How They Get Away With It

[Cato1]

Three reasons Washington’s empire-builders don’t have to worry about ’60s-style dissent—not including the volunteer Army

by Scott McConnell

It was surprising how many people seemed to take genuine pleasure in British MP George Galloway’s contentious appearance before the Senate Subcommittee on Investigations. He was, after all, only a former left-Labor Party backbencher, a bit pink in his associations. And notwithstanding the vigor of his denials, the nature of his financial relationship to Saddam’s Oil for Food program was not entirely cleared up.

More at:
http://www.amconmag.com/2005_07_04/article.html

[eleny]

1. And now it's the mothers who emerge in leadership roles

In the 60s, it was those against the draft. Now it's the mothers. As I said in a posting a few minutes ago - the old epithets of "lefty" can't prevail against the love, loss and grief of mothers.

[bridgit]

2. control the message, control the ball...

if anyone has anything to say accuse his grandmother of being a whore; that should keep him off balance till the clock runs out = the rnc-bush-rove admin

[eleny]

3. "accuse his grandmother of being a whore"

Would you please elaborate on this. I don't know the context. Thanks.

[bridgit]

4. accuse john mccain of fathering a black baby...

election 2000, if that rings a bell then ring it; it is standard republican politics of personal destruction/character assassination either way you cut it. that is the context = winning @ all cost to your opponent

[pacalo]

5. Take into consideration this article was written before Cindy Sheehan's

courageous stand to confront the top neocon during his 5-week vacation in Crawford. And consider the outpouring of support she has gotten here & all over the world.

The writer says:

For those yearning for a revival of a peace movement that might slow down this administration, there is nothing reassuring about this analysis. It is far from clear that even the revival of the draft could ignite the kind of campus protest that would make an impression on Congress and the administration. Where would the leaders of campus protest come from?

Not everything about this war can be compared to Vietnam. The protests haven't come from campuses; they began with a brokenhearted mother who lost her oldest son in a war based on lies & deceit.

And may Mrs. Sheehan's movement grow stronger & stronger.

[wli]

7. Sheehan is the "pro" evidence for the case.

This is the contra side. Critically examining and being aware of the inherent weaknesses is crucial to repairing or mitigating them.

[damntexdem]

8. The American Conservative?

Old line conservatives upset with the neocons>

[Raster]

9. absolutely. for several reasons, first old line conservatives

think Iraq was a bad idea from the beginning, two, the sheer hubris of the neocons and finally, they did it poorly. Their incompetence has put everyone's feet into the fire.

[wli]

6. read the rest of the article everybody, this is very serious stuff

I've no idea what these guys' motives are, but the analysis is correct.

[Soup Bean]

12. I think he just cares about America.

That's Pat Buchanan's mag, and say what you want about him....he's an American, and he loves the country. He's been against the war from the start, and has often called for an alliance of the Old Left and the Old Right AGAINST the war and the Neo-Cons.

[Alcibiades]

10. Only WASPS or Jews...

... can form the core of a new anti-war movement. How kooky, how New York centric, how elitist. Nah, none of you Germans, Frenches, Aye-tyes, Blacks or Browns can form a new campus protest movement. It must be formed by people with money.

This fellow does not understand America, or even the history of the last antiwar movement. He certainly misunderstands the vast area of the country between New York and California. This model that assumes only the wealthy and privileged count for anything in politics has been antiquated since about 1776, or maybe 1789.

Of course, he also writes:

"only the outside world can put the brakes on American policy—only when Bush’s war plans come up against foreign obstacles that produce a dramatic defeat or humiliation or generate a financial crisis that the administration can’t overcome. Barring that, the American future may be war for as long as anyone can foresee."

We've already seen the formation of a viable anti-war movement. As for the other possibilities, financial collapse has become unavoidable. It's only a question of whether it happens during the remainder of the Bush administration so that the right people get blamed for it.

[oda]

11. Alcibiades...

its sad but true

[Ready2Snap]

13. How McConell gets away with it.

His article was published July 4, 2005 in The American Conservative."
What a difference a month (actually 33 days) makes!

McConnell's thesis, "The failure of Americans to generate a politically significant domestic opposition
to the war is now one of the most important developments in world politics. . . .
The only constraints on its behavior are international"
never allowed for, much less imagined, a Cindy Sheehan.

Then right off the bat McConnell sinks this whole argument's rationale by saying,
"PERHAPS even greater than the absence of a draft," virtually conceding that the return of the draft
would ignite massive, anti-war protests at the colleges of this country faster than any other single event could.

This will be especially true if, as has been called for on the floor of the House by several prominent Democrats,
deferments for college students are disallowed, putting the lives of the sons and daughters of the more affluent
on a par with those of the "lesser" classes.
Considering the steadily deteriorating replenishment of targets, aka America's youth,
for deployment to Iraq, the Pentagon will have to insist that * call for re-instituting the draft.

In support of his thesis he says,
"But three other developments, of impact perhaps even greater than the absence of a draft,
make a culture of protest harder to sustain than it was in the 1960s."

To digress for a moment -
His glaring omission of the corporately-controlled "managed" news, that has sanitized
the propaganda being fed to the populace, must be seen as deliberate,
and probably quite in line with his conservative sensibilities.

To "control the message" has been the mantra of the warmongering vultures currently perched on the executive branch.
From day one they have throttled what press they didn't already control outright, by denying access,
ergo the practice of their profession, to any who committed the mortal offense of questioning anything they said or did.
They have turned the journalistic search for the truth into an act of sedition against power.

But McConnell doesn't mention any of that. His "three developments" are -

the rise of the services-based economy, aka the demise of the middle-class;

the lack of "radical" Jewish youth to lead the rebellious endeavors, nonchalantly equating Jewish with Communist;

and the last, and most convoluted, the post-Viet Nam adoption of the military
by the evangelical, Protestant, religious right as a "bulwark against national moral decay."
By this, they imbued themselves with the authority to institutionalize and legitimize the concept of a "Just War,"
wherein America's enemies are "God's enemies."
In other words, wrapping yourself in the flag while simultaneously rapping on the Bible evolved (my bad)
into "a bright green (light) that relieved the Bush administration of any obligation to weigh seriously
the moral implications of when and where it employed coercion.”

Which brings us back to Ms. Sheehan, that the pathetic dupe of "coordinated left"
that the bilious slanderers of the right decry as a hapless front for their nefarious scheming.

I see her as that anonymous, lone, Chinese demonstrator who faced down the tanks in Tienanmen Square.
The catalyst by which a nation regained its voice and the ambassador of the maimed and fallen.

And contrary to Mr. Mcconnell's prognostications, the people of this country are starting to be heard,
and the chorus grows louder with each passing day and the passing of each soldier,
that we will not much longer endure this abomination of our cherished, inalienable founding principles.