By Tina Grazier
Many of us have been wondering what rock the rabid anti-war people were hiding under and when they would finally come out and begin to take on the Obama administration over its war policy. We need wonder no more. Last week as Obama vacationed with his family on Martha’s Vinyard, Cindy Sheehan was camped out in the neighborhood, if you can call it that, to protest the war. It must have been a pretty stylish protest but not very distracting for all the news it generated! And now, according to an article in the New York Times today, a tentatively organized finger has been raised in protest with hopes for a much bigger fist down the road.
Obama’s changeover from a war footing to an “Overseas Contingency Operation,” along with banning the use of the terms “Islamic terrorist” or “jihadist,” hasn’t been nearly enough to stave off discontent for this crowd of rabble rousing peaceniks. Plans are beginning to formulate but the various groups say they still face a formidable pair of challenges in order to mount a sizable protest:
1. Money is tight…the lousy economy, money being raised to push health care and cap and tax legislation, and the need to fill the coffers for the next political race have put a sizable hole in the anti-war fund raising bucket.
2. Obama remains popular among many of his followers and they are unwilling to rock his hope and change boat.
But some, like Medea Benjamin the co-founder of Code Pink, remain optimistic:
“But as progressives feel more comfortable protesting against the Obama administration and challenging Democrats as well as Republicans in Congress, then we’ll be back on track.”
I must confess, gales of laughter escaped my lips when I read the reasoning behind the Code Pink position. As reported by the New York Times:
Code Pink is trying to build opposition to the war among women’s groups, some of which argue that women will suffer if the Taliban returns. In September, a group of Code Pink organizers will visit Kabul to encourage Afghan women to speak out against the American military presence there.
Our military’s presence and its commitment, and readiness constitute the front lines in the fight for women’s rights today, not just for women in Afghanistan, but for women around the world! We defeat this enemy here and now or it will defeat us in which case women, including the Pepto Bismal Pink clad members of Code Pink, will become subjugated chattel…if they are not murdered for their defiant natures.
A few things to ponder:
1) Will the photos and drawings of Obama be as “mean spirited” as they were when Bush was president? Will all the presidents staff be likewise targeted. Just how nasty will they get?
2) Will protest signs be hard hitting like the one featured above? Let’s see… “No Blood for Oil” won’t do, Afghanistan doesn’t have oil. “STOP the Overseas Contingency Operation” fails to set the spine to tingling. “No War for Poppies” would make too many peaceniks mad. How ’bout…“Hell No O”…it’s a standard…but it fails to deliver that real anti-war punch….
Sigh…it must be tough to protest a progressive war monger.
Break out the posters and flags patriots…looks like the tie dye and Birkenstocks crowd is going to keep us busy supporting our troops and the next fourteen or fifteen months are bound to be a little trippy.