[Mb-civic] Stop, Children, What's That Sound? - Eugene Robinson - Washington Post

[William Swiggard]

Stop, Children, What's That Sound?

By Eugene Robinson
Tuesday, September 27, 2005; Page A23

There was a clear winner for best slogan at the huge, spirited, 
good-old-days antiwar demonstration that filled the streets of 
Washington on Saturday: "Make Levees, Not War."

It's no surprise that George W. Bush wasn't around when the multitudes 
of protesters -- police said 100,000, organizers claimed 300,000 -- 
paraded past the White House. After all, this is a president who 
restricts his town-hall meetings to townspeople who agree with him. He 
left his poor wife, Laura, to suffer the mocking crowds, who 
overshadowed the book festival she was hosting on the Mall.

The president's absence was understandable, though. His painstakingly 
crafted image of leadership and competence was so damaged by the botched 
response to Hurricane Katrina that he could hardly afford a repeat 
performance on Rita. So while a genuine Vietnam-era protest march was 
making its way past his house, complete with an appearance by Joan Baez, 
the president was on the road playing the role of flood-control 
commander in chief.

At the end of the day, though, he must have taken a moment to wonder how 
his mojo could have deserted him so completely. Rita turned out to be no 
Katrina, so there was no massive relief effort to command. The president 
still couldn't find his bullhorn moment. Meanwhile, his capital was 
overrun by the opposition in a spectacular demonstration of how 
unpopular the war in Iraq has become.

A counter-demonstration Sunday in support of the war drew a few hundred 
people. The comparison isn't a fair measure of opinion about the war, 
but it does say something about which side has passion and momentum.

I know that Iraq isn't exactly Vietnam, but haven't we heard this song 
before? You know: "There's something happening here, what it is ain't 
exactly clear''? Does that ring a bell at the White House? Or did 
everybody in this administration spend the whole Vietnam era listening 
to Pat Boone or whatever it was they grooved to in the frat houses?

Saturday had that vintage feeling. Cindy Sheehan was there to play her 
iconic earth-mother role, while the Rev. Jesse Jackson's presence 
somehow made the whole thing official. In the crowd there were 
next-generation merry pranksters bearing caricature puppets, legions of 
praying Buddhists, ranks of earnest Presbyterians for Peace and files of 
silver-haired Raging Grannies. There were countless young adults whose 
baby boomer parents had marched these same streets in protest over three 
decades ago. All that was missing was the sour tinge of tear gas in the air.

A kind of perfect storm has gathered to menace the president. Polls 
showing public opinion shifting against the war have helped push 
fence-straddlers into the antiwar camp. Hurricane Katrina led even 
supporters to question this administration's ability to manage, well, 
anything. It must be galling for Bush, nearly five years into his 
presidency, to be in the position of having to prove himself.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/26/AR2005092601472.html?nav=hcmodule
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