Actually, this whole thread has been a sidesplitter from the get-go. We have Carrol, whose posts go something like:
I'm not sure what this "we" is "you" refer to. There's "me" and there's "you." There's "that guy other there" and there's "see that woman down by the coffee filters?" But "we"? This is the type of empty armchair rhetoric that "I" would expect from a first year student from the suburbs. And "s/he" would receive a bad grade and a stern lecture from "me," that I can assure "you." As for "us" and the rest of "you," "I" can offer merely a disapproving tone and a head shake at "my" screen.
Oh, yes. The Iraqis should kill each other and get it over with. As Milton was fond of saying, "Fuck them."
And then Yoshie:
Educated Western progressives have no business telling the Iraqi resistance what to do. It's their problem, not ours, even though we're paying for it. Only until we establish a well disciplined union or social movement organized around the struggles of the working class and the crushed peoples of colors of the developing world can we really say something that matters. First there should be a straw poll, then some workshopping with the results of the poll. Then a floor vote followed by debates dealing with the final tally. Then a show of hands followed by apple juice and cookies. And even then it's not our call.
There's a fine film playing at campuses nationwide that deals with this problem, "The Vistas of Political Options and the Struggles That Make A Movement" (2003, Force Fed Films, Kanyatta Person, director), and it is a perfect device to provoke the type of long, drawn out discussions and countless votes and tallies that are necessary to form a collective opinion that should remain to ourselves.
And, finally, Steve Philion:
---- oooooh, yeah, just like those stories about how saddam "killed" all those shias . . .oooh, i'm sooooooooo scared of the ba'athists! ooooohhhhh they're coming to get me!
----- another 47 iraqis blown up. wow man! that's great! that'll show those warmongers like hitchens! the antiwar movement has to recognize the potential here to organize around all those dead bodies. wait a sec . . . . the imperialist stooges at cnn just reported that another 32 iraqis, mostly women and children, were killed in a bomb blast in baghdad today. whoooo! my head's spinning! this is too good to keep! gotta post this over at maxspeak!
Yes, Doug. Performance artists indeed.
DP