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The peacenik quandry

20 comments on The peacenik quandry

The peacenik quandry
: Julian Barnes in the Guardian goes to great lengths (by a few too many column-inches) to try to justify the “peacenik” view of peace in Iraq. We’re going to be seeing a lot of that now. (Calling Ms. Garofalo! Calling Ms. Garofalo!) But he doesn’t grapple with the issues; it’s just a war-is-bad recitation:

Well, peacenik, are you happy now that peace is coming? No, because I don’t think this war, as conceived and justified, was worth a child’s finger. At least, are you happy that Saddam’s rule is effectively over? Yes, of course, like everyone else. So, do you see some incompatibility here? Yes, but less than the incompatibilities in your position.

Nothing about the oppression of the Iraqi people. Nothing about the crowds happy to be free. Nothing about the children whom Saddam gassed and imprisoned. Yup, speaking as a former peacenik myself, I have to say it wouldn’t be easy being a peacenik these days.

20 responses to “The peacenik quandry”

  1. balbulican Avatar
    balbulican

    Naw, it’s pretty easy. Most of the hard work is on the Warnik side, I think. The reconstruction is interesting to watch. I’m not referring to the reconstruction of Iraq by American contractors: I mean the more onerous (and less profitable) reconstruction of Mr. Bush’s war aims…you know, airbrushing any past references to WMD (no confirmation back from the labs yet, I guess?), to the Iraqi terrorist network that was going to level America (did I miss it?), to the awesome might of Saddam’s military machine and its threat to the region…and their replacement with the pious assertion that this has “always” been about the liberation of the Iraqi people.
    We’re all dying…whoops…waiting eagerly…to see what lucky nation is next to get liberated.

  2. Stevy Avatar
    Stevy

    Hey balbulican, don’t ever move to New Hampshire. You’ll probably never understand the state motto.

  3. Gray Avatar
    Gray

    Nothing about the crowds of liberated Iraqis? Reason is simple – no crowds – no mentions.
    Take a look at this

  4. Stevy Avatar
    Stevy

    The over 100 children that we let out of prison down south would have been there dancing too but they were too busy thanking God/Allah for giving them back their lives courtesy of OIF. The Kurds, other than the 5000 of which were poison-gassed by Saddam at Halabja in 1988, would have been there dancing but they were too busy fighting for their ancestral homelands up north that they were thrown out of by Saddam in his “Arabization” project. Then of course there’s the Iraquis who would have been down there dancing but they were too afraid of the few snipers still infesting Baghdad like the one who just missed a woman in that square ten minutes after that scene was filmed. I hope for your sake you never have to experience the rape, torture, privation, and extermination the Iraqi people have had to live with with no hope until OIF came along. Then again, maybe you should. The gift of freedom, paid for with the blood of American soldiers for over 200 years, seems to be wasted on you.

  5. John Irving Avatar
    John Irving

    Wow, balbulican, you must take a great load of masochistic pleasure in being wrong. IMSTBY.
    Gray, nicely skewed link, if you read on in the comments many people take the poster to task for showing the beginning of the event, before anything actually started happening, then disregarding the rest of the occasion.
    But both of you, it’s a free country, you can say and believe whatever you like. Doesn’t make it true, but it does make you awful fun to watch.
    Iraq is Free

  6. Mike G Avatar
    Mike G

    Jesus, what’s the difference between the peace movement and the Arab media? The Arab media isn’t denying that April 9th happened at all…
    Barnes’ piece is quite a piece of work– inventing terrorists in retaliation (you know, like all those German terrorists we faced in the decades after Dresden), gleefully imagining a calculus of 10,000 civilian deaths for Saddam’s head even though THAT DIDN’T ACTUALLY HAPPEN, and then there’s this bit of psychological projection:
    “What happens in Iraq? Who tells whom? Does news even get through? Do you just wait for your 18-year-old conscript son to come home or not to come home? Do you get the few bits that remain after he has been pulverised by our bold new armaments?”
    Up until the very last words, a very good description of how the Iraqi apparatus of terror worked, right down to the repurposed plastic shredding machines. But in Barnes’ world (and I once liked his books, but I’m having a harder time reading the books of utter peace-wanks like him just as I can’t really read Hamsun without seeing the Nazi sympathizer behind the book), that’s what America does, and the crimes of Saddam are not worth discussing.
    And then there’s this blissfully clueless ivory tower logic: “In the past three weeks, I’ve had emails from friends in different parts of the world. Almost without fail, they have expressed incredulity at our prime minister’s position.” Yes, and as Pauline Kael said in 1972, “I can’t believe Nixon won, I don’t know anybody who voted for him.” Quite.
    One could spend hours taking apart the sneering and the preening here, but I’ll just note one more: “This is Blair’s War; and as he reminded us, history will be his judge. But since we’ll all be dead by the time history comes along…” Not true. History often is written very quickly. Just ask the British elites of the pre-WWII era, the Cliveden set. History judged them within a few years, the Halifaxes and Diana Mitfords and so on, and they had the rest of their lives to see how they were remembered.

  7. Pithpott Avatar
    Pithpott

    We shall miss them both when they volunteer to serve as human shields in Syria.

  8. Balbulican Avatar
    Balbulican

    I guess I missed it, Mr. Irving…what was it I was wrong about?

