Damian, did you notice the author of that article? Why, it's our man in Uzbekistan, no less. The nature of Walberg's politics, in fact, might be one of the few things Glavin and I agree on.
Posted at 2008-04-05 16:30:03 [PermaLink]More on the Canadian Mr Walberg:
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Mark
Ottawa
Those righteously enraged vandals are not the first to do that. Several years, on Nov 10, some other set of self-appointed revolutionaries spray painted the word "Spain" and the dates of the Spanish Civil War on the National War Memorial.
That was done under the cover of night as well.
But don't worry the hysteria doesn't stop there....
[External Link]
You need only watch a demonstration to see how cynical use of the word "peace" has become.
Posters and t-shirts feature mass murderers from Mao to Che to Hezbollah. Signs support every anti-American tyranny, from North Korea, to Cuba, to Iran.
When Dawg calls Glavin "dishonest", he turns the spotlight on himself, and the result isn't pretty.
Signs supporting *North Korea*?
Come now, Bruce. You're fantasizing.
It goes deeper than just posters. For example, speakers at major antiwar protests have included Yoomi Choong, who is Deputy Secretary General of the of the Korea Truth Commission (KTC), which is affiliated with the International Action Center (IAC), which is affiliated with International ANSWER. All of these groups are affiliated with the Workers World Party (WWP), and the WWP is a staunch advocate of Kim Jong Il.
Brian Becker has been a chief organizer of antiwar rallies, in the US, and is a director of both ANSWER and the IAC. He is a member of the Secretariat of the WWP. Becker is notorious for having denounced the U.S. in a press conference from Pyongyang.
International ANSWER handouts and posters at "peace" demonstrations often include a demand that the U.S. stop threatening North Korea.
Someone ought to ask the curator what he would consider to be the 'right' target. Surely, in a democracy, appropriating a public monument to transmit a partisan message is never correct, no?
Posted at 2008-04-06 13:06:29 [PermaLink]Affiliates of affiliates of affiliates. And all "affiliated" to the WWP, a miniscule breakaway faction of the SWP. Seems to me the affiliation is the other way around, or else we have one teensy tail wagging a huge dog.
I don't know much about this Becker guy, but I do remember that we always let the Trots do the heavy lifting and organizing, because they wanted to, and we never bought into their line, which must have frustrated the hell out of them. I might note, though, that mass demos are never organized by one person. Try organizing one yourself and you'll soon see what I mean.
Dr. Dawg,
" I might note, though, that mass demos are never organized by one person. Try organizing one yourself and you'll soon see what I mean."
My previous question still stands.
If these groups are so diverse, each with their own agenda, how can you be sure they constitute a "peace" movement?
If this movement is comprised of such a broadly representative group of Canadians, each protesting for the common goal of peace, then why, by sheer statistical happenstance, aren't they out protesting North Korea or other regimes acting contrary to peaceful ends?. Regimes that are developing nukes, selling weapons to genocidal regimes and terrorists, or acting aggressively against their own citizens or those of other nations.
The WWP is small, but known for its organizing abilities. For example, in the 1996 Presidential election, Monica Moorehead received over 29,000 votes in California.
As I mentioned earlier, their front groups include International Action Center, International ANSWER, and others. Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark and actor Ed Asner are highlighted in WWP/IAC activities. Clark's former position in the U.S. government gives them a unique in with repressive regimes such as North Korea's.
The relationship between the WWP and its front groups has been documented both on the left and right. Here's an explanatory piece from an Anarachist website. [External Link] Here's one from David Horowitz's Front Page Magazine. [External Link] Here's a piece by David Corn [External Link].
Mass demonstrations require leadership and organizing ability, and the WWP, through its ANSWER front, provides it. Useful idiots provide the bodies.
Bruce, I shall have to defer to your better knowledge of the US scene. I have been speaking of Canada, and I know very well how this stuff is done up here. That's why I find Glavin's conspirazoidism very hard to swallow.
I think it's dishonest to cherry-pick dubious individuals when the peace "movement" (actually a huge ad hoc collection of various tendencies, just like the anti-globo protests) is vast and amorphous and decentralized, with many conflicting agendas.
Incidentally, 29,000 votes sounds like a hell of a lot, until you realize that California has, what--14 million voters or so? I think you could run a puppy in California and get that number of votes. Come to think of it, the puppy might do considerably better. : )
I don't know much about the Canadian Peace Alliance, but the Canadian Peace Congress, which dominated the "peace" movement during the 50s and 60s, was frequently considered to be a communist front, and it was closely affiliated with the World Peace Council, which was a Soviet front.
I agree that the "peace" movement attracts many different types of people, but the organization usually falls to a core group, and, at least in the U.S., that group has typically been communist.
