January 20, 2003 - I love when articles about the anti-war movement are punctuated with pictures of the bleeding bodies of slain foriegn children.

To address Joshua Chamberlain's points: frankly, people went to the anti-war marches for an incalculable number of reasons. Some agree with my points, some are pacifists, some don't like this war, some don't like our reliance on foriegn oil, some are there to take pictures, smoke weed and pick up chicks, some are irony-loving hawks, and in a group of tens of thousands of people some undoubtedly support the goals of International ANSWER.

So if the devil builds the pulpit, that a message of non-intervention shouldn't get its turn at the mic? Sounds like a wasted opportunity to me.

Mere attendance doesn't mean the thousands of others gave them a free pass. It says they had a hand in organizing a large event that citizens used to express their own distinct viewpoints. Saying its anything more is an oversimplification.

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Jane Galt said the same thing, just a little more clearly. I still believe that the number of people with a simple anti-war agenda at the rally sufficiently diluted any message of hate from the speakers. What's true is that the message legislators got from this is known only to the legislators.

The comments on that article are well worth the read.

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The Washington Post gets in on the stupid leftist bashing. I'm starting to realize that there may be more to the company you keep.

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Yep, people are killed by other people every day. Those people often don't have a choice or a say in their own lives. I agree that it's a lousy way to treat a fellow human being. If intervention could solve this problem, I'd be in total support of it. The problem arises when our country involves itself in the conflicts of other countries and always acts in the interests of United States citizens.

Logically, there's no reason why it shouldn't. United States citizens as a whole stand behind their government because it acts in precisely this way. Practically, this sort of influence overseas tends to be as effective as sneezing in a petri dish to change how it grows. Change occurs, but its unpredictable and goes off in its own direction the minute we look away and focus on other obligations.

Rulers perch on fragile and unpredictable power structures. Seven justices got George W. Bush into office, after all. Nobody can say with any certainty whether toppling those structures through outside influence will create a better or worse situation. They can pretend to, but who can predict the changing shapes of a culture in the petri dish? Nations of human beings aren't any more predictable.

People who say that inaction or protest against action is an endorsement of evil either credit the world with more natural order and common sense than it deserves, or are overly confident of their own clairvoyance. Unless the United States wants to be an empire which devotes resources to moulding other countries in its image, its effects will be transient and arguably no better than inaction.

Anyway, your article gave me a good segue into an anti-empire rant. Thanks.

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During the Nuremberg Trials after World War II, Nazi leader Hermann Goering said, "Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger."

There is quite a significant background behind this quote, but its context is very much present day, as much as some people would like to deny it.

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Here are Ten sticky and nicely blasphemous things true patriots can do right now to help keep America free by Mark Morford of the SFGate.

Iraq isn't as big of a threat as North Korea. So why are we collecting troops in Iraq and doing nothing about Kim Jong Il even as they dismantle monitoring devices and stockpile nuclear weapons. Besides, the major things we say they're doing wrong are things they did while we considered them a useful ally.

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Every day, the Pentagon brings us a little closer to the Terminator movies.

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