THE "ANTI-WAR" MOVEMENT STIRS AGAIN - AT 8:15 P.M. ET:  Isn't this where we came in?  The usual suspects are stirring again.  Protesting Iraq?  No, protesting Afghanistan, as The New York Times reports:

A restive antiwar movement, largely dormant since the election of Barack Obama, is preparing a nationwide campaign this fall to challenge the administration’s policies on Afghanistan.

Anticipating a Pentagon request for more troops there, antiwar leaders have engaged in a flurry of meetings to discuss a month of demonstrations, lobbying, teach-ins and memorials in October to publicize the casualty count, raise concerns about the cost of the war and pressure Congress to demand an exit strategy.

And...

“We’re coming out of a low period,” said Medea Benjamin, co-founder of the antiwar group Code Pink. “But as progressives feel more comfortable protesting against the Obama administration and challenging Democrats as well as Republicans in Congress, then we’ll be back on track.”

COMMENT:  What is infuriating is the continued insistence by the mainstream media that groups like Code Pink be called "anti-war."  As Christopher Hitchens has written, they're not anti-war.  They're anti any war America has a chance of winning.  Many are hard left groups that oppose all American military action.  Many are descended from the "anti-war" groups of the Vietnam era, many of which openly sided with the enemy and took Jane Fonda as their heroine. 

I have yet to see, in the mainstream media, any detailed reporting on what some of these groups actually stand for, and against.  If we did get that kind of reporting, the reporters would undoubtedly be labeled McCarthyites, which is the standard charge by which the left shuts down all questions about its activities.

President Obama has called Afghanistan a war of necessity.  Let's see how long his stamina lasts when he's confronted by the fringe left of his party, with its "anti-war" agenda. 

We should remember that opposition to any military action in response to 9-11 surfaced soon after the attacks, in 2001, when a group called Not in My Name circulated petitions among the faithful, including such hard-left activists as Gloria Steinem.  These are the same people, of course, who remain silent in the face of the most unspeakable atrocities and genocides when committed by others.  The free ride given them by the media has kept them going for decades.

August 30, 2009