[lbo-talk] March 20, 2004, Columbus, OH: A Day That WillLive In Infamy

[Joseph Wanzala]

Doug reported that there were no Nader buttons at the New York demos, as 
though this is the only indicator of opinion about Nader. In any case, most 
if not all nader supporters are not 'Naderites' just people who think he 
offers a real alternative to Numskull and Bonehead. It goes without saying 
that Nader supporters were part of the spectrum of people at antiwar 
Demonstrators around the country. Indeed Ralph Nader spoke at an anti-war 
rally in Crawford, Texas. This business about Nader being anathema is just 
b.s. I'm sure there are some weirdos who can't bear to hear his name, but 
any really opposed to the Bush agenda has nothing against Nader.

http://www.chron.org/tools/viewart.php?artid=642

In December 1998, Bill Clinton and Tony Blair launched a bombing campaign on 
Iraq, Operation Desert Fox, which involved the launching of 415 cruise 
missiles and 200 other bombs. Clinton justified the attacks thusly: "Saddam 
Hussein has used weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles before. 
I have no doubt he would use them again if permitted to develop them. When I 
halted military action against Saddam last November after he had terminated 
the UNSCOM operations, I made it very clear that we were giving him a last 
chance to cooperate."

The rhetoric was similar to what Bush's team is saying in 2003, minus the 
humanitarian aspect of actually removing Saddam Hussein. But what was the 
reaction?

In New York City, 600 protestors organized to march and hear a speech by 
Ramsey Clark. The Houston Chronicle filed reports of "nearly a hundred" 
members of the Young Socialists waving banners in the streets. Denver saw a 
dozen activists come together; in Minnesota, 125 activists met with Sen. 
Paul Wellstone for an anti-war forum.

That was it; and these protesters were the hard Left, the kind that think 
Kim Il Jong is a shining beacon of hope and equality. They weren't joined by 
the Hollywood activists or the liberal punditocracy - because those types 
were busy backing Bill Clinton.

Sheryl Crow, who has taken to vocally opposing "Mr. Bush's war" in the last 
year, spent one night of the Desert Fox campaign performing at the White 
House. Two years previous she had entertained troops in Bosnia; she told 
reporters that "once over there I felt extremely patriotic. Here are these 
people, from 18-year-olds to military veterans, enduring real duress for the 
cause of peace."

But there are more salient examples of the way George Bush has inspired 
liberals to oppose what they used to accept as just foreign policy. 
According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, liberal Mother Jones magazine 
has increased sales by 48.8 percent in the last year. The New Republic is up 
42.3 percent, Harper's Magazine is up 28.1 percent and The Nation is up 15.9 
percent.

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