From The Ramparts

Either You Are For Peace Or You Are For War

Either You Are For Peace Or You Are For War

“What's notable about the demonstrators of 2005 is how different they are from the protesters of the 1960s. The Vietnam era's antiwar movement got much of its energy and many of its foot soldiers from college campuses. And that, for a time, affected the movement's credibility. For students to march against the war, critics suggested, was not so much about politics as about cultural identity and self-interest, since young male college students, upon graduation, faced the prospect of military conscription. Many of Wednesday's protesters, by contrast, were taxpaying, gray-haired adults, urban and suburban. Among them were parents of soldiers, and the parents' neighbors, and people with no stake in the fight other than their beliefs. Such people are potentially harder for politicians to dismiss than college students. But if there is to be an antiwar movement of real consequence this time around, beyond what developed in the run-up to the war, it will need the energy and numbers that only the campuses can provide. Until now, in the absence of a military draft, there has been little mass action on campus. That will start to change in September, when students get back to school. Or it won't. At the same time, members of Congress will be returning to the capital after the August recess, having spent at least some of it listening to the home folks talk about the war. The lawmakers will be more willing to voice doubts about the Bush administration's handling of the war and to demand a timetable for bringing the troops home. Or they won't.”- Anti-War Landscape May Shift In September by Larry Eichel Philadelphia Inquirer 08-21-05

Cindy Sheehan's vigil has had an impact on the national consciousness, it has hardened the division lines between the Blue and Red States, anti-war and fascists, those who are pro system and apolitical grass roots activists. Thus far except for the massive outpouring of anti-war sentiment prior to Bush invading Iraq, those who opposed the war have been relatively silent in contrast to the massive pro-war propaganda campaign waged by the Bush administration and their minions in the corporate media. The Rove attack machine and his cable news sycophants drowned anyone out who dared vocalize misgivings or opposition to Bush’s imperialistic follies, painting them as fools or benighted liberals. Now as the inexorable KARMA Bush has wrought continues to materialize and the war and occupation are going badly, his approval ratings are plummeting lower every day. Major scandals in theValerie Plame investigation and AIPAC Spy case are percolating under the public’s consciousness due to under reporting by the Zionist influenced/controlled corporate media but despite that the people are losing confidence in Bush and his handling of the war. As we approach the forth anniversary of 9-1, look for an increasingly desperate Bush to use that event to bolster his sagging ratings and push his fascist war agenda. Cindy Sheehan, a mother who lost her son in Iraq and, a founding member of Gold Star Mothers an anti-war group has single handedly with help from a normally callous and pro administration media has put even more pressure on Bush and helped stoke the fires of a moribund anti-war movement. Her cries and quesiotns have helped bring the insanity and a critical examination of the immorality of the NeoConmen’s war to the public’s awareness. Cindy Sheehan may in fact be the catalyst to ignite a massive anti-war movement that will eventually bring down the Republican and Democratic Party sponsored war machine.
Most anti-war supporters put their hopes in the traditional Democratic Party whose roots were in blue collar, civil rights and “progressive”social movements. However the right leaning Democratic Leadership Committee (who can best be described as Republican Lite) undermined the Democratic Party's anti-war candidates and their platform. Anti-Bush and anti-war sentiment was so high in spite of John Kerry’s lackluster personality and ambivalent but essentially pro war campaign progressives held heir noses and voted in dorves for Kerry. The 2004 Presidential race pitted the anti-war community against acolytes of fascist imperialism. After a hard-fought campaign won by Bush using election dirty tricks; the anti-war camp’s hopes faded as the situation continued to worsen in Iraq. Bush and the NeoConmen emboldened by their election “victory”, pursued their plans to scuttle remnants of the New Deal by privatizing Social Security. But this gambit turned many AmeriKKKans against him and his corporatist programs. Reports documenting Bush’s lies have further alienated him from the public. So Cindy Sheehan’s vigil is bringing things into clearer focus. Folks are starting to see you can shout out the emperor is naked and people will acknowledge and rally around that truth. AmeriKKKa is at a critical juncture it its history, either sanity will prevail, the anti-war movement will assert itself, gain momentum, pick up grass roots and middle class moral support and efficiently derail the imperialist agenda or, the fascists will win and AmeriKKKa will plunge headlong into an abyss of moral impotence, perpetual war, resource sapping militarism and ruinous imperialism.

-30-

posted by Junious Ricardo Stanton @ 9:41 AM