Arthur Silber: Calling Bullshit--Bring It On, Cindy

August 13th, 2005

Well, I said that I didn’t want to get into the personal attacks on Cindy Sheehan. I still won’t—but I want to make a few points about the controversy that has erupted here, in response to this.

Very briefly, here is the background that a lot of people seem to be unwilling to acknowledge. For the last several years, the national discussion about Iraq has been almost entirely dominated by the administration and its supporters. Beginning almost immediately after 9/11, anyone who dared to disagree with or even question Bush’s foreign policy decisions has been labeled as being “on the other side,” as being “objectively pro-terrorist,” and the like. In short: anyone who disagreed, no matter how well-grounded his objections and no matter how completely his objections have been vindicated by events of the last two years, was called a traitor. This is not a minor matter, and this is the cultural swamp in which we now live.