The Great Vindication Of The Anti-War Movement

[Presstitutes]

... & How It Reflects On War-Happy Wingers, Clueless Democrats, & The Shamefaced Media.

In case the world hasn't noticed, the events of the past few months have vindicated the millions of people in the U.S. and around the world who protested the Iraq invasion on the basis that it was being justified by lies and that it would lead to a long, bloody struggle.

It's fascinating - and disturbing - to listen to pundits deconstruct the inner workings of the White House Iraq Group, to have Bush Sr.-era stalwarts like Brent Scowcroft break with the administration, to watch the New York Times implode over Judy Miller's neo-con cheerleading, to see the Plame scandal come to a head.... three years late.

And it's a terrible confirmation of our worst fears that we've hit the 2000 milestone in Iraq and the country is more violent than ever, with America fundamentally less safe than it was before the invasion.

What's so breathtaking (yet so predictable) is that in all the retroactive analysis, the hand-wringing, and the grudging acknowledgment of the mess that Iraq has become, the fact that the outcome of this grand misadventure was predicted by anti-war demonstrators goes unmentioned. It didn't take foreign policy experience or national security expertise or top-secret Intel briefings for the anti-war movement to know, unequivocally, that the Iraq invasion was a hyped-up, over-sold war. It was crystal clear from day one what Bush, Cheney, Condi, Rummy, Colin, et al were up to.

So let's remember where everyone stood while the anti-war marchers spilled onto our streets and spoke with one voice and one conscience:

PRE$$TITUTES

Severely restricted coverage of the protests and spent their time glorifying Bush and beating the drums of war. It's a little late for them to start asking questions.

WAR-HAPPY WINGERS

"Supported the troops" with bumper stickers and jingoism, slandering anti-war protesters as traitors. It's a little late for them to start doubting Bush's judgment.

CLUELESS DEMOCRATS

Paid little attention to the outcry from their core supporters, hoping to be seen as "strong on terror" - as though strength were anything but the force of one's moral convictions. To this day they continue to search for a clue while the entire country has moved past them. It's a little late for them to start floating tired slogans like "Together, America can do better."

It's awful for the anti-war movement to be so right about something so catastrophic as a war based on lies and deceptions, but it behooves America to give credit to those who predicted every step of this sorry journey. Maybe next time they'll listen more closely. And then again...

http://www.presstitutes.com/

[annabanana]

1. yes

just yes.

nom.

[Hissyspit]

2. I felt so alone in 2002 and 2003.

It was before I discovered DU. I would talk in class to my students and think "They know what I'm talking about, right?" Maybe they thought I was crazy.

"There IS NO connection between Iraq and al Qaeda!" I yelled out one day at the start of class. They just stared at me.

Two days before the war: "You realize there not going to find any weapons of mass destruction, don't you?" I said to my class full of mostly soldiers.

I watched as friends fell for the bullshit - friends.

I had one friend I could talk to about it. He knew.
I had Will and Scott's book about the lies.

But, yes, I felt alone.

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. I lived in navy housing at the time

turst me I can identify, that said your students, mostly soldiers, they had no way to agree or disagree with you... they were ordered, they had no choice.. just a note on this...

[Hissyspit]

8. Actually, there were pretty good about it.

I usally have a decent about of stored-up good will because I am a good teacher, plus the soldiers enjoy being out of the day-time military work situation and in a situation where they are encouraged to speak their mind.

[yorkiemommie1]

6. i felt alone too

that day in March 2003 when i disagreed about the coming war w/ a group whom I was having dinner with. I felt alone when my daughter's friends tried to hang me out to dry when I predicted chaos, upheaval, and many deaths. ( These friends, btw, who never enlisted. )

I have heard NOTHING from these folks. I wonder how they feel now.

[Zynx]

17. I gave a speech in my right-wing high school in December of 2002

against the war in Iraq and some people accepted my arguments, but others said, "They're a bunch of terrorists.". *sigh*

[Gildor Inglorion]

3. I wish it felt BETTER to be right...I wish we could have saved 2,000

American lives and countless Iraqis and others. I wish saying "I told you so," would make me happy. But mostly I wish we didn't have to face the hideous consequences - political, economic, diplomatic, and legal - that "electing" B*shit and his merry gang of mobsters will bring about. I also wish I personally didn't feel so VINDICTIVE toward the mindless morons who have supported and still continue to support this clutch of monsters. I'd love to round them up, one and all, and deposit them unarmed in some predominantly-Sunni area of Iraq. x(

[SupplyConcerns]

7. All we can change is the future

Because of that, we have reason to be glad. We can be fairly sure that now less blood will be shed for the rest of this war, if only because Americans are waking up. Putting a few of the war's architects in prison couldn't hurt, either.

