muslims, so not worthy of America's notice, let alone America's sacrifice.

President Bush is actually the greatest liberator of Muslims in history, considering that there weren't 50 million people in the entire Middle East when Saladin beat back the Crusader hordes. But to the anti war activists, providing freedom from slavery, democratic and economic opportunity to brown skinned people isn't worth the sacrifice of white Americans. Good thing Cindy Sheehan wasn't around when Lincoln was drafting the Emancipation Proclamation.

I recently watched the magnificent Don Cheadle film "Hotel Rwanda" with a group of friends, certified Bush Bashing Democrats all. After it was over, the general murmur in the room was 'why didn't America do something!' to stop the carnage in Rwanda. If Cindy Sheehan were to get her way, and President Bush would be 'impeached and tried for war crimes' over his wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as she has demanded, the real losers will be the future citizens of Rwanda, and the other places where brutal dictators will have free reign to massacre people in large numbers, knowing that American leaders will pay too high a political price for them to get involved and 'do something.' And I don't think many of those places will be populated by white Europeans.

Submitted by Lenny

thanks, gunny.. worth the read.. does offer some food for thought...

as an aside. watching the reports on Katrina in N.O. go tm wondering.. after the tusanmi hit SE Asia a whackload of countries jumped up and offered pledges of support, money, food, blankets, clothing. help to rebuild, etc.

be interesting to see how many countries offer to help the Us with the same sort of stuff after the hurtricane blows through and the tally of the disaster costs is rendered..

Well, I for one would be VERY surprised were that to happen. We'll just lick our wounds, pick up the pieces and bury the dead....as we always do.

The Katrina survivors?
Bring 'em to Texas!
We like those coon-asked cajuns...

BTY...we like those brown skinned folks too.
Fit right in with us mexicans/indians/tropical tans/red necks/blacks and whiter shades of pale
folks.

Cindy is about as anti-war and anyone can get and has gone beyond mourning her son. She said that she would be there if he were killed in Afghanistan.

If she really wanted to talk to the president, she would have sat in her chair and told everyone else to leave her alone instead of becoming the darling of the anti-war movement. She smiles too much at the camera these days.

As a society, we need people who want peace as well as people who see the need for war. It is unfortunate that the political climbers are attached to both sides.

Many of the white middleclass women who are anti-war have never known anything of suffering beyond an inability get their own way about everything. They are willing to give money to groups but do not want any of those people living in their neighborhood.

Rwanda was a world crime and the world was responsible for not coming to the rescue of its fellow human beings. I guess it boils down to what was at stake economically and whether was worth saving. The answer was no, we had nothing to gain (the so called western world) and did almost nothing about it.