LEARNING NOTHING

Experience is the best teacher, or so the conventional wisdom goes these days. In the case of today's crop of anti-war activists, experience may be a good teacher but the students are proving resolutely hard-headed and unteachable. As a case in point, I'm on an anti-war activist mailing list, no doubt as a consequence of subscribing to Democrats.com's awful newsletter. Yesterday I received a gem from the head-in-the-sand gang, which is full of gushing and joy over the worldwide demonstrations of the middle of February. This quote stood out from the pack:

"I think everyone was very encouraged by our accomplishments this weekend,"
said Kathleen Brown, a delegate from the University of Vermont, who was
elected to CAN’s national coordinating committee along with 11 other
students. "People wanted to work through things constructively and get to
the basics of organizing actions. Last year in building the movement against
U.S. war in Afghanistan, the movement was much more embattled. But now
there’s a great upswing coming out of the huge national demonstrations in
San Francisco, New York City and around the world."

Of course the anti-war movement prior to the Afghan campaign was embattled--it was attempting to save both the Taliban and Osama bin Laden! America had been stirred to righteous, justified anger, and was remarkably restrained in the weeks between 9-11 and the onset of Enduring Freedom. And note the placement of responsibility--"the U.S. war in Afghanistan." We were at fault, even back then, according to this loon. The fact that today Afghanistan is free of the Taliban's awful rule, and that al Qaeda is largely disrupted, has taught these people nothing. They were wrong then. If they admitted that, it might rehabilitate their credibility a smidge.

These anti-war activists belong to a group called Campus Antiwar Network, or CAN. Which is where they should stuff their protests, and where I'll kick them if I meet them. Idiots.