I remember what I was doing about three years ago. It was that fantastic Sunday when the world broke out in protests against the war in Iraq. You were there.
My wife and I skipped church (because you shouldn’t let religion get in the way of morality) and took the kids to Perth city where we marched and shouted.
Oldest Boy was eight. I was explaining about why we were protesting, and he said, “So if George Bush sees us, and knows we all don’t want war, then he may decide not to attack Iraq. Right?”
Dear child.
“No,” I said. “He’s already decided to attack Iraq, and he will.”
“Then why are we doing this?” he asked.
“Because it’s important for us to do the right thing. Whatever happens, we want it to go down on the record that we said no.”
And we saw what a fat lot of good our sign-carrying and sloganeering did.
Yesterday, Oldest Boy asked me, “So is Bush going to bomb Iran?”
“Yes,” I said. “He is.”
Because Iran is next. We’ve done such a crackerjack job in Iraq that now it’s time to extend the neocon experiment. And I don’t know of any protests, though there may yet be. And I’ll carry out the same silly exercise that I did three years ago. And the bombs will fall anyway, and the empires will crumble. And Americans will still send me emails about peeance and freeance to convince themselves that the death they unleash from the sky and the torture of other people’s children is in fact God’s will.
I don’t know what to do to stop it. I don’t have very much power. I have a little money, which I can direct where I want. I can vote, but I’m only one vote. I have a blog that gets read by 10 people on a good day. It’s nothing, really.
But I will use any power I have, however pathetic and futile, to say no.
20 March 2006 at 10:52 pm
I’d send you an email about “peeance and freeance” if I knew what the heck you are talking about. Is it a context thing?
3 years ago, I was also marching through the streets of Seattle, 6 months pregnant with swollen ankles, and stopping to use the bathrooms every 3 blocks or so. It felt good. I also participated in Seattle’s other contribution to the global dialogue – the WTO protests.
There was a time when a big protest meant alot – when TV would cover it, and it was shocking to see so many people shouting. Protests don’t seem to do much now, except reinforce the world view of the folks within the march. “Look! Everyone is with us! Won’t be long now before we change the world, and I don’t even have to change my lifestyle for more than an afternoon.”
Now 30,000 can gather in Chicago to protest new immigration laws, and no one blinks.
21 March 2006 at 5:18 am
Yes, we Americans sure do love invading other countries for no other reason than to torture foreign kids.
But seriously, what I would love to see is for us to stop helping everyone, everywhere. No more foreign aid, no more sale of wheat to Russia, no more American Red Cross showing up at the latest natural disaster to claim thousands of lives in some third-world country. Having a famine? Call France. Being invaded by your neighbor? Ask the Swiss to send some Army knives. Earthquake level your capital? Tough luck. Kangaroos on the rampage through Alice Springs? More power to ’em.
Could you and your like-minded friends please resent America without accusing us of torturing children? Is that too much to ask?
Thank you.
21 March 2006 at 6:46 am
Yes, we Americans sure do love invading other countries for no other reason than to torture foreign kids.
Yes, your president has no problem with invading other countries. No, you don’t love torturing foreign kids. I do suspect, however, that you aren’t very concerned if it happens. You don’t even seem to be aware of it.
But seriously, what I would love to see is for us to stop helping everyone, everywhere.
So if the USA can’t stop doing something bad, it shouldn’t do anything good either? I’ve got a better idea. Do what’s good, and don’t do what’s bad. That would be a good thing, right? Something like being a good world citizen. We need more of them.
Could you and your like-minded friends please resent America without accusing us of torturing children? Is that too much to ask?
And could you and your like-minded friends please become informed about the issue before posting? Is that too much to ask?
Seymour Hersh’s account
More sources
Wikipedia page
If anyone has updates on this, or reasons why the above links are incorrect, please post them. Until then, the accusation stands.
Goodness gracious, would you listen to yourself.
21 March 2006 at 5:27 pm
Does shooting kids qualify?
Seattle Times
Or this different incident that happened more recently:
6-month-old infant
2 reported in as many days implies that it’s happening pretty often. There’s no way we hear about every awful thing that’s going on over there.