It appears that a few students at Denton’s two universities came out to protest the liberation of Iraq (registration required).

About 250 students and faculty members gathered outside the University Union at noon to express their feelings about the possibility of the United States going to war against Iraq. Another 60 came together outside the Texas Woman’s University Student Center as part of a national student protest, “Books, Not Bombs.”

However, there were some who came out to protest the protesters.

In answer to the protest, another student group showed support for President Bush and possible actions in Iraq.

“I support the sovereignty of our country to protect us against terrorist attacks,” said student Michael Wright. “I support us taking care of business so we make sure we don’t get killed when we walk down the street.”

Just to put things in perspective, let’s take a look at some information for both of these schools.  While they don’t give an exact number, this page tells us that The University of North Texas is ” the fourth-largest university in Texas (more than 30,000 students)”.  And according to the last published factsheet from Texas Woman’s University they had an enrollment for Fall 2002 of 8694 students (and they aren’t exclusively a woman’s university with 782 male students).

Let’s do a little math, shall we?  For UNT, assuming a student body of 30,000 and a protest count of 250 (which includes faculty and counter-protesters, by the way), that would indicate that at most 0.83 percent of the student body was involved.  At TWU, that percentage is a similarly impressive 0.69 percent (using the protester count of 60 and the fall enrollment of 8694*).  What was that about “the majority” of the people being against war in Iraq?

On the way back from lunch today one of my coworkers made the observation that people who are against something are far more likely to protest that those who support it.  Those who are protesting against war would best remember that.

* TWU also has facilities (albeit small ones)  in Dallas (at Parkland and Presbyterian hospitals) and Houston.  They did not give the breakdown for enrollment at each facility, although Denton is their primary campus.

I guess I’d have to rate the President’s performance at the press conference as a B or B-.  I had hoped to hear more of a reaction to the question about “American arrogance.”  However, I understand that he has to be careful of his words.  That’s just one more reason why I would never make it as President.  I don’t think it would play well in the press and around the world to tell a reporter that he’s an asswitted fool (or that the so-called “peace” protesters are a bunch of crunchy nutburgers).

Steven Den Beste has some thoughts on the Jacksonian response to any possible French or German collusion with Iraq on WMDs.  I’m not sure how strongly I would react to such news, but I agree with the general sentiment.  Maybe that’s because I have already crossed over that line with France and Germany.  I regard them (or at least their governments) in a similar manner to Saudi Arabia.  Which is to say that I don’t really trust them and I don’t consider them our allies.  Maybe I’m cynical, but it wouldn’t surprise me if the French or Germans supplied equipment or raw materials to Iraq.

It appears that the war with Iraq will start sometime in early February, when the nights are the darkest due to the new moon, or so goes the current speculation.

I’ve been avoiding the topic of war until recently, as my primary interests lie in the areas of firearms, technology, and civil liberties.  At heart I’m an isolationist who believes in free trade.  That may sound weird, but it just means I’d prefer to have peaceful commercial relations with other countries and to pretty much keep to ourselves otherwise.  However, I also believe strongly in the idea of self-defense and I think this must also apply to nations.  So you can imagine the ambivalance this has generated for me.

But I still find myself in reluctant agreement with the invasion of Iraq.  However much I may be tempted towards revenge for the attack of September 11, 2001 (and I would not hesitate to put a bullet in bin Laden’s head if you put him in front of me; if he were still alive, that is), my contemplation of Iraq has been much cooler.  This is not something I arrived at flippantly or through blood lust.  I worry about the coming war.  No matter how well we plan and how superior our forces, Murphy always rides along when the flag flies.  I worry about our troops who may not come home or those who will come home horribly wounded.  And I know that while our forces will do everything in their power to prevent innocent deaths, they will happen.  The reports I’ve seen indicate that many Iraqi people understand this, and accept it as the price of freedom, but I hope that they still feel that way after the war is over.

I also worry about the aftermath of the war.  Will we have the resolve to stick around for however long it takes to turn Iraq into a functioning democracy?  If not, then I fear that 20 years from now we’ll have to go back when the next madman pops up and threatens the world.  I also hope that President Bush releases some of the definitive proof that he and Tony Blair have been claiming to have.  It would go a long way towards putting some of my concerns to rest.

