Fraters Libertas

The Face Of The Enemy

A couple of quick observations while watching today's A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition anti-war rally tonight on C-Span:

1. The four countries most prominently mentioned as victims of American "aggression" in the of the signs held by the crowd and the speakers were Iraq (obviously), Afghanistan, Palestine, and Haiti. Haiti? To the anti-war crowd, Jean Bertrand Aristide occupies a place of honor in the pantheon of heroes along with Gandhi and Martin Luther King. Not exactly a cause that most average Americans are going to relate to.

2. Speaking of relating to average Americans, the anti-war "cause" is going nowhere unless they can come with up some fresh faces. One of their big hitters they rolled out today was Ramsey Clark. Yes, that Ramsey Clark. Clark is a doddering fool who struggled to string coherent sentences (to say nothing of thoughts) together and could barely get a rise out of a crowd that very receptive to his message, as muddled as it was. And no. Cindy Sheehan is not the answer.

3. Along with the fresh faces, how about some new rhetoric? The loose talk of revolution didn't play in the Sixties and it sure as hell ain't gonna play now. Don't they know it's gonna be alright?

4. Hurricane Katrina was mentioned by every speaker I heard. Not just anti-war but now anti-hurricane as well? A good drinking game would be to take a pulll every time you heard Katrina or Palestine mentioned. Drink!

5. My favorite speaker had to be poet (labeled "poet activist" by C-Span) Suheir Hammad who read a silly "poem" about Hurricane Katrina. I actually laughed out loud during most of it. Actually the whole thing is pretty damn amusing.

6. The anti-war crowd labors under the delusional that the more attention they get through rallies such as this, the more the American people will support them. In reality, just the opposite is true. The more you watch and listen to these freaks, the more you realize just how extreme their positions are. The more pub they get the better. For the rest of us.