[malmapus]

22. With you there brother

I'd rather have the 2,000+ dead be alive again and the what 15,000+ wounded be whole.

I felt like a lone voice myself (had just moved from SF to Rivertucky of all places, shortyly after we went into Iraq. Before in San Francisco didn't feel so much as a lone voice (espicially at that march before we went in!). But I kept on telling others around me in Riverside that this was wrong, and kept getting pointed out to that we were "kicking those Iraqi's asses". I would just shake my head and say "we're not defeating them, they're just melting into the populace". I so could see what was coming our way and hate the fact that I sit here today with all those predictions I was making back then be correct.

But I tell you, I will NEVER let those that supported and still support this bullshit get away on a free ticket. I will shove all this bullshit in their faces and espicially those that voted for this adminstration again, I will remind them of the blood that they have on their hands.

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[swimboy]

18. Thanks for your post, CoolRam.

and welcome to DU! :hi:

[twaddler01]

9. I heard it too

i thought i was the only one who thought this war was crap...it is sad that everyone's mind is FINALLY changing after how many years? :argh:

We trusted a president that shouldn't have been trusted....

[niallmac]

10. THIS...is a really good post! I hope every man woman and child

who beat the streets against this war is recognized today tomorrow and for posterity.

[Jacobin]

11. Nominated

I've had similar thoughts, but you put them into words very well.

[BrklynLiberal]

12. YES!!!! nominated!!

[Burried News]

13. Beautiful Post - Thank you.

"It's fascinating - and disturbing - to listen to pundits deconstruct the inner workings of the White House Iraq Group, to have Bush Sr.-era stalwarts like Brent Scowcroft break with the administration, to watch the New York Times implode over Judy Miller's neo-con cheerleading, to see the Plame scandal come to a head.... three years late."

I posted for over three years on other sites to try to stop this war - seemed like alot of messages got through BUT here we are at 2000 Americans dead, over 10,000 wounded. Lord knows how many Iraqi's are in these two categories.

And let us not forget how many protestors at great personal time and expense tried to change the direction of this country.

This war is tragic and needs to end. Those who lied (and bullied those trying to tell the truth) need to go to jail. And the party that supported all of this needs to be held accountable. No matter what happens with the indictments, we have along way to go to build the America we thought we had.

[Presstitutes]

15. Thank you

to everyone who stood up and tried to stop the warmongers.

[Zinfandel]

14. I knew the exploitation was coming the moment 9-11 occurred, as I was

lying in bed in CA watching it on TV, and Bush's poll number's were sinking, (below 48%) up until that point...I knew what they were going to do to exploit the tragedy...but, not to the extent it has gotten to...I thought for sure the democratic "leadership" or the media would call them on something, anything, since then...That's where I was way too overly optimistic.

And here we are.

[hvn_nbr_2]

16. It was so clear from day 1 that they were lying

It seemed clear to me that many of the Dems and liberals who voted for the war could see that it was all lies but didn't have the courage to speak up.

I don't remember my Greek mythology very well. What ever became of Cassandra? (Hope I have the right name--the one who was always right but no one ever believed her.)

[liberalla]

19. It was clear to me too.

I just remember being stunned and shocked at all the people racing to jump on board the war wagon! I kept thinking something would happen to slow the momentum... cooler heads would prevail and REASON would return. I was flabbergasted that seemingly nothing could stop the rush to war. What were these people seeing that I wasn't? I didn't feel alone so much as powerless. Powerless that now in America the leaders ignored their own citizens. They were immune to public opinion and protest.

[gulfcoastliberal]

20. K&R

Clueless aka spineless dems.

[Peace Patriot]

21. Yes! You are so right! This is EXACTLY what democracy is about:

the CORRECTIVE MECHANISM of LISTENING TO THE PEOPLE!

