Last week — in the role of Elvira the Witch — I hosted a spooky-fun Halloween party for my grandchildren. A few days later I saw in the newspaper that Condoleezza Rice was at a Halloween party, too, at which a really scary witch was flailing her bloody hands in Condi’s face and screeching. Oh, wait. It says here “War protester rushes official before hearing on Capitol Hill” So it’s not a Halloween party after all; it’s “Desiree Anita Ali-Fairooz, of feminist antiwar group Codepink, accosted Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday before being dragged away by Capitol Police.”
Ah, yes, Codepink — those eye catching gals who graced the September Petraeus-Crocker hearings until the Democratic chairmen kicked them out. When I see these folks I can never decide which is more absurd — their outfits or their actions. This most recent example was no exception. “Miss Ali-Fairooz, 51, smeared red paint from her hand on the wall as she was dragged out of the room, police said.” And of course, the red paint was supposed to be blood. “‘The blood of millions of Iraqis is on your hands,’ Fairooz shouted before police wrestled her away.” Millions? Gee, the anti-war website Iraq Body Count puts that number at between 75,000 and 82,000. But I suppose that when you’re posing as a bloody-handed witch assailing the Secretary of State at a gathering of elected lawmakers, you’re not worrying about getting the numbers right.
So who are these people who make their point too foolishly and obnoxiously to ever be taken seriously? According to their own mission statement, “Codepink is a women-initiated grassroots peace and social justice movement working to end the war in Iraq, stop new wars, and redirect our resources into healthcare, education and other life-affirming activities. We reject the Bush administration’s fear-based politics that justify violence, and instead calls [sic] for policies based on compassion, kindness and a commitment to international law. With an emphasis on joy and humor, Codepink women and men seek to activate, amplify and inspire a community of peacemakers through creative campaigns and a commitment to non-violence.” Well, I must have missed the joy and humor this time. And why the name Codepink? “The name Codepink plays on the Bush Administration’s color-coded homeland security advisory system that signals terrorist threats. While Bush’s color coded alerts are based on fear, the Codepink alert is based on compassion and is a feisty call for women and men to ‘wage peace.'”
Looking further I learned that earlier this month, several Codepink ladies were denied entry into Canada when their names appeared on an international criminal database indicating that they had been arrested and convicted for civil disobedience. Those charges were brought when, according to Codepink, the group had only been trying to “deliver a peace petition” at the UN. Yeah, just like at the hearing, the bloody hands lady “approached Secretary Rice …to deliver [a] message”; and the disruption of General Petraeus before Congress was nothing more than “Moms, Grandmothers and Veterans removed and arrested at hearing.”
When the Pink rank and file speaks out, the picture doesn’t change much. Here’s a poem posted by David:
All eyes now on the persian
magnetic fields shift inversion
the rich take another excursion
into greed lust hate and perversion.
What?
Maybe Alex, who is riding a scooter across the USA in the shape of a peace sign, will say something coherent: “If you want Peace in our world, work with me to embrace the idea of abundance.” Or maybe not. Amelia believes that “Peace can only happen in a country or over the globe when we all hold peace within ourselves. That starts by each and every one of us resolving our inner conflicts. When that happen [sic] only peace can prevail. Our leaders are only as great as a countries [sic] consciousness. It’s time to wake up and see how each and everyone of the citizens of a country can participate by holding a better space in the world, consciously one of inner peace. What we hold inside reflects outward. Peace!” Tell that to the enemy. And here is what Robin wore to a peace march “a long dark Pink skirt with a ‘Give ’em a Pink Slip’ slip over it and my best Pink flowered hat — and a boa for full Pink effect.” Robin reports that someone had the nerve to tell her she looked “ridiculous.”
It is easy to disdain and poke fun at these people. Nobody outside of their own ranks is happy to see them anywhere — and that includes even Hillary Clinton. But what they represent is not funny. They are just the far reaches of all the useful idiots who — wittingly or unwittingly — would abandon the fight against a savage enemy, with no apparent understanding of the cause or the consequences. Their message, in various forms, permeates the entire Left Establishment — academia, the media, the Democrats — and that is nothing to laugh about.
