Revolutionary Moderation

Socratic dialogue



I'm down with it. That's why I want you to have a look at this photograph, presented as proof that there was a significant crowd in the square when Saddam's statue came down (which was for the benefit of the media, according to links I posted here).



Thing is, this square doesn't look any more full to me than it does in the overhead shot. The peace rally I attended in downtown Calgary in March had many, many more people than the ones apparent in this photograph. If someone feels the need to count heads, hey, go nuts, but I would say no more are apparent in the "rally" section of the photo than maybe two hundred. And of those, I've spotted what I think are at least two shoulder-mounted television cameras. But hey, good try! If you'd like to read more of the debunking attempt, I started my wanderings through the right side of this discussion where I start all of my explorations of the right side of discussions, at Damien Penny's blog from Cornerbrook. You'll need to scroll down to the article posted April 13, 1:27 PM. His archive links don't seem to be working.



And while you're there, mark his words now:

I'd be lying if I said part of me didn't want to see Bashir Al-Assad meet the same fate as the late Saddam Hussein, but I don't think military action against Syria is justified at this time. Iraq had constantly flouted the terms of an armistice agreement it signed after being driven out of Kuwait and 12 years of UN Security Council resolutions aimed at disarming it. Even if they haven't yet found any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq (and I think they'll find the roots of a WMD program before too long), Iraq acted awfully guilty for over a decade, and that's why Bush could plausibly claim he was simply doing what the international community had promised, and failed, to do. Syria, by contrast, has not been subject to any such resolutions or agreements, and an invasion would lend credence to charges that the U.S. is a loose cannon.

Since I'm becoming convinced that such an invasion will come, it's good to know that it will give Damien and perhaps other Iraq hawks pause.



(The block quote link doesn't work yet... same problem with his archive. I'm sure he'll fix it eventually.)