Selling Out
Byron York’s column on the decline and fall of the antiwar Left makes for a depressing read.
Will
Will writes from Washington, D.C. (well, Arlington, Virginia). You can reach him at willblogcorrespondence at gmail dot com.
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York’s description is right–the war in Iraq really has receded in importance to left activists. But on other matters, he’s off. For one thing, he conflates anti-Iraq sentiment with anti-Afghanistan efforts, when the netroots has rarely conflated the two. And for another, it’s not like this diminution of focus on war came about with the end of the Bush administration. Anti-war activism was not a hot topic even during the 2008 campaign; this is not a new shift. Honestly, I would date the turn away from it to roughly when Bush overruled the special panel or whatever it was and instituted the surge in December of 2006.Report
You must have seen a different campaign than I did. Far from “turning away” from anti war ideology, Bush’s response to the debacle in Iraq–the surge–brought out the absolute worst in the anti war movement–remember “General Betray-Us?”. Remember the many Congressional resolutions mandating withdrawal/failure in Iraq? Remember the state of denial that anti war movement was in until the success of the surge was too obvious to ignore/deny anymore?Report
The pure sissyness of the backlash against the “General Betray-Us” ads was laughable.
Congressional resolutions demanding withdrawal would have been the right course, instead we’re merely delaying the inevitable collapse of the fragile government we’ve setup there. And we’re buying that time at a considerable cost in American lives and money.
The surge didn’t succeed because it didn’t lay the groundwork for a stable Shiite/Sunni/Kurd coalition government, which was the goal.Report
Why so depressed? Wasn’t the partisan nature of the so-called antiwar movement clear for you at the time? You must have been in high school back in 2001-2002 to have bought the antiwar propaganda line. It’s no shame. Everyone was in high school once and bought the antiwar propaganda line once. Let’s make this a teachable moment for you.Report
You are truly in rare, bitchy, uninformed-but-think-you-know-everything form, Roque.
I was deeply involved in the anti-war movement for years; I ended up taking a back seat, near the end of 2005, because of burn out and some conflicts with a lot of the procedural aspects of the movement. (To my knowledge, I’m still the individual permit holder for the largest protest in Connecticut history.) To call the movement partisan is shockingly, incredibly, amazingly wrong– the fact that I was a registered Democrat was a huge impediment to my work with many anti-war types. Indeed, opposition to Democrats was louder and more hostile than opposition to Republicans Republicans were just wrong; Democrats were wrong and corrupt and spoiled and neoliberals and commissars….
For once, Roque, abandon your know-it-all pose. I assure you, there is absolutely no question whatsoever that I have an extraordinarily deeper understanding of both the American left and the anti-Iraq war movement than you do. And I assure you, to call them politically partisan simply could not be further from the truth.Report
“You are truly in rare, bitchy, uninformed-but-think-you-know-everything form.”
I can hardly respond to such ad hominen garbage. In Mexico we have an expression, which is is appropriate here [equivalent to our “pot calling the kettle”]: el burro hablando de orejas (the Ass talking about ears.)Report
Yes, because your sarcastic, snarky, insulting post towards Will was the height of intellectual engagement. Reap what you sow.Report
I am angry with Obama that we’re still in Iraq. I’ve been pushing for withdrawal for years now and still believe that would have been the wiser course.
Of course Obama never promised we’d withdraw immediately. He blunted the anger of the anti-war left by pinky promising to adhere to years-long timetable.
My guess is that you’ll see a revival of the anti-war sentiment if Iraq implodes and dominates the news again, or Obama makes overt moves signaling we’ll stay in Iraq past his first term. Unfortunately, both scenarios are likely.Report
Who are you going to vote for, the Republicans?
It’s not like you don’t know that McCain wouldn’t have been worse.
To be sure.
You have to understand.
Politics is the art of the possible.Report
I’m sure none of the loss of focus on Iraq has anything to do with the SOFA that was signed by shrub, which , sort of, kind of…started getting us out. While there were some of the anti-war peeps who thought there was some sort of magic 150,000 person bus who could pick up and take all our solders out in day, most knew differently. O is going by the agreement that was signed about leaving. WTF else is supposed to do.Report
The “anti-war” movement has always been far more complex, discriminating, realistic, and intelligent than someone like York is willing to give them credit for. Only a fraction of what York would call the anti-war movement would ever claim to be against all war; most of them were for the invasion of Afghanistan. Mostly, the anti-war crowd was against the Iraq war, specifically the way we got into the Iraq war, which rightly poisoned any possibility of support for the effort.
One reason this is consistent is that had Bush concentrated on winning the war — and the peace — he had overwhelming support for as a result of the attacks on 9/11, potentially we would not be in a position of having to fight to win that peace now.Report