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Anti-War Thoughts
Feb. 17th, 2003 10:16 am(I was starting to write "Anti-War" and only got to "Anti-W" before I got distracted. When I came back and saw that, I smiled; they're perhaps not synonymous terms, but related: anti-war...anti-Dubya.)
I think Saddam is bad, but war is worse. Yet I don't think it's this anti-war prejudice that gets me so rritated with the people who are antagonistic to the anti-war movement. I think they're actually just that bad.
I'm home sick today, and watching the idiot box. People on Fox News or CNN or something were reading people's e-mailed reactions to the widespread war protests that went on over the weekend. One was written by someone unhappy with the protestors because "they would be the first to blame Washington if we were attacked on our own soil."
Oh, how sad, I thought. What does that have to do with it? People actually believe that if we don't annihilate Saddam that's going to have consequences for "our soil"? I must congratulate George Bush for being able to convince people that if we don't blow up Saddam Hussein, terrorism will run rampant in America.
Someone who was complaining about "the anti-war idiots" causing a traffic jam in Minneapolis called all people who are against war "sprout-eating sign-wielding IQ-lacking drugged-up strung-out irrational peacenik hippies."
Hey. I'm no idiot. I don't like sprouts and am actually quite carnivorous. I haven't touched an anti-war sign. I've never had an IQ test, but am confident that I'm of above-average intelligence. I've never touched dtugs. I'm not all that irrational--not for being against the war, definitely! I'm no peacenik, not even a pacifist. I believe that there are times when war is necessary...but that this is not one of those times. And I'm definitely not a hippie. But I am anti-war!
Considering the fact that protests were held and widely attended all over the world (and the fact that this is no longer the 1960s!), I don't think I'm the only one who doesn't fit this stereotype. It is inaccurate to compartmentalize protestors in such a way. I have read and seen pictures of many people who say they've never done anything like this before; many protestors now weren't even alive during the Vietnam era. The anti-war sentiment is not confined to one small group of people who share some defect, or something.
I think Saddam is bad, but war is worse. Yet I don't think it's this anti-war prejudice that gets me so rritated with the people who are antagonistic to the anti-war movement. I think they're actually just that bad.
I'm home sick today, and watching the idiot box. People on Fox News or CNN or something were reading people's e-mailed reactions to the widespread war protests that went on over the weekend. One was written by someone unhappy with the protestors because "they would be the first to blame Washington if we were attacked on our own soil."
Oh, how sad, I thought. What does that have to do with it? People actually believe that if we don't annihilate Saddam that's going to have consequences for "our soil"? I must congratulate George Bush for being able to convince people that if we don't blow up Saddam Hussein, terrorism will run rampant in America.
Someone who was complaining about "the anti-war idiots" causing a traffic jam in Minneapolis called all people who are against war "sprout-eating sign-wielding IQ-lacking drugged-up strung-out irrational peacenik hippies."
Hey. I'm no idiot. I don't like sprouts and am actually quite carnivorous. I haven't touched an anti-war sign. I've never had an IQ test, but am confident that I'm of above-average intelligence. I've never touched dtugs. I'm not all that irrational--not for being against the war, definitely! I'm no peacenik, not even a pacifist. I believe that there are times when war is necessary...but that this is not one of those times. And I'm definitely not a hippie. But I am anti-war!
Considering the fact that protests were held and widely attended all over the world (and the fact that this is no longer the 1960s!), I don't think I'm the only one who doesn't fit this stereotype. It is inaccurate to compartmentalize protestors in such a way. I have read and seen pictures of many people who say they've never done anything like this before; many protestors now weren't even alive during the Vietnam era. The anti-war sentiment is not confined to one small group of people who share some defect, or something.