Posted by
Kenneth G. Davenport on Friday, August 15, 2008 11:14:20 AM
If you need proof that the anti-war movement in this country is more about anti-Americanism than it is about war, look no further. Russia's brutal invasion of Georgia this past week has gone virtually unnoticed by a host of anti-war organizations, including Code Pink, whose mission is described as
"a women-initiated grassroots peace and social justice movement working to end the war in Iraq, stop new wars, and redirect our resources into healthcare, education and other life-affirming activities."
Apparently, affirming the lives of Georgian civilians -- including women and children -- doesn't count. As the Wall Street Journal reports today, Russian troops have stood by while rebel forces from South Ossetia (armed and trained by Russia) have run amok in Gori and other Georgian towns, terrorizing reporters, UN workers and civilians. "Ossetian irregulars entered Gori on Wednesday, prompting an exodus of ethnic Georgian refugees who recounted tales of looting, burning and shooting. Most of central Gori is still held by Ossetian militias, while the Russian forces are deployed mainly in the outskirts."
A look at the Code Pink home page today says nothing about the Russian invasion, the overwhelming use of force or the abuse of non-combatants. The home page does have sections on "helping Iraqi women" (perhaps they think that Iraqi women were better off under Saddam Hussein), "Don't Bomb Iran" (the Mullahs will certainly listen to reason) and "Raising a Ruckus" at the Democrat National Convention (I guess Obama isn't anti-war enough). Though the Code Pink movement is based on a human rights agenda, they apparently haven't been watching the news: Russia's actions in Georgia bring to harsh reality the kind of terror that Code Pink and other leftists fantasize U.S. soldiers perpetrate on civilians: indiscriminate killing, bombings, raping and pillaging.
Why the double standard? Because Code Pink and other anti-war organizations hate America, and carry a double standard: our use of force -- whether to depose the brutal Saddam Hussein, to eliminate the Iranian nuclear program or to destroy Al Qaeda -- is never justified because the values and ideals we fight for aren't worthy of it. Simply put, the anti-war movement in America is not really anti-war. It's anti-American.
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The Russian invasion of Georgia is a poke in the eye to both the U.S. and NATO -- both of which have been feckless in the handling of Russia over the past decade. As Vladimir Putin has enjoyed warm relations with George W. Bush, he has systematically rolled back democracy in Russia, and used the power of Russian oil wealth to bully its neighbors. Russia is on a roll to assert its power and Putin's goal is to revive the Soviet state. The Bush Administration has given Russia a pass, and the EU -- totally dependent on Russian oil and natural gas -- has played footsie with Putin as he has sold weapons systems to Iran. Putin knows that the EU is weak, and that America is stretched thin in Iraq and Afghanistan. He's poked us in the eye and we are unwilling (Europe) and unable (U.S.) to do anything about it. A sad moment for the West.
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One last word on the idiocy of Code Pink and the anti-war crowd: the focus on negotiating with Iran. I've written previously here that both the left and Barack Obama, who is on record as wanting direct negotiations with Iran "without precondition", fundamentally misunderstands the Iranian regime. Iran is a revolutionary state. By definition, revolutionary states are dedicated to the violent overthrow of the "ancien regime" -- or the existing international order. The Iranian Revolution that deposed the Shah in 1979 was done in the name of a new Islamic world order. The exising regime is a direct decendent of the Ayatollah Khomeini's revolutionary movement. Though Iran may co-exist with the rest of the world today, it does so only to finance its aims of becoming a nuclear power so as to challenge (and destroy) the West.
In this context, negotiating with Iran is folly: Iran's goal is spreading revolution. It is the raison d'etre of the Iranian government. Nuclear weapons are core to this goal. It isn't negotiable. But that doesn't stop the idealists in America and Europe from hoping that though it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it isn't really a duck. Hope against hope, maybe its a dove after all.