Re: The future of the antiwar movement

["Eli Stephens" <elishastephens@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

The blog "Whiskey Bar" (a.k.a. Billmon) - http://www.billmon.org/ - is one
of the more progressive blogs on the net. Not a "hard left" blog like Left I
on the News by any means, but definitely progressive. He's just started a
thread for his readers on Saturday's demos, and very quickly got a series of
responses which I think are worth posting here to show the sentiment that is
out there. It's not REAL encouraging.
----

I marched in a couple of these back before the Iraq invasion. Back then the
main message was let the inspections work or more simply "No War in Iraq".
What's the message now? Are the marchers advocating immediate withdrawal of
troops? What do people think would happen if we just started pulling troops
out without troops under a UN umbrella coming in? Seems a bit risky to me.
Posted by MattInBrooklyn at October 23, 2003 06:09 PM

The answer to "can things get any worse" with this administration is always
yes .
Posted by Patrick Berrry at October 23, 2003 06:47 PM

I agree with MattinBrooklyn. I'll march again when the message is clear and
the organizers are mainstream.

I'm proud to have marched in October 2002, even thought International ANSWER
ran the show, because no one else was seizing the initiative. But times have
changed -- Howard Dean is a front-runner, MoveOn.org can marshall millions
in donations, etc., etc. We opponents to the war, occupation, and preemptive
world domination are still being red-baited, but why invite the abuse by
joining a demo co-organized by Int'l ANSWER, which will doubtless attempt to
dilute the message with umpteen subsidiary left issues. When it comes to
matters of war and peace, I prefer my demonstrations Mumia-free.
Posted by ralphbon at October 23, 2003 06:49 PM

The march here in SF (and DC) is on Saturday 10/25. See
www.internationalanswer.org.

The main slogan for the marches I have seen is "Bring the Troops Home Now".
I'm not sure what ANSWER's position is in detail, but my position - and from
what I can tell the progressive position - is not to abandon Iraq but to do
whatever it takes (give up control of the politics, oil, rebuilding
contracts) to change the situation from a US occupation to a truly
international UN peacekeeping operation.

Results: no US troops getting killed daily, (most of) the US troops can come
home, our standing in the international community and in the arab world goes
way up, less leverage for terrorist recruitment.
Posted by shystee at October 23, 2003 06:50 PM

You could just have an anti-Bush admin message...something like
"qWagmire"...but yeah, simple pulling out isn't the answer.
Posted by Kris at October 23, 2003 07:02 PM

Since I live in DC I am going to the march to take pics.

That said, I think this march is a very bad idea. Right now it is difficult
to write off the movemont because there is no resistance movement
(ill-informed kids with dreads and hoodies) to make fun of. My guess is that
this march will be a godsend to Fox News.

I know they will always pick out the most ill-informed and parade them as an
example of what the typical anti-war American is (even Jon Stewart does),
but to just hand it to them on a silver platter?

Oh yeah, and a unilateral withdrawl would be fucking disaster, particularly
for all the Iraqis that trusted us enough to work with us.
Posted by Ted at October 23, 2003 07:35 PM

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