Editorial: Stupid is the head that wears the crown

As noted Thursday, if there's one common theme on campuses across the country, it's students trying to end the illegal war wondering, "How stupid do they think I am?"

They is elected Democrats who continue to act as though there's nothing they can do, their hands are tied, they really wish there was a way to end the illegal war, but they don't have a super majority and blah, blah, blah. If only everyone knew as little about how Congress passes (or doesn't) legislation, students might be buying into those lies. Too bad for Congress, they aren't.

"How stupid do they think I am?" was used last week, repeatedly, on campuses by students taking issue with the decision of Phyllis Bennis and Eric Leaver to author a report for United for Peace and Justice that undercounted the number of Iraqi dead. You have to wonder, if the year was 1974, the authors would be rushing forward to undercount the dead in Chile?

We also wonder why, since Bennis has done this before, United for Peace and Justice wasn't at all concerned with her co-authoring their report. Despite what Bennis may think, numbers do matter. Undercounting? That's really something for government officials to practice, now isn't it? Not for activists.

Then there was The Peace Resister Katrina vanden Heuvel insisting that she was for peace and offering, by way of example, that her living in Russia proved it. We look forward to the next declaration that Katrina vanden Heuvel is for public spaces and the claim that her living in Harlem demonstrates this. The good thing about vanden Heuvel is she delivers her own punch lines. Which is how she can insist she's an advocate for peace and then go on to write about the
American Friends Service Committee without ever mentioning war resisters -- the very reason the organization exists.

How stupid do they think we are?

Pretty stupid. They think they can use undercounts and we won't notice and won't question. They think a glorified travel study to another country is supposed to trick us into forgetting that The Peace Resister refuses to cover (or allow her magazine in print to cover) war resisters. They think we're stupid enough to believe the Democrats do not have the power to end the illegal war.

If we believed all that, we would be plenty stupid. Fortunately, the American public is not as stupid as so many seem to think.

They've turned against the illegal war and they will end the illegal war. Those prolonging the illegal war -- either intentionally or unintentionally -- should be very aware that their actions do not go unnoticed. Phyllis Bennis should start using an accurate count quickly because women always get tarred and feathered quicker than males. We had no idea, until last week, that so many students knew her name. Most appear to have learned it as a result of the undercounting in the report she co-authored. There's a great deal of anger towards her. If she's angling to become the national joke that Katrina vanden Heuvel is to students, she's well on her way. If she wants to be taken seriously, she needs to get it together and start using an accurate count. If that's confusing: Hint, a year old count (and the lower figure in the count) may go unnoticed by those who dabble at ending the illegal war. But to students devoting serious time to the issue, they're not falling for it.

And people aren't falling for the Democrats' whine of "Our Hands Are Tied!"

These days, stupid is the head that wears the crown. (For those who need smut, ask Katrina vanden Heuvel to rework that reworked saying into an oral sex 'joke'. We're not working the blue room today.) We're used to that being true in terms of the Bully Boy. The shock was that so many others would rush to prove their own stupidity.