So, saw this over at Volokh Conspiracy:
BUMPER STICKER: Seen yesterday in my neighborhood: “Other than eliminating Slavery, Fascism, Nazism, and Communism, what has War ever accomplished?”
I get the joke, and I have a sense of humor, but this still bugs me… it belittles opposition to this war. You don’t generally get hundreds of thousands of Americans out protesting just any war because most Americans understand that war is sometimes necessary. So, ha ha, great joke, but stupid bumper sticker.
Categories: Election 2004, In the News
10:46 AM | 5 comments
August 13th, 2004 at 11:05 AM
At first I thought you said YOU saw this in our neighborhood. I was about to say — That’s it dear — we’re moving back to MA.
August 14th, 2004 at 2:35 AM
Americans protest everything, especially wars. It’s not unlike any other. Honestly I’m happy we went to Iraq, yeah things are messed up now but it wont be like that forever. Eventually we’ll have less and less troops there, and once we’re gone whoever is creating all these nice bombs will be bombing their own people which will make it more unpopular. And you cant tell me we’ll be there forever, one of these days some hippie like Kerry will be elected and pull everyone from the war and cut down our military until there’s nothing left.
August 14th, 2004 at 3:56 AM
Hippie, Kerry? are you serious? He’s a former military guy… of course, you could be arguing that we haven’t had what you’d call a “hippie” president since before World War II… since we’re still in Saudi Arabia, Germany, Japan… should I go on?
I don’t remember hundreds of thousands of people protesting the first Gulf War… or actions in Kosovo, or our invasions of Grenada or other Central American countries… but this one, they had to shut down various cities to accommodate the people. The one in Boston actually had half of Back Bay closed to car traffic.
August 14th, 2004 at 2:52 PM
Either you dont know what Kerry did after he got out of the military or you dont care. Let me direct your attention to this page: http://www.washtimes.com/national/20040211-123002-8027r.htm
Kerry was a major anti war supporter after he served with the military. Just because someone is a ‘military guy’ doesnt mean they wernt a hippie. Remember, this was Vietnam, a LOT of guys didnt want to go that had to, does the draft ring a bell? Besides with his family history he probably felt obligated to go in. You have no idea what was going thru his head back then, neither do I but his actions sure do tell me a lot.
And where do you see hundreds of thousands of people out on the streets protesting? Sure there’s a lot of opposition but there’s opposition to any war this long after its started. Everybody’s just making a big deal out of it because of the election.
August 15th, 2004 at 12:44 AM
Yes, he was an anti-vietnam war protester. As were a lot of non-hippies back then. Being against a particular war does not make you a hippie. There are lots of former soldiers who served in combat who don’t believe in having wars on whims or flimsy intelligence. It doesn’t really define someone as a “hippie” either way. Also, keep in mind that he didn’t get drafted, he volunteered… for a combat zone assignment, not flying jets in Texas. I find the Wash Times story you linked to above funny, too, because the whole editorial hinges on a photo of Jane Fonda that happens to have Kerry out of focus in the background. If we’re going to draw random conclusions from photographs, I like this one better: http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB82/ .
Besides, what exactly have Kerry’s actions told you? What actions?
As for hundreds of thousands of people protesting, I’m talking about when the war began, not today. See, for example, this article from 2003: http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/02/15/sprj.irq.protests.main/
Organizers estimated 375,000 people showed up, authorities estimated 100,000. In Boston, authorities estimated 25,000 in the big Boylston street protests. I walked through a rally at Copley Square weeks before that that had at least a thousand people who marched from Harvard Sq. (or maybe Central) down to Copley. That doesn’t even consider the other protests going on around the country in those weeks. In the UK, our strongest coalition partner, police estimated 750,000 (organizers estimated 2 million) came to a protest there: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/2765041.stm
There wasn’t a major election in 2003, by the way. (midterm elections were in 2002, as in mid term of the Pres).