Despite the fall of Baghdad and the apparent delight with which this has been greeted by Iraqis, the anti-war movement continues across Canada. Those marches scheduled for this weekend may be the first retroactive war protests in history. Though this may seem like demonstrating against the unlocked barn door after the horse has bolted, the idea may not be as silly as it seems at first blush. Why should the fact that a war is over -- a mere technicality of the temporal continuum-- keep one one from denouncing it?
There are a lot of wars out there which predate the protest period and about which concerned citizens of today might want to manifest their displeasure. Dexter, for one, has long carried a grievance about the Peloponnesian War and the shameful behaviour of the Spartans after the battle of Goat's Creek. On more than one occasion Clio has been heard to execrate those pesky Carthaginians and neither of us is entirely happy about the outcome to the War of Jenkins' Ear. "Carthago delenda est!" "Spartans Go Home!" "Resolutely Oppose the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and Long Live the Continued Struggle Against Kaiser Wilhelm II!" Pray for a balmy week-end, faithful readers, there's a lot of marching ahead of us.
Posted by at April 10, 2003 05:14 PM