U.S. politics is not conducive to third parties. For a communist candidate to receive more than 29,000 votes in one state, even if that state is California, is exceptional. And, unlike puppies, Moorehead is not particularly cute or cuddly. [External Link]
I first got active in 1964, Bruce, and I can assure you that the Peace Council influence, if there ever was any, was clearly on the wane. CUCND, CND and organizations like SANE were where peace was happening. The big gun in Canada for a while was Dimitri Roussopoulos--no CPer he:
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I think, with respect, that you're caught in a bit of a time warp. In the case of Glavin, he supports the war, and it is his style to demonize the opposition. When you have as big a crowd as the anti-war folks, that's simple to do. The chances of finding a bad apple are pretty good, and then you can use such people as metonyms for the movement(s) as a whole. Or you can say that the bad guys are all in charge, and everyone else is a dupe of very little brain.
I think both claims are silly, on the basis of 44 years of activism on the left.
Mark,
I trust that you will be as outraged by this act of vandalism as you were by the others you mentioned.Maybe, this did not catch your attention as it has not been widely publicised by the media in North America.
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Dr. Dawg,
"When you have as big a crowd as the anti-war folks, that's simple to do. The chances of finding a bad apple are pretty good, and then you can use such people as metonyms for the movement(s) as a whole. Or you can say that the bad guys are all in charge, and everyone else is a dupe of very little brain. "
You continue to admit their diversity but you make the assumption that there are only a few bad apples. How do you know this?
If the rest are good but only want peace, why aren't they out protesting other regimes? There must be a different explanation.
They aren't interested in peace but politics?
They are peaceful but gullible and easily manipulated by a group of propagandists with an agenda and hence would protest other regimes if led there?
They aren't diverse but have a common background and hence only a few enemies that they endlessly protest?
Any other possibilities?
Ajushail:
I trust that you will be as outraged by these acts of vandalism as you are by the one you mentioned.
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BTW - the desecration of Muslim war veterans' graves was on CBC news.
"Monument honours peacekeepers, not combat troops"?
How does one keep peace without combat, exactly? Stern warnings? Threats to take away the hot chocolate if the massacres continue?
"Peacekeeping" is a mission, not a method of operation, and "combat" must be resorted to - in extremis - or you're stuck being a Dallaire*.
(* Which is a noble enough thing, and doing God's work, but not as much so as shooting the genocidal bastards in the first place.
Better to have a strong enough "peacekeeping" force to actually *stop* breaches of the peace, than to be forced, as Dallaire was, to merely mitigate its effects.
In fact, the entire Rwanda mess can and probably should be read as a lesson in the dangers of doing "peacekeeping" *half-assedly*.)
If you're going to send in peacekeepers, might I suggest reliable ones? [External Link]
Posted at 2008-04-07 13:37:43 [PermaLink]Sigivald:
Then again, there is Srebinica and the Dutch:
"13 July 1995: The first killings of unarmed Muslims took place in a warehouse in the nearby village of Kravica."
"Peacekeepers handed over about 5,000 Muslims who had been sheltering at the Dutch base at Potocari. In return, the Bosnian Serbs released 14 Dutch peacekeepers who had been held at the Nova Kasaba base."
"6 July 1995: Early reports of massacres emerged as the first survivors of the long march from Srebrenica began to arrive in Muslim-held territory."
"Following negotiations between the UN and the Bosnian Serbs, the Dutch were at last permitted to leave Srebrenica, leaving behind weapons, food and medical supplies."
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Only in the U.N. - and all that is wrong with that organization:
"11 July 1995: The Serb forces did not withdraw, but at 0900 Colonel Karremans received word from Sarajevo that his request for close air support had been submitted on the wrong form."
Hell, Bruce, you *are* mellowing. Why not go all the way? Wimp. : )
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Dawg:
I like your thinking, but that's too much for use in your typical postage stamp-size country. Use it in Rwanda and you're likely to take out parts of Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi, and Zaire with it.
Bruce Rheinstein: There is the idea to arm ICBMs with conventional warheads:
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Unfortunately David Pugliese of the Ottawa Citizen (see link above) missed the story by some five years:
[External Link]
Mark
Ottawa
Ajushail:
Let the dead (particularly the war dead) rest in peace. If the culprits are found, horsewhip them.
ajsuhail: The Anglosphere has not ignored the great contribution of Muslim North African troops with the French Army in WW II:
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I have read several accounts of the Battle of Monte Cassino. In all of them the North Africans received great praise (though I have not read this book):
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And from the BBC:
"In the fourth it was the Algerian, Moroccan and Tunisian troops of the French Expeditionary Corps who made the decisive breakthrough, in the Aurunci mountains south of the Liri river, forcing the Germans to withdraw.
They had also made a major impact in the first battle, in January, but the French general Alphonse Juin never got the support he wanted for a wide flanking movement through mountains to the north and west of Cassino.
Matthew Parker says it is the great "what if?" of the Cassino story."
Parker's is the book linked to above.
Mark
Ottawa
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