The pundits are having a heyday with Hillary Clinton's sleazy McCarthyite attack on Barack Obama, trying to link him to the Weather Underground because of his having served on a charity organization board with one of the Weathermen, Bill Ayers, who is currently a distinguished professor of education at the University of Illinois, and who is married to Bernadine Dohrn, another Weather Underground veteran.
What has them in a lather is Ayer's comment, made a few years ago, that he has no regrets for the organization's having set off several bombs back in the early 1970s, and that in fact they "should have set off more." (Incidentally, as Robert Parry notes, those comments were made before 9-11, not, as Hillary Clinton charged duplicitously in the April 16 Philadelphia debate, right after 9-11.)
In fact, it's important to remember that while three members of the Weather Underground died at their own hands because of a failed bomb they were constructing, no one else died at their hands. The group scrupulously worked to make sure that their attacks were on property, not people.
It's also important to remember that they were targeting a government
that was engaged in a criminal war against a peasant country half a
world away, that had killed nearly two million Indochinese people, most
of them civilians, and that was well on the way to pointlessly sending
58,000 American troops to their deaths.
The actions of the Weather Underground may have been misguided and
quixotic, but they were not terrorists in the sense of trying to cause
mass terror among the American public, in the way that Al Qaeda
terrorists or other terror groups indiscriminately attack civilians.
They were much more carefully targeting the levers of power, and in
effect, trying to "bring the war home."
While many in the anti-war movement condemned the actions of the
Weather Underground, I would argue that they, like the militant Black
Panthers, performed an invaluable role by sending a loud, clear message
to the nation's ruling elite that if they continued the war, things
would get worse at home.
Their actions made the peaceful mass protests against the Indochina War
far more potent, because they forced the ruling elite in the US to have
to ponder what would happen if those masses turned to the same kind of
violent measures against them.
Ayers has long since earned the nation's respect, whatever one may
think of his youthful radicalism, by devoting his life to the challenge
of helping educate those who have a hard time breaking the cycle of
poverty and ignorance, which makes it obscene to criticize Obama for
sharing a boardroom with him (Obama was 8 when Ayers was in the
Weathermen back in 1970).
But Ayers and his comrades should also be honored for having been
willing to go the extra mile and put their lives on the line to end a
criminal war.
We could use that kind of courage and militancy today in the anti-war
movement — not in the form of another underground bombing campaign, but
certainly in the form of a willingness put ourselves on the line to
blockade and undermine an American imperial war machine that has chewed
up the lives of tens of thousands of young Americans and killed over a
million innocent Iraqis.
Five years into a war with no end in Iraq, it's clear that just going
about our business, and making periodic marches along the boulevards of
Washington, New York or San Francisco is not enough.
Are you crazy ? The Weathermen killed three people in a Brinks robbery , Ayers is a piece of shit terrorist , and Obama s his friend .
1
April 22, 2008
Jack Ass: Your worst nightmare
Typical liberal. Excusing attacks on the United States. They werent real terrorists! Nooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
2
April 22, 2008
CharlieMansion: Pundit
I believe that if Billy and Bernie wanted to make a difference they would go to China and protest against their illegal human organ harvesting, and other crimes. Whoops - Willie and Bernie would not have his daddy's money to buy high-priced attorneys. Instead Billy stays here sucking his income from the State of Illinois tit as a college professor.
3
April 22, 2008
Renascent: Dylan was right (We did NOT need weathermen)!
In their youth, the weathermen undermined the credibility of the anti-war movement. In their maturity, by a lack of contrition, they weaken the most progressive candidate in decades. Way to go, narcissists!
4
April 24, 2008
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