[fporretto]

This was inspired by my colleague Ed Mick's narration of his encounter with "America's Dumbest Protestors." Some are, indeed, as dumb as those he encountered. Others are more canny -- but their inconsistency is a weapon we can use against them.

[dirtboy]

Liberals complained during the Cold War that the United States was willing to coddle dictators. So now Bush is willing to take out a dictator and free the people of that country - and now liberals say he doesn't have the authority to do what they have demanded all along.

Liberals complained that we walked away from Afghanistan after the Soviets left. So Bush is willing to stay afterwards, stabilize Iraq and rebuild the country - and now liberals complain about the cost.

Liberals complained that sanctions are killing thousands of Iraqi children. So Bush is ending the regime that takes the UN oil-for-food money and builds palaces and weapons - and the liberals now demand that sanctions be given more time to work.

Liberals complained that we're only going into Iraq for the oil. So Bush and Blair are willing to let the UN administer the Iraqi oil revenues - but the "No Blood for Oil" signs persist.

So, in other words, the conduct of this war eliminates many of the old liberal complaints about the use of American power - yet the protests continue and the shrill rhetoric rises to a fever pitch. So what, then, is the actual problem with this intervention? Why does Mike Farrell, who supported the Kosovo intervention where Clinton took one side in a low-grade civil conflict and made matters worse, now vehemently oppose Bush and action against a dictator Ferrell himself acknowledges to be horrific? Why was action against Kosovo and Iraq by Clinton acceptable to the left, without UN Security Council resolutions, but Bush has failed at diplomacy when he attacks an enemy over the threat of a French veto of ANY possible course of action save capitulation to Saddam?

The answer is simple - the liberals simply cannot stand America using military force to promote its own interests, and will simply come up with a new list of complaints when the old ones are satisfied by the current plan of action - and then complain that the Bush Administration does not listen to what they are saying, so they can maintain their sense of righteous indignance to an American government who does not listen to their demands, primarily by constantly changing those demands.

[T. Buzzard Trueblood]

Once we remove the anti-American commonality, no other unifying theme remains.

BTTT

[headsonpikes]

RE; 'the Left's bastions'

As America liberates herself from socialist management, over the next decade or so, there will be a natural purging from the institutions of the anti-rational swine who have come to populate them.

When I compare the professoriate of today with that of the '60s, I can only weep. Then, the professors were scholars; nowadays, they are simply 'Outer Party' useful idiots.

[weikel]

BTTT

[foreshadowed at waco]

This reminds me of the feminists who covered for Bill Clinton's misogyny (rape & sexual harassment comes to mind) in exchange for total abortion protection--never understood how women could betray other women for the sole purpose of guaranteeing their right to kill their own offspring--it boggles the mind!

[Antoninus]

Victory bump.

Excellent article. The only positive thing about these protests is that it's making the blue-collar democrat union guys and gals in places like Philly, Chicago, and Boston very ticked off. Sports radio in Philly is full of average guys just going off on the "idiot protesters."

They're so narcissistic and convinced of their own importance that they don't even realize the damage they're doing to their own cause.

Pathetic, really.

[pawdoggie]

When hit with the sure-fire, "Where was the protest when Clinton bombed Bosnia/Sudan/Iraq/etc?" question many of the celebrity anti-war types claim that they did "oppose" those military actions. Of course, it's amazing how little good their "opposition" did, how little their abilities as "activists" availed them, or how little attention their "protests" received back then (as opposed to today).