Posted 21:49 by Grote 0 comments

I Don't Get It

If you haen't read Pip's blog entry on him watching the Bush Protest in England read that first before reading my rant.

Done? Good.

Here's what I don't get. Why do people in other countries protest the United States' foreign policy? Don't get me wrong, the right to gather and protest is one of the most basic rights. And I think Ann Coulter is a loon for her books, like Treason. And I can understand doing it here we can send a message to our elected officials that if they don't straighten up and fly right we'll throw them out of office it will make their head spin. But why do Londoners march down to Trafalgar's square and pull down an effigy of Bush? He's not gonna look out the window and say "Well garsh, those Englishers look pretty ticked at me I better change our policy!" At least I hope not. Again Tony Blair, sure pull him down in effigy. Get your elected represenatives to push forward a vote of no confidence, but Bush? Can you imagine how odd it would be if Jaques Chirac came to visit the White House and people protested outside because he didn't assist us in Iraq?

Here's the other thing. Most of those signs are demanding that troops be withdrawn in Iraq. Yeah, there is a great idea. Let's pull out what little Law & Order there is in the country and create a terrorist state like Afghanistan pre-9/11. We made the mess; we need to clean it up. Even if we were to pull out tomorrow, Bush would be crucified when a talibanesque state pops up because we left Iraq a mess. Should there be U.N. peacekeepers under an international commander? Sure. But let's face it, 95% of the time U.N. peacekeepers are called in to keep the peace, the majority of the troops involved are American. So there will be a strong American presense in Iraq. I don't always agree with Dubya, but he's damned if he does, damned if he doesn't.