Useful Idiot Parade

Here are some recent statements from Saddam's assortment of Useful Idiots

"Don't let the thugs muddy the message": In today's editorial, the San Francisco Chronicle praises the peaceful anti-war protesters, and condemns what it calls the "small band of supposed allies whose methods fell short of the Gandhian ideal", i.e. the dozens of protesters who indulged in an orgy of vandalism. The editorial closes with the line "Don't let the thugs muddy the message". I agree. The anti-war movement should re-focus its energies on ridding the world of thugs.

Elwyn Chase, a former foreign service officer and retired college professor gave an interview to the Philadelphia Inquirer, where he said: (I summarize) Saddam is a monster who does have weapons of mass destruction but we don't have any pictures of them, so we have to wait until he attacks something before we prevent him from hurting anybody. In the meantime, we need to understand that Saddam thinks he's doing the right thing, so we shouldn't call him "evil".

Bob Edgar, general secretary of the National Council of Churches and leader of the "Win Without War" coalition, permitted himself to be used recently when he went on a Potemkin tour of Iraq. Edgar told NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross last week that he's not categorically opposed to all wars

I think that if there's a nation that is subjugating its people we ought to intervene... but wars have to be just and we need justification ... if Saddam Hussein was lobbing weapons at someone ... if he was invading a neighbor there could be some justification.

Maybe something like that will come up. In the meantime, Edgar wants the inspectors to keep inspecting, and if they find any weapons he would still be opposed to (our) use of military force, he would want the inspectors to destroy the weapons. He doesn't say how they should destroy the weapons, or what they should do if they find proof of weapons, but not the weapons themselves, or what they should do if Saddam tried to stop them from destroying his weapons. In any event, the prospect of a nuclear-tipped Saddam didn't seem to cause him any concern.

Janeanne Massacre Comedienne Janeanne Garofalo pulls a Rodney Dangerfield and claims that she gets no respect as an anti-war celebrity. But what of all of her TV appearances and newspaper interviews?

"They have actors on so they can marginalize the movement," the stand-up comic says. "It's much easier to toss it off as some bizarre, unintelligent special-interest group.

I, for one, care less about someone's profession than what they have to say. For example, I respect the opinions of this jazz guitarist, but not of this college professor. One can see how people might treat Garofalo as a marginalized "member of a bizarre, unintelligent special-interest group" when she says things like:

These same corporate entities [the mainstream media] have an interest in war, have an interest in profiting from war. They represent corporate America. Corporate America dictates the news we are getting."

Yeah, Corporate America is a monolith, and its mouthpiece is the unwavering pro-Bush New York Times Corporation

Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at January 29, 2003 02:41 PM