Candlelight Anti-War Vigils Aren’t Going to Work

If protesting could change the system, it would be illegal. In a dictatorship, where there is no power by that of the gun, large demonstrations represent inchoate power that inherently threatens the regime – and so protests there are illegal. In the US and other western democracies, the rite of election bestows a legitimacy that no street assembly (regardless of size) can undermine. And so, the government hands out permits to protesters, knowing that blowing off steam usually quiets the disgruntled. So expect nothing from this week’s candlelight vigils against the war in Iraq.

Rallying around Cindy Sheehan, who’s great contribution to the cause of peace was one son KIA in Iraq, is a “peace movement” that seems to be stuck in the 1960s. The American left is an especially soft bunch, usually of over-privileged Volvo drivers who insist on a quiet life as well as a clear conscience. They are entitled to neither but seem to think they are. And so, they gather in places like Crawford, Texas, near the president’s holiday home to pose for the White House Press Corps. They seem to want to “raise awareness” rather than get in the trenches and get dirty fighting for what they claim to believe.

In doing so, they fail to control their message. It is filtered to the American TV watching public through the prism of the Media. ABC News reports to the Disney Corporation; CBS is owned by Viacom; NBC’s journos are responsible to GE (which also makes weapons for the Department of Defense). Fox is owned by a rich Australian who bought his American citizenship with campaign contributions. CNN is part of Time Warner, and MSNBC is a mix of GE and Microsoft. That is not to say there is a corporate conspiracy that demands the war in Iraq persist. Instead, there’s a lot of money to be lost if the government gets angry with the journalists, and maybe there won’t be lucrative FCC regulations and favorable tax treatment in the future. In short, they don’t get richer by rocking the boat, so why would they? Corporations don’t have morals; they worry about the law and profits – which is why they were created, after all.

If the peace movement were serious about ending the war in Iraq, all the posing would go out the door. The fact is that the war can end tomorrow if a majority of the House and a majority of the Senate refuse to appropriate more funds to fight it. So, where to find 51 senators and 223 congressmen to cut off the money? Very simply, run peace candidates in primaries and start raising money right now. No incumbent wants to fight for his seat, so make peace the price of nomination and election – on both sides of the aisle.

And of greater immediacy, fundraising needs to happen now to buy airtime on all the networks to run anti-war ads. Stopping the war will cost millions and tens of millions of dollars. It will require an entire marketing campaign far greater than that needed to launch a new sneaker or car, and the people capable of doing it don’t come cheap. It’s time for money to be put where mouths are – blood, sweat, toil and tears – but the American “peace movement” would rather hold candles and sing. It takes vast incompetence to outdo the miserable record of the Bush administration in Iraq, but the opponents of the policy seem to have done it.


© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.
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