The September 24th protest began as an extension of Cindy Sheehan’s cry from the Crawford wilderness. Cindy’s message was simple. The war is not noble and no more Americans should be asked to die for an ignoble cause. The simplicity of her message was what made it so effective. But the simplicity suffered from the same pitfalls of all simplistic arguments. Pulling our troops out now will protect their lives, but it will have consequences. Many of those consequences are going to be unpleasant, many of those consequences are unknowable. Without a thorough, honest, intelligence estimate of the likely consequences it is difficult for many people to sign on for an immediate withdrawal.
Beyond the potential problems of an immediate withdrawal, Cindy also acted like a pied piper, bringing in allies of all stripes and colors. Some of those allies are embarrassing allies to have. The right-wing media immediately began to trying to discredit all the protesters with a guilt by association argument. Such arguments are often very effective. In the 60’s and 70’s the FBI infiltrated peaceful protest groups and tried to encourage them to incite violence. It was only marginally effective in discrediting the peace movement, although it did discredit individual groups.
Many people fear falling into this trap. They don’t want to protest the war if the only message is a simplistic “pull-out-now” argument, or if they will be tarred by a “guilt-by-association” slime campaign. Let me tell you something. Any organized protest against this administration is going to be faced with infiltration, with a slime campaign, and will involve some radical groups that we don’t really want to be associated with. It’s unavoidable. But there is a way to overcome this.
Hurricane Katrina has changed things. The message is no longer that we should pull out of Iraq immediately. The message is that Bush and Cheney and Rumsfeld should resign or be impeached. Before Katrina a full 42% of Americans thought Bush should be impeached if he lied us into war. The number of people calling for his impeachment is rising, and it is beginning to come from voices on the right. The biggest and best argument against braying for impeachment has been that it is a political impossibility with the Republicans in charge. But the Republicans no longer want to be associated with this administration. They no longer want to defend their prosecution of the war or their response to Hurricane Katrina.
The demonstration in Washington needs to embrace all the groups that think Bush and Cheney should be forced from office. Some think they crossed the line with pre-9/11 counterterrorism policy, some think it was the “fixing the facts around the policy” exemplified by the Downing Street Minutes, some think it was their incompetent war and reconstruction plan, some think is was authorizing torture and indefinite detentions, some think it was outing a CIA officer, some think it was their failure to save New Orleans from total destruction. Some have other straws the broke their personal camel’s back. Whatever the reason, they should not be allowed to continue if office.
What has paralyzed the Democratic opposition for four years has been the underlying problem that no matter what we propose, it is up to Bush and Cheney to implement our alternative policies. We told them to make al-Qaeda their number one priority, they ignored us. We told them to keep focused on Afghanistan, they ignored us. We called for more inspections and diplomacy over Iraq, they ignored us. We called for more troops, they ignored us. We called for more spending to upgrade the New Orleans levees, they ignored us.
It is now abundantly clear that there is only one way to protect the country. It is not by offering alternative plans that will be ignored. It is by removing them from office. That is a better Iraq plan than anything we can offer up. It’s better than an immediate withdrawal.
Realistically speaking, we cannot expect to be able to remove them until we gain one house of Congress and can hold hearings and issue subpoenas. So, that should also be our rallying cry. Give us the right to hold them accountable, because they won’t hold any of their own to account.
The more people descend on Washington D.C. to protest this administration the more terrifying it will be for members of both parties in Congress. The Democrats will be afraid to compromise, and the Republicans will finally understand there are at least a near majority of Americans that will support impeachment if it is ever proven that the war in Iraq was based on a ‘pack of lies’. The media will have to report, the polling companies will have to poll.
Yes, we will be slimed and called radicals. But we are not radicals. At least, most of us are not radicals. We are a near majority of the American people and growing with each new setback or disaster dealt to us by the administration.
So, don’t worry about ‘guilt by association’, don’t worry if the message is diffuse and not calibrated to your exact view. Get your butts on the mall, and tell the country that we are not going to sit back anymore and wait for a ‘hero to rise from these streets’. Let’s be our own heros. Let’s make our own consensus, or own common wisdom. Be brave. Fight for our security and for the good name of our nation. March on Washington.
