Fred Barnes: The Pathetic Peace Protesters

THE PROTESTS against an American-led war with Iraq seem frivolous, mindless, even stupid. Many of the protesters come off as know-nothings. The messages on their placards are often crude, uninformed, and selfish. The moral element is almost completely absent from their campaign against military intervention to depose Saddam Hussein.

There's a good way to point up the shortcomings of today's antiwar crowd: Compare their cause with that of anti-Vietnam war protesters a generation ago. I participated in several demonstrations in the 1960s, once marching on the Pentagon with my wife and perhaps 50,000 other demonstrators. Later, when the war was over and the North Vietnamese had set up reeducation camps and prompted an armada of boat people, I changed my mind completely about that war. I now believe that Vietnam--South Vietnam anyway--could have been spared a Communist takeover, except noisy dissent in America made the political cost of waging the war too high.

Nonetheless, there was a seriousness to the antiwar protests against American involvement in Vietnam. The protesters raised arguments that were worthy of debate, some of them difficult to refute even today. People who opposed the war knew a lot about it, about Vietnam, and about the politics of war here at home. Yes, they were obsessive and a lot of what they knew was wrong. But those marching against war today appear to know zero about Iraq, oil, Saddam, or what America's intentions might truly be.

Listen, for example, to the thoughts of comic and actress Janeane Garofalo on "Fox News Sunday." She thinks she knows President Bush's mind, insisting he doesn't care if Saddam disarms. She knows the Arab street. "They have as much distaste for Americans as they do for Saddam," she said. And she knows AEI. "9/11 has been a way to reinvigorate the plan that the right-wingers and the ideologues and people like the people at the American Enterprise Institute and. . . ." And Garofalo is one of the better informed protesters.

Five issues, I believe, separate anti-Vietnam protesters from their anti-Iraq counterparts. And on none of these issues does the anti-Iraq side come out looking like an adult.

WINNABLE WAR. This was a major concern in Vietnam. Protesters, critics, reporters, and some military officers believed the war was unwinnable. So why fight it? Why sacrifice the lives of young American men? With Iraq, the opposite is the case. Practically everyone believes the war is winnable and probably in a hurry. The best protesters can come up with is the possibility of civilian casualties. True, there are always civilian deaths in war, but the United States is now famous for minimizing them (Iraq in 1991, Afghanistan, Panama).

CORRUPT REGIME. The South Vietnamese government was indeed corrupt, though more in the beginning than later in the war. Many conservatives joined liberals in deeming it not worth fighting for. I talked to American military men who advised the South Vietnamese army and they figured it was too corrupt to win. As for the anti-Iraq war protesters, their corrupt regime is the Bush administration. It's democratic and responsive (not to protesters, though) and fairly popular, but protesters think it's not worth fighting for.

RIGHT SIDE OF HISTORY. Communists and leftists were sure they were on the winning side of history in the late 1960s and through the 1970s. Countries fell (Afghanistan, Nicaragua, Angola) to communism. To oppose the war in Vietnam was to be on the right side of history. Only history didn't turn out as they expected. But agitating to spare Saddam a war that would depose him doesn't put one on history's good side. Dictatorships and repressive regimes are falling all over the globe (Eastern Europe, Russia, Afghanistan). Democracy is now riding history's wave. The protesters aren't.

THE AMERICAN MILITARY IS UNFAIRLY CONSTITUTED. That was true in the Vietnam days. It was a class thing. Draft exemptions were easily obtained by young men who were in college and grad school or married. That left the poor and less educated to be drafted into the Army and sent to Vietnam. Now we have an all-volunteer Army famous for its diversity. This leads protesters like Garofalo to say they "support" American soldiers.

AMERICA'S ENEMY IS NOT BAD. Some protesters idolized Ho Chi Minh, the North Vietnamese leader, and praised the Vietcong. Others didn't know anything about either and didn't think it made any difference. The war was wrong, period. This last group is the closest to today's protesters, who are oblivious to Saddam's crimes against humanity. They pay lip service to the notion that he's a cruel dictator and an international bad guy, but do nothing about it. Some hard-core leftists, however, find him quite acceptable on the principle that the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

A final point. There's bound to be a special place in the Hall of Ignorance for the human shields who've rushed to Iraq to protect its citizens against American troops. If they had any knowledge of who's a threat to the life and limb of average Iraqis, they'd turn their shields in the direction of Saddam and his subordinates. That way they'd confront the folks who actually cause civilian casualties in Iraq.

