Politics

I think the logic of all of the people who say anti-war protesters are coddling (or appeasing) a dictator boils down to this: “If those Iraqis knew what was good for them, they would let us bomb them to rescue them from Saddam Hussein and bring them democracy.”

If anyone has a better link for this, let me know. I’m going to protest the INS special registrations downtown at Federal Plaza on Friday.

More info on this topic may be found here.

From No More Mister Nice Blog, an excerpt from an interview with Chirac. Do you think any of our “leaders” have worked in menial jobs in Europe, even really know anything about it?

Courtesy of Travelers Diagram:

“If all the barbarian conquerors had been annihilated in the same hour, their total destruction would not have restored the empire of the West: and if Rome still survived, she survived the loss of freedom, of virtue, and of honour.”

–Edward Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Chapter 35

I can’t find this anywhere else.

But there’s more to it than that. The Bush administration – which is in the midst of trying to sell the war to the public – filed a brief urging the judges to uphold denial of the permit. And the Bloomberg administration has no intention of forcing a St. Patrick’s Day standstill instead of a parade – even though it’s bigger and likely more raucous.

Thanks to Atrios for the link.

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Update: The Village Voice wrote about it in this week’s issue.

Even though I think the 250,000 number is low for NYC, look at the numbers in this Reuters story:

NYC: 250,000
London: 500,000
Berlin: 500,000
France: 300,000 (For the whole country? Maybe because their government is on the right side?)

Barcelona: 1.3 million
Rome: 1 million

The weather was cold, the dissent was hot. I got back a little while ago from the anti-war rally. Unlike Tom Moody, who was part of the crowds that the police kept away, I made it to First Avenue. I was marching with the truly fabulous GLAMericans, including Justin Bond, Cathay Che, Mike Albo, and Florent Morillet.

GLAMericans are a non-partisan group of funky Americans committed to non-violence and its promotion through glamorous, media-savvy, cultural events. We believe in America’s potential to be a peaceful and powerful force in the world. We believe that war is bad for our country, bad for our environment and bad for our travel plans.

Among the GLAMerican chants and signs:

• Glamour not War
• Dior not War
• Makeup not War — sounds like “Make Love not War”
• Foreplay not Warplay
• Peace is not a Fringe Movement
• War is so last century
• Resistance is fertile
• Money for shopping, not for bomb dropping
• Fake Fur Real Peace
• Peace the Ultimate Luxury
• Couture not War
• Peace is Pretty

Other non-GLAMerican signs:

• Tony Blair / Yankee Poodle
• God Bless Hysteria
• The last time we listened to a Bush, we wandered in the desert for 40 years

I heard some of the speakers, including Desmond Tutu, Danny Glover, and Angela Davis. Poet Saul Williams read an awesome poem — my favorite line was “Your prayers between rounds”.

As Tom Moody indicated earlier, the crowd control was pretty ridiculous. There could have been more people around First Avenue, but the police were really trying to prevent huge crowds from getting there. There were also no portable toilets — the police claimed they would be a “security hazard”. Of course terrorists would hide bombs in those rather than cars and trucks. I heard stuff about arrests and police using horses to charge crowds on the radio, but I didn’t see any of that where I was. Go read James on this topic.

I put some photos in the gallery area. My favorite thing I saw was a group of junior high or high school kids carrying images from Picasso’s Guernica.

There is an AP story that was quoted at the rally by the moderator that talks about the U.S. and Great Britain maybe backing down a bit:

Rattled by an outpouring of anti-war sentiment, the United States and Britain began reworking a draft resolution Saturday to authorize force against Saddam Hussein.

Diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the final product may be a softer text that doesn’t explicitly call for war.

P.S. Last night I saw National Guardsmen with automatic rifles and camouflage (in Manhattan?!) at two subway stations.

TBOGG:

The world is a hornet’s nest and we now have the profound bad luck to be living in it under a child armed with a big stick while a bunch of his friends “double-dog dare” him to just do it and see what happens.

The United States Congress has stepped in to find nearly $300 million in humanitarian and reconstruction funds for Afghanistan after the Bush administration failed to request any money in the latest budget.

Why don’t people trust the U.S. when we tell them we’re bombing them for their own good, and to promote democracy?

Thanks to Atrios for the link.

The Mirror (UK):

New York Post: