Airstrip One

What's wrong with the Peace Movement

From the Guardian "New US paper aims at Afghan war truth":

A newspaper aimed at providing news of the war in Afghanistan is to be launched this month. Its editors argue that the mainstream media in the US are not providing a full picture of the war and its effects.

So far, so good.

War Times, produced in San Francisco, will make its first bi-weekly appearance on April 12.

San Francisco. Looks worrying.

It will be published in English and Spanish and will be distributed throughout the US.

Distributed, not sold. Worrying sign number 2.

The venture is supported by a number of academics, including Noam Chomsky, labour organisations and anti-war groups.

Oh brother. A free-sheet from Frisco backed by the freak brigade, that's really going to have Foreign Affairs and National Interest quaking in their boots.

When will the antiwar movement stop preaching to itself and start trying to engage with the general population? Even promising ventures like this suddenly start looking stale when you see that it becomes a vehicle for general leftist drivel.

The root problem of the warmongers is that they are prepared to weaken their countries for the sake of either special interests or (in the case of the British sub-species) other countries. In short, they are unpatriotic.

The mainstream peace movement, by aping this lack of patriotism (and being less careful about masking it) moves the issue from one where they can win - the fact that what they argue for is right for Britain - to one where they are bound to lose.

In the 1980s CND had more members than the Labour Party, yet they still lost the debate - because engaging the public became a poor second to mobilising the converted. I must say that as a former Cold Warrior who believes in a Britain nuclear deterrent, I am not too sad about their loss. Things are different now.

The peace movement will only be a credible force when the CND banners are replaced with Union Jacks, and talk of pacifism is replaced with belief in the national interest.