But regardless of my isolationist tendencies, I cannot in good conscience side with the anti-war crowd.  There may be some principled people among them, but I can’t separate the signal from the noise to distinguish their message from that of groups like A.N.S.W.E.R.  According to some scholars, socialism and communism are directly responsible for more deaths than any other cause in the 20th century (over 100 million dead in places like the Soviet Union, China, Cambodia, etc).  I have absolutely no qualms about saying that communism is evil.  I also cannot abide anti-semitism.  The anti-Israel and anti-semitic (not exactly the same, but usually linked) sentiments expressed by some of the protesters are sickening.

I think ultimately what brings me to my conclusion is something that has been denigrated by many, but that still moves some of us.  That something is patriotism.  I’m not a flag-waver.  I didn’t go out and put flags on everything on September 12th.  I don’t believe in God or any of that, but there’s more to patriotism than God or flag waving.  I may rant and rave and rail about the creeping socialism that I see encroaching on our country, but I still wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.  I have a great love for this country and the ideals on which it was founded.  I want to see us continue to live by those ideals.  I believe that in order to do that we must neutralize the external threats before we can deal with the internal ones.

Anyway, that’s just the opinion of an isolationist who has become a reluctant hawk.  I suppose this post will contain parts that will upset both the pro- and anti-war camps.  Oh well, it can’t be helped.

I knew these protesters were dangerous fools, but I just didn’t comprehend the depth of their hatred for the United States or their anti-semitism.  Lee from Right-Thinking went to the protests in San Francisco and found some disturbing stuff:

Anti-Semitism was rampant at the protest. I heard the phrase “fucking Jews” uttered by at least ten different individuals. I also heard a number of people discussing how the Israelis had infiltrated our government to commit genocide against the Palestinians. This sign is a great example of this sentiment. “I want YOU to die for Israel. Israel sings Onward Christian Soldiers.” I would have expected this type of message from a Klan rally, or maybe some skinheads. I wasn’t necessarily surprised to hear it from a bunch of left-wing anti-war folks, I was just surprised at how open they were with it.

Found this image via the discussion section to this post over at little green footballs.  I think it speaks volumes and I’m glad to know that someone was there to challenge the peace protesters:

(It should be noted that not all pacifists are this way—just our modern batch of no war for any reason appeaseniks.  I have great respect for those who have served this country in the past as battle-field medics and priests.)

It looks like Steven Den Beste thinks that things have gone too far to turn back now.  We’ve passed the point of no return and we’re committed.  I suspect that he’s right.  If we go to all the trouble of amassing so much equipment and so many personnel and don’t follow through then we’ll never be taken seriously.  I should point out that not being taken seriously is at the heart of our current difficulties with militant Islam.

On another front it appears that some Islamic nutbags have already started things rolling in Northern Iraq.  More joy from the purveyors of the “religion of peace.”

First North Korea, now Iran.  Maybe there’s something to this “axis of evil” thing after all.

Link via little green footballs.

I was having a conversation with a coworker and I brought up the current unreset in Iran.  I mentioned that something like 2/3 of the population is under age 30 and it’s this part of the populace that is most tired of the Islamic government.  That got him to thinking about the changes that this country went through in the 60’s (he lived through that period).  This brought us around to the subject of “peace activists”.

One observation that I made is that the “peace activists” that we have today just don’t cut it with regards to the ones from back then (at least from my current vantage point—I wasn’t born until 1970, so I don’t have first-hand knowledge).  While I despise those who spit on our soldiers, I can understand why the rest of them were against the war (not that I necessarily want to get into a debate about Vietnam).  Today is completely different.  This country was attacked and we are at war whether these people want to admit it or not.  Not only are they wrong about the need for action, but most of them are idiots.

They also have a distorted view of our aims and capabilities.  They talk about the United States as if we just can’t wait to slaughter innocent women and children.  Besides Israel, I don’t know of any other country that takes such pains to prevent the deaths of innocents.  But to listen to these people you’d think that we were going to carpet bomb Iraq into a smoking pile of rubble from one border to the other.  I’m not trying to minimize the fact that war is a horrible thing, but let’s have a bit of perspective on the subject.

So now they’re saying that [OU]sama Bin Laden is dead.

I don’t necessarily trust the veracity of the report, but I think the timing of it is very interesting.  It’s just too darned convenient, given the latest lame delaying tactic among the idotarian chattering classes.  One of their pet strategies is that they should shout, “Where’s Bin Laden?” every time the president talks about Iraq.  They think that Bin Laden is somehow relevant to the current efforts against Militant Islam and that if they can bring it up they can derail any attempts at U.S. action.  It’s all a bunch of flummery!

I hope that he’s dead, so he can’t stir up any more trouble.  I just wished that we’d been able to see it, though.

Found via Musicpundit.