  9. Gray Avatar
    Gray

    John Irving, If you will visit this link, you will find the same picture with comments and will decide for yourself – whether it is beginning of the event or no.
    Yes, Iraq is free. Free from any kind of law and order. Was it the real sence of invasion?

  10. Paul Avatar
    Paul

    Ahhh to be a constant cynic is to never have to say you are wrong. First it’s “give the inspectors 4 more months!” and no its “they’ve been there 23 days and haven’t found anything yet!” Its to forget the Ansar al-Islam terrorists who are now in that special place in hell reserved for them. It’s to deride the military or Iraq when it was once vaunted as a catostrophically deadly foe mere weeks ago as a means to argue against the war, as if any military isn’t a potential threat to someone else no matter how reliant on russian technology and ideology. It is to be always right when things don’t instantly and perfectly materialize. And its to fail to see that people freely expressing their opinions, even when they aren’t in agreement with the US is still the most beautiful sight in all the world.

  11. Theresa Avatar
    Theresa

    Hi Gray
    Nice to chat with you again. Will you please give us a break? It’s been 2 days since the city “fell”. I don’t see the GI’s looting and terroizing people. That would be the good people of Baghdad getting some of their own back. Do I agree with it, hell no. But then I haven’t lived in fear all my life barely getting by. Order will be restored. I honestly believe the Iraqi’s should be restoring it, but hey, I’m a bit of dreamer. They, the Iraqi’s, are now responsible for their own actions. No one to blame but themselves if they allow lawless to prevail. Wait, don’t tell me, you’ll blame that on the US as well. Bullshit. They are going to have to start handling their own business real soon. If they want a better future, now is the time to start. Begin as you intend to go on. God Bless America, our troops, and Mr. Bush.

  12. Justin Katz Avatar
    Justin Katz

    Uh-oh. It looks like that photo offered by Gray above is going to be the next Internet conspiracy. Well, just so we don’t have to wait for Snopes or some other conspiracy-debunking site to get around to it, why don’t we all look closely at the picture now.
    1) There’s no statue on the pedestal.
    2) The lighting is more like evening.
    3) All of the people milling about in the road, nor the tanks (which seem to be in abundance) seem to have no interest in what’s going on near where the statue was… peculiar unless the action was over.
    Why don’t folks who will believe in conspiracies that run through the U.S. government and the entire mass media care to question a cheap, mostly anonymous Web site (not you Jeff) off in cyberspace?
    Not long ago, I saw a very convincing report online that no country called “Iraq” actually exists out there in the desert…

  13. Kynn Avatar
    Kynn

    Why is any attempt to question the official story called a conspiracy?
    Why is the official story NEVER called a conspiracy?
    –Kynn

  14. John Irving Avatar
    John Irving

    balbulican, you’re just wrong. Live with it. Let us see, I can name a few things that hit your first post dead center. Hmm, does weapons-grade plutonium, bio-weapon vans, destroyed terror camps in Northern Iraq, bin Laden calling for jihad to defend Iraq, and a successful ‘shock and awe’ and decapitation strike that crippled the Iraqi military ring any bells? Bet not, you don’t appear to be that connected to events.
    Kynn, Where have you been? The ‘official’ story is called a conspiracy daily! Over and over again.
    Uusually by people like balbulican.
    Meanwhile, it appears that CNN conspired to hide the truth, in order to continue broadcasting from Baghdad. They slanted stories in favor of Saddam, downplayed and ignored atrocities that they had witnessed.

  15. Balbulican Avatar
    Balbulican

    I’m frequently wrong, John…ask my wife…and I do live with it. Not this time, though, unless I missed the part where they actually confirmed finds of weapons…can you direct me to the appropriate link?
    Just to correct one error you made…I don’t believe conspiracy theories. No government…of the left or of the right…is organized or competent enough to keep a secret.

  16. Pithpott Avatar
    Pithpott

    Oh no? Saddam’s government kept enough of them conspiracies very quiet these past 20 years didn’t he? Fooled you and yer ilk, anyways.
    If you is a Balbulican, where is Balbulica? Is this some form of new conspiracy? Is your wife in on it?

  17. Andreas Avatar
    Andreas

    dear jeff jarvis,
    “speaking as a former peacenik myself”
    and now you’re just a selfrighteous bitter old man.

  18. John Irving Avatar
    John Irving

    Ack. Ok, something we DO have in common balbulican. To be fair, I’m waiting on the confirmation of weapons-grade plutonium, but the off-the-chart radiation readings indicate some bad mojo in those underground bunkers. Powdered radioactive material, not necessarily weapons-grade, or even by-product, could be used to produce a WMD just be placing it around a large conventional bomb, so I think we got Saddam on the WMD charge regardless.
    And I said people ‘like’ you, balbulican, so the finger only waved in your direction, not pointed directly at you.
    Heh.
    Oh Andreas? Grow up.

  19. Charlie Avatar
    Charlie

    We shall miss them both when they volunteer to serve as human shields in Syria.
    Golly, Pithpott, I hope not.

  20. Pithpott Avatar
    Pithpott

    Interesting insight Charlie. Perhaps we need to insert the word “relevant” between “a” & “comment”
    Or would that confuse you too much?

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