Grant me that this is funny:
US actors and liberal intellectuals joined a list to be published Friday of nearly 2,000 people accusing President Barack Obama of allowing human rights violations and war crimes.
“Crimes are crimes, no matter who does them,” the statement reads over pictures of Obama and his predecessor George W. Bush due to appear in the New York Review of Books.
The statement, published as a paid advertisement, accuses Obama, who was elected in 2008 with the enthusiastic support of US liberals, of continuing Bush’s controversial approach to human rights in Iraq and Afghanistan, and in domestic security.
It is completely predictable, of course:
While opposition to war is a normal condition presidents waging war have to face, this war is different. The president will face opposition to the war in Afghanistan largely from within his own party. In Vietnam, Nixon faced the opposition party that became anti-war and under Ford we were compelled to lose that war. In similar partisan fashion, however, we won the Philippine Insurrection despite the strident opposition.
I have no idea how this will play out. There could be a virtual civil war within the president's party as loyalists defend his war effort at the side of Republicans. The Left will increasingly voice their anger both at the president and at Congress, putting pressure on war supportive Democrats to swing against the war. Mere cooperation with Republicans to support the war will be seen as a sign of betrayal.
Of course, for the committed anti-war types as the "actors and liberal intellectuals" noted above are, opposing President Obama is fairly easy (although it has taken them a year and a half to work up the courage to go after Obama).
What will really be entertaining is the reaction of the pro-Obama people who are not committed anti-war types. Sure, they're anti-war when it comes to a Republican administration, like Bush. But they can be hawkish for a Democrat, like Clinton. So they will continue to support Obama at war even as they look longingly at the anti-war side as it gets more vocal. For these Obama supporters who have argued that any opposition to the president is based on racism, the logical contradictions of being anti-war and pro-Obama will be painful--but enjoyable for others to watch.
