Posted on 02/28/2003 5:44:51 PM PST by SMEDLEYBUTLER
Rosen: Council's mushy buffet
February 28, 2003
It's not true that anyone who opposes the war to remove Saddam Hussein from power, disarm Iraq and liberate the oppressed Iraqi people is an America-hating, left- wing pacifist. Some opponents of the war are merely impractical wishful thinkers, isolationists or misguided appeasers. Paleo-conservatives like Pat Buchanan and doctrinaire libertarians fall into one or more of the latter categories.
But make no mistake about it, the usual suspects from old-line Marxist and "peace-at-any-price" organizations are very much a part of the current incarnation of the anti-war movement.
Those groups include the Socialist Party USA, the War Resistors League, the National Lawyers Guild, the American Friends Service Committee, the Revolutionary Communist Party, the Anti-Capitalist Convergence, the Workers World Party, etc.
Some who are simply naive might be marching with the crowd and unwittingly lending aid and comfort to the enemy, but it's the old guard who are organizing the demonstrations and providing the mass-produced protest signs.
To its shame, the Denver City Council has now been dragged into the fray.
The Cities for Peace Campaign is a nationwide effort engineered by far-left groups like the Institute for Policy Studies, for decades an apologist for the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Cities for Peace works with local activists to pressure elected officials to pass resolutions against U.S. military action to depose and disarm Saddam.
And that's been the mission of the Colorado Coalition Against the War on Iraq (CCAWI), which has pushed for the Denver City Council to issue an anti-war resolution. Monday night, by a 7-3 vote, the council complied - sort of. So now Denver will be lumped together with more than 100 U.S. cities that have voiced their opposition to a war with Iraq.
In fact, if you read the final version of the actual resolution, you'll find that council has done something less than that.
It has issued a self-indulgent, wishy-washy, buffet of platitudes.
CCAWI had hoped for much more. Its original proposal was a laundry list of leftist "whereases," culminating in some "herebys" that flatly opposed a "U.S. invasion of Iraq." Council compromised, cut and trimmed, and regurgitated a plateful of warmed-over mush-by-committee.
Its first "whereas" claims that a recent poll indicates that 70 percent of Coloradans want more inspections rather than war. I've studied that Cirulli poll. It shows a clear majority supporting U.S. military action. Not surprisingly, it also shows support for diplomacy and productive inspections. Most anyone would prefer a peaceful solution, if that were possible. But given the lying, tyrannical, murderous despot with whom we're dealing, it might not be. The poll did not suggest support for a charade of unproductive inspections in perpetuity.
Others of the council's whereases belabor the obvious with citations about the costs of war in lives and treasure, and the political risks.
Mention is also made of the virtues of the rule of law and multinational coalitions. On balance, it's an exercise in temporizing and equivocating. Of course, it could have been worse. From the proposed CCAWI screed, council discarded denunciations of U.S. energy consumption, U.S. and U.N. responsibility for the suffering of innocent Iraqi civilians, and denials of any connection between Iraq and Sept. 11.
What emerged was not an anti-war resolution but one that urged "diplomatic efforts" while acquiescing to war as a "last resort," and resolving that "no war against Iraq should be undertaken by the United States without a full debate and vote of authorization in the U.S. Congress under Article I, Section 8, of the United States Constitution." What does Council suppose the Congress was doing last fall when it debated and passed the "Authorization for the Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002?"
Finally, council "urge(d) the citizens of Denver to contact their federal representatives to urge peaceful solutions to international conflicts." (A lot of urging, here.) So council huffed and puffed and ultimately laid a parakeet egg. What a bold and imaginative expression of the wisdom and will of the good people of Denver, Colorado.
And what a godawful waste of time.
Mike Rosen's radio show airs daily from 9 a.m. to noon on 850 KOA.
Copyright 2003, Rocky Mountain News. All Rights Reserved.
You've got that right, Mike.
It's the fray of platitudes. Afterall, that's all they can do.
Susan Barnes-Gelt demonstrated, once again, for the world on KOA and KHOW radio this week that she is an idiot and you are welcome.
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