Thanks for the lnk...just sent NION text from UN Resolution 688...I recommend spreading it far and wide...

UNSCR 688 (UN Security Council Resolution 688) “condemns” Saddam Hussein’s repression of the Iraqi civilian population -- “the consequences of which threaten international peace and security.” UNSCR 688 also requires Saddam Hussein to end his repression of the Iraqi people and to allow immediate access to international humanitarian organizations to help those in need of assistance.

Saddam Hussein has repeatedly violated these provisions and has: expanded his violence against women and children; continued his horrific torture and execution of innocent Iraqis; continued to violate the basic human rights of the Iraqi people and has continued to control all sources of information (including killing more than 500 journalists and other opinion leaders in the past decade).

Saddam Hussein has also harassed humanitarian aid workers; expanded his crimes against Muslims; he has withheld food from families that fail to offer their children to his regime; and he has continued to subject Iraqis to unfair imprisonment.10

REFUSAL TO ADMIT HUMAN RIGHTS MONITORS

§ The UN Commission on Human Rights and the UN General Assembly issued a report that noted "with dismay" the lack of improvement in the situation of human rights in Iraq. The report strongly criticized the "systematic, widespread, and extremely grave violations of human rights" and of international humanitarian law by the Iraqi Government, which it stated resulted in "all-pervasive repression and oppression sustained by broad-based discrimination and widespread terror." The report called on the Iraqi Government to fulfill its obligations under international human rights treaties. § Saddam Hussein has repeatedly refused visits by human rights monitors and the establishment of independent human rights organizations.

From 1992 until 2002, Saddam prevented the UN Special Rapporteur from visiting Iraq.11 § In September 2001 the Government expelled six UN humanitarian relief workers without providing any explanation.12

VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

§ Human rights organizations and opposition groups continued to receive reports of women who suffered from severe psychological trauma after being raped by Iraqi personnel while in custody.13 § Former Mukhabarat member Khalid Al-Janabi reported that a Mukhabarat unit, the Technical Operations Directorate, used rape and sexual assault in a systematic and institutionalized manner for political purposes. The unit reportedly also videotaped the rape of female relatives of suspected oppositionists and used the videotapes for blackmail purposes and to ensure their future cooperation.§ In June 2000, a former Iraqi general reportedly received a videotape of security forces raping a female family member. He subsequently received a telephone call from an intelligence agent who stated that another female relative was being held and warned him to stop speaking out against the Iraqi Government.15

§ Iraqi security forces allegedly raped women who were captured during the Anfal Campaign and during the occupation of Kuwait. 16

§ Amnesty International reported that, in October 2000, the Iraqi Government executed dozens of women accused of prostitution.17

§ In May, the Iraqi Government reportedly tortured to death the mother of three Iraqi defectors for her children’s opposition activities.18

§ Iraqi security agents reportedly decapitated numerous women and men in front of their family members. According to Amnesty International, the victims’ heads were displayed in front of their homes for several days.

19 TORTURE § Iraqi security services routinely and systematically torture detainees. According to former prisoners, torture techniques included branding, electric shocks administered to the genitals and other areas, beating, pulling out of fingernails, burning with hot irons and blowtorches, suspension from rotating ceiling fans, dripping acid on the skin, rape, breaking of limbs, denial of food and water, extended solitary confinement in dark and extremely small compartments, and threats to rape or otherwise harm family members and relatives. Evidence of such torture often was apparent when security forces returned the mutilated bodies of torture victims to their families.20

§ According to a report received by the UN Special Rapporteur in 1998, hundreds of Kurds and other detainees have been held without charge for close to two decades in extremely harsh conditions, and many of them have been used as subjects in Iraq’s illegal experimental chemical and biological weapons programs.21

§ In 2000, the authorities reportedly introduced tongue amputation as a punishment for persons who criticize Saddam Hussein or his family, and on July 17, government authorities reportedly amputated the tongue of a person who allegedly criticized Saddam Hussein. Authorities reportedly performed the amputation in front of a large crowd. Similar tongue amputations also reportedly occurred.22

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Vietnam was serious, this is farce.