🚀 go-pugleaf

The great Peace-in-the-Gulf-now! March in Bonn - according to CNN the biggest
one in the whole of Europe to date - is history, 200000+ people joined in this
completely peaceful manifestation, braving the zero degrees temperatures of
the 26 Jan. afternoon. I could tell about the well-balanced speeches, of the
strong pro-Israel and anti-Saddam feelings behind all contributions and
throughout the crowd, about the Israeli lawyer Mrs F.Langer whose dramatic
words made even Palestinians applaud, or Vietnam vets who described how
awful this war really was. But there's one aspect that strikes me more than
all emotions of the event itself: IT HAD AN IMPACT ON OUR MEDIA, at least TV!

In the days before there had been countless comments on how the peace movement
was supposedly hurting Germany's image in the rest of the world, and how all
responsibility was lying with the demonstrators. The comments in the evening
news programs of both public TV networks started by reiterating these ideas.
But how they continued was so remarkable that I almost couldn't believe my
ears. Here they come:

   Klaus Bresser (ZDF, 'heute', 19:00; a station usually on the right side):

 ...Those who wage this war will call the demonstrators 'moralists' at best
 or more likely 'wimps'. In war time, things may look simple, judgement, too.
 But this day has shown that it is just too primitive to simply see 
 'anti-Americanism' in the anti-war movement...
 It's not cowardice or treason but deep sorrow that brings these people to
 the streets. In democracy, this is their basic right...
 War cannot be calculated or limited - see the oil spill right now. Every day
 into this war, the doubts grow, not only in Germany, whether bombs can bring
 on peace. The question gets more and more pressing, seeing the victims,
 whether it's not time for a cease-fire, for thinking, for diplomacy. One can
 think differently. Demonstrations surely don't replace politics. But a war
 can replace politics much much less.

   Wilhelm von Sternenburg (ARD, 'Tagesthemene', 22:00, slightly more left):

 ...Are the Germans again romantics, unable to grasp real politics? I say:
 They are not. The Gulf War, total as it is, is getting out of