Amanda Marcotte, the pro-fascist neo-feminist who writes the Pandagon blog epitomizes the new straw-person that Cindy Sheehan enablers are throwing up, namely that Sheehan’s critics seek to deprive her of right to dissent:
The cynicism behind the political attacks on the behalf of Dear Leader (to swipe Digby’s phrase) are something to behold. Are all people in mourning forbidden to use that anger and sadness to fuel a cause they believe in? Or is it only if it’s politically inconvienent to His Royal Highness? I’m guessing the latter because, for instance, a quick search of John Cole’s site did not result in his angry rampages against Mothers Against Drunk Driving or people who fight for better treatment for victims of violence after it happens to themselves or people who volunteer time or money to cancer foundations after losing loved ones.
The right to dissent is one of the things that distinguishes America from Saddam’s Iraq, of course, and I don’t know of anyone who seeks to deprive Cindy Sheehan of it. Sure, there are plenty of us who think it’s sad that the poor woman has been used and manipulated by some of the most cynical people in America, but shutting her up isn’t on anyone’s agenda. Ignoring her until she’s regained her balance is certainly appropriate, or reminding her that she would not have been able to stage such a spectacle in Saddam’s Iraq, the country she seems to admire so much, but she’s exercising her rights as a free American and should certainly be allowed to continue, as long as she’s not violent or disruptive.
The fact that the anti-liberation crowd is trotting out such bankrupt arguments is an indication of how weak their moral position is.
Speaking of moral bankruptcy, is anything more obscene than arguing that we should have refrained from toppling Saddam because of an Iraqi right to “self-determination?”
I saw that argument today at Alas a Blog, and I have to say it makes my blood boil; self-determination, like all rights, belongs to people, not of countries, so arguing that Saddam’s government made Iraqis self-determined is positively perverted.