After seeing a couple of scraggly musicians, Sharon Osborne might describe them as "smelly young men", on MTV extolling the virtues of a web site called Axis of Justice as a way for concerned young people to get involved in politics and "make a difference" I decided to give it a look.
Not surprisingly it contained the usually quotient of Leftist clap trap on the war with Iraq and the evils of America. Their statement on Iraq would be funny if it wasn't such a serious subject matter. Okay it's funny anyway. Here's a sample:
What could be of such vital importance that the United States would risk shooting fiery arrows into this powder keg that is the Middle East? The only reasonable answer is oil and power. With Saddam Hussein gone, Bush can make sure that a new, U.S.-friendly fellow becomes the leader of Iraq. Which gives the U.S. access to lots of cheap Middle Eastern oil, and makes us less dependent upon oil from other, less-friendly countries like Saudi Arabia or Yemen. After seeing a U.S. assault on one of their neighbors, and knowing that the U.S. is no longer so dependent upon them for oil, they might start bending over backwards to make the U.S. happy. Which might aid the U.S. elite somewhat, but seems destined to increase levels of anti-American terrorism. Thanks, Mr. President.
Got that? It's all about oil. Duh. But please lets limit the amount of bending over by the Yemenis or Saudis. It's just not a pretty picture.
Bush's saber-rattling has all the subtlety of a Siegfried & Roy show, where he is attempting to whip up a patriotic, militaristic fervor and distract our attention from an economy that is going down the toilet, corporate crime at an all-time, and in the process, steal the November elections.
Even now news is breaking that makes this war seem ludicrous. Some dude in Washington DC has been sniping people to death. Suspected Al Qaeda members are attacking U.S. troops in Kuwait. Terrorists have blown up a club in Bali, Indonesia. And North Korea has admitted that they have The Bomb. In light of all this, how can any rational person think that overthrowing Saddam Hussein is the top U.S. priority?
If you were trying to write a parody of the arguments of the Left you couldn't make it this good. The "some dude" touch was especially nice.
The web site made use of a very commie looking star as a logo and the way that words like cadre and collective were thrown around indicated to me that there might be some Marxist sympathies harbored by this crew.
A look at their recommended reading list quickly confirmed my suspicions. Let's see here:
- The Marx-Engels Reader
- Two books by Che Guevara
- A book each by Huey Newton and Lenin
- Three pieces of drivel by Michael Moore
- A Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell Hmmm... I wonder why Animal Farm didn't make the list?
- Another book by Edward Said
- Six count them six works by Noam Chomsky
- And finally and perhaps most damning of all The Century by Peter Jennings
They also have an Action page with links to just about every animal rights, anti-globalization, anti-war, environmental activist, feminist, AIDs awareness, peace and justice, drug legalization, anti-nuclear, free Leonard Peltier, free Mumia Abu-Jamal group in the world. One of my favorite links was to the Calendar of Anarchist and Activist Events. That's one that you kids will want to print out and post on your refrigerator. Life can be very hectic for the busy activist especially around the holidays. Now let's see, was I supposed to be protesting commercialism at the Mall of America today or throwing blood on woman wearing fur downtown?