Suppressing information, and permitting monopolies of news and opinion, are the death of democracy. It cannot correct itself. It cannot find the right course in the first place, and went it steers way wrong, cannot change course.

But, of course, we know why this has happened. War profiteers and the super-rich are stealing us blind, with war, and in every other way. The marginalization of dissent is quite deliberate. And I don't think we can succeed by appeals to war profiteering corporate news monopolies for fairness, or appeals to bought and paid for politicians who are so deeply corrupt they don't even recognize it any more. It is their way of life.

We have to look to the mechanisms of power--as we are here at DU, "being" the media, but even more fundamentally, we must recover our right to vote, which has now been absorbed into the private corporate world, with Bushite corporations gaining control of vote tabulation in the new electronic voting systems, using "TRADE SECRET," PROPRIETARY programming code.

This can only be corrected at the state/local level, where control over election systems still resides, and where ordinary people still have some influence. (Congress is worse than useless.)

Throw Diebold and ES&S election theft machines into 'Boston Harbor' NOW!

------------

58% of the American people opposed the Iraq war before the invasion--before all the lies were exposed, before the full horror and costs of it were known. I'll never forget that stat. Feb. '03. 58%! And so why could we not get our will implemented?

[thermomode]

23. An open letter to the DU Admins

You claim to be for freedom of expression, yet you limit the topics and posters here to those who share your views. Why is that?

Is there no civility left on the left to have an open and honest discussion? I am looking to debate you on the issue in a respectful manner without being banned for stating something factual that might contradict something in your belief system.

Remember, an echo chamber doesn’t prepare you for the real world.

What say you?

[Zynx]

24. Let's see...I got banned from FR for saying Bush hasn't managed

the budget well and saying I didn't trust him on abortion to be sincere. Here on DU, you can rip Democrats up and down for being incompetent right-wingers. On FR, you so much as hint you don't agree with Il Douche(that is intentional) you get banned.

[grace0418]

25. It's a little late but not too late...

I totally agree with the OP 100%, excellent read. But while I'm frustrated that NOW suddenly people are realizing what we protesters have known all along, I'm still glad they're finally waking up. It's better than the alternative, which would be all of them still acting like the war is the best thing since sliced bread.

Of course, it *IS* too late for the 2000 soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqis who've lost their lives. And for that I will forever hold the war-mongers and pressitutes responsible.

It is nice to be right, but it doesn't feel good because it's at such a terrible cost.

[mzmolly]

26. "The Left Was Right"

Again ...

[Inland]

27. IN FACT BASED REALITY, BEING RIGHT STILL COUNTS FOR SOMETHING

Props to Dr. Dean, the anti war protesters, the dems that voted against the Iraq war resolution, et al. FOR BEING RIGHT. Being right STILL counts for something. Not winning the spin, not making points on the sunday shows, but being right, because NOT being right gets people killed and hurts our country.

This war was a bad idea ab initio. I can make excuses for everyone else for trusting Bush, but for those who don't need excuses and should have been listened to, thanks for trying.

[AnneD]

28. On my own

without any tainted data, I concluded that...
1. Al Quada was responsible for 9/11. In fact when I saw the second plane hit I muttered to fellow workers, well al Quada finally did it.
2. SH was not linked to 911 and OBL. OK now that took a little work. I had to google a bit to get data. Took me about 2 weeks of researching in my spare time and checking sources.
3. SH had WMD. That was a bit murky. I had to go by the UN report and SH reaction and brinksmanship. I knew he did not want to tangle with the US again and he became more and more compliant and volunteered info. I suspected he was trying to prevent an attack. The increased saber ratteling on the part of the US increased Iraqi cooperation and raised the red flag for me. The evidence Powell presented was bogus and I knew it at the time.

I spoke out in a logical fashion on every thread I participated on and was driven off on 2 because of RWers. I got tired of debunking their lies over and over. I got tired of the personal attacks. I left and hit the streets. I have come to believe change will come only by civil disobedience in this instance.
I feel guilty for praying that we would find WMD in Iraq so we would at least have a shred of honour in the court of world opinion. I feel guilty that I didn't do more to save more Americans from an untimely deaths. I feel guilty for being right. And I feel guily that I couldn't convience enough people before we went into Iraq. I guess some lessons you are doomed to repeat.