Who Supports the Iraqi People?
Michael Weiss makes a very nitpicky argument against some antiwar protesters:
If you think all the old arguments of ‘03 are dead and buried, think again. One Iraqi exile, who blogs at IraqPundit, spent a day at an antiwar rally in Washington:
There were all kinds of people there, many of them carrying signs. Some signs said, “Support the troops, bring them home.” Despite my own strong feelings about the war, I can empathize with the sentiment. I saw a sign that asked, “How did our oil get under their sand?” which I thought was funny. I saw a young lady with a T-shirt that said “Make levees, not war,” which I thought was cute. I saw Green Peace banners and I saw some gay rainbow flags. I saw a lot of U.S. flags, and I even saw Palestinian flags. But though I looked for them, I couldn’t see any Iraqi flags. Not one.
Plus ca change… Of course, the first time around the absence of Iraqi flags was more a formality (they were pretty hard to come by, what with the Koranic suras inked with Saddam’s own blood and all). Yet “Hands off Iraq” was one of the official ANSWER-formulated slogans way back when.
Given the current state of affairs, would it be too much to say, “We support the troops and the Iraqi people. End the war now!”?
Just asking.
A few things. One, since this was an ANSWER protest, I’m sure Michael and this exile could have found signs that were way worse than any lack of Iraqi flags. There were probably all sorts of signs talking about what a swell guy Castro/Kim Jong Il/Nasrallah are. Also signs calling for the end of Israel, the murder of Americans and supporting that nice liberation organization Hezbollah. But lets go back to the Iraqi flags.
It is worth noting that ANSWER is hardly representative of those Americans who thought we should have never gone to war and/or support withdrawal. The mainstream antiwar movement – various bloggers who support withdrawal like Matt Yglesias, Ezra Klein or Kevin Drum are much more likely to write posts documenting that Iraqis don’t think that the surge has improved security, that Iraqi civilian causalities are A. very high and B. likely increasing, that 60% of Iraqis think attacks on American troops are justified. Was it those who are against the war that summarily dismissed the Lancet Report on Iraqi deaths?
There’s also the little matter of the Bush administration’s CPA immunizing American security contractors from Iraqi courts — which was tragically highlighted by Blackwater’s employees recent killing of Iraqi civilian and subsequent expulsion from the country. Weiss, though a humane, honest war supporter who really does have the best interests of Iraq and Iraqi civilians at heart, is being awfully selective in who exactly he choses to represent the “anti war” faction and who is paying the most heed to what Iraqis think about our presence.
