C-SPAN, Scribblers and My Mother
First the good stuff.
Hundreds of thousands of people will be able to watch the debate between George Galloway and Christopher Hitchens on CSPAN this weekend.
Now the annoying stuff.
A gaggle of supposedly liberal journalists are doing their best slander the Galloway tour. Try to match the following quotations with the following writers.
A. “Friends and comrades, this is not about George Galloway. He’s just another self-promoting fart. Six months from now, even his smell will be gone.”
B. “George Galloway defiled Faneuil Hall by bouncing a torrent of ant-U.S., anti-West, pro-Islamist invective off its hallowed walls. Galloway left the stage to a long standing ovation. Since he clearly sides with the suicide bombers, the beheaders ad the other psychopaths that murder civilians in Iraq and elsewhere, a wave of horror washed over me when I realized that the people in the generally well-dressed, well-educated crowd cheering Galloway were, in essence, cheering for their own deaths.”
C. “British M.P. George Galloway… has just begun an ‘anti-war’ speaking tour of the U.S… I put ‘anti-war’ in quotes because Mr. Galloway isn’t really opposed to the war in Iraq. He simply supports another side. Apart from being a shill for Saddam (and for Stalin) Mr. Galloway is also a sleazy and corrupt dandy… MR. GALLOWAY, PLEASE GO HOME.” (The ALL CAPS are in the original.)
Rocco DiPippo, a contributor to extreme right-wing agitator David Horowitz’s Moonbat Central group blog.
Marc Cooper, liberal columnist for the LA Weekly.
Greg Palast, respected professional journalist who exposed the 2000 election fraud in Florida and self-described opponent of the Bush administration.
If you matched DiPippo with B, Cooper with C, and Palast with A, you win the prize.
It’s worth holding your nose and reading these rants, because they do a marvelous job of illustrating the diminishing distance between the pro-Kerry section of the Democratic Party and their “opponents” on the Republican side of the aisle. They both want to “win” the “war on terror,” they simply differ over the means. As US public opinion turns sharply against the war, these tactical differences within the pro-war camp (Bush on one side, Kerry and his scribblers on the other) are harder to explain, or even to see, as they become more disassociated from mainstream opinion.
Most people in the country now are beside themselves with anger at the racist massacre by neglect in New Orleans, and have arrived at the common sense conclusion that the US is doing more harm than good in Iraq. That is why it is Galloway, and not Palast or Cooper (of course, no one expects any help from DiPippo), who is helping energize and organize the anti-war movement in the run up to the massive protests on September 24.
There is one thing that Cooper says that is true. He says that Galloway supports the right of the Iraqi people to resist the occupation. Galloway fully acknowledges this, and proudly.
Palast, on the other hand, has lost all touch with reality and actually argues that the Saddam Hussein’s “killing spree easily exceeds theirs (the Senators).” This clever play on words will not be at all funny to the families of the one million Iraqis, mostly children, who were starved to death by the US imposed sanctions, the hundreds of thousands who died during the first Bush’s invasion of Iraq and the hundred thousand more who have died as a consequence of the second Bush’s invasion.
Yes, Saddam was a brutal dictator. But to argue, as Palast does with his comparison of the Senate and the dictator, that he was a greater danger to world peace than the most powerful empire the world has ever seen, signals the start of Palast’s drift into the currents that washed Christopher Hitchens out to sea.
Cooper goes further, calling for people to “show… up to one of the Galloway events to let him know… that apologists for murderers are not welcome amongst us.” If I remember correctly, Cooper encouraged people to not only “welcome” an actual, self-described war criminal “amongst us,” but to vote for him last November. The worst part is that Cooper doesn’t even realize he is a hypocrite, but self-delusion doesn’t change reality… at least not for the rest of us.
Cooper and DiPippo and Hitchens and Palast aside, the tour continues.
Galloway is in Toronto tonight, speaking to 1500 anti-war activists. Then he will come back south of the border to complete a great arc around the country, organizing thousands to help build the protests for September 24 and to gather aid for victims of hurricane Katrina and the system’s racism.
Reading the scribblers, I worried, for a moment, that maybe they would discourage people from getting involved in the movement to end the war.
But then I received the following email from my mother:
“I have just spent the last hour and a half watching the video of the debate. Please tell Mr. Galloway that we are so proud to have him here, speaking the truth so clearly to the American people. His clarity spoke volumes against the wandering words of Mr. Hitchens. The ending, especially, of the debate, was amazing to watch, as Mr. Hitchens disintegrated into a small, mumbling man, while Mr. Galloway rose to tower over him with the strength and clarity that truth brings to argument.”
My bet is that many more people agree with her than all the aforementioned columnists combined.
Todd Chretien is the Galloway National Tour Coordinator and a frequent contributor to the International Socialist Review.
To get tickets for the remaining Galloway stops, or to get info about
how to watch the debate with Hitchens online or on CSPAN, go to
MrGallowayGoestoWashington.com