The Finest China in the Cabinet - The Dish.

The Missus and I went to the peace rally on the Common today. I was struck by the "demographics" of it. It seemed to me to be overwhelmingly older folks and a good chunk of high-school and young college kids. Didn't see a lot of people our age (thirtysomethings. Ugh, I hate that term); I guess war protests aren't the hip happenings they go to. I should talk-it was the first protest/activist event I'd been to in about fifteen years.

I found the "pro-war" protestors typically ignorant, jingoistic, and unconvincing (as well as outnumbered). At the enterance to Park Street station there was about a dozen guys with signs that said things like "Hippies Smell! Go Home and Take a Shower" and "Baghdad That Way" with an arrow pointing to the stage of the protest.

A couple of signs I found interesting. One had "Neville Chamberlain Fan Club" and an arrow similar to the "Baghdad" sign and one said "Hippies, go home and read a history book." I was tempted to stop and talk to these guys, but they don't really want to hear anything that disagrees with their point of view.

To wit, Sadam Hussein was not even in control of two-thirds of the airspace over his own country. He was being contained by the US and Briish Air Forces very well. The Iraquis couldn't so much as move an anti-aircraft emplacement without the US and UK knowing about it. We aren't exactly talking about an expansionist regime here. Certainly Sadam Hussein is an evil man and he runs a frightening, oppresive regime. But hey, the Israeli Army is killing American citizens, too. Why aren't we bombing them?

Regardless of my opinion, the thing that saddens me is the level that political discourse has fallen to in this country. It all boils down to "I'm right and you're stupid." "No! I'm right and you're stupid!!" There was a time, as recently as the 1940's, when political debate was seriously framed in the context of different visions of how a democracy should work, and what the role of government should be, and what kind of domestic and foreign policy aims does a democratic republic have? That seems to have all gone out the window with the Cold War. And I think a lot of people put the fault at the Republicans' feet (especially Democrats), but the Democrats are also to blame. Although the Republicans give us the most prominent examples of unscrupulous men who were willing to do anything to cast their political opponents as enemies of the nation (e.g. Joe McCarthy and Richard Nixon).

My biggest beef is with all the people, on both sides of the argument, who confuse their opinion with a rationally arrived at position. If your son is in the Marines, and you want him home safely, that's understandable. But it isn't really a strong argument to end the war. In fact, it's irrelevant to the larger issue. The issue is, should we be there in the first place, and if not, what do we do now that we're in the middle of this?

Along the same lines, if you (or George Bush, for that matter) thinks Saddam is an oppresive dictator, that's understandable. It's supportable by evidence, and it's a valid opinion to hold. But does it justify a very expensive, divisive, and unpopular war? (And don't try to argue with that last statement. This war is very unpopular world wide. Even the Turks and the Saudis have asked us to stop shooting cruise missles through their airspace.)

I'm going to stop ranting now. The veins are sticking out on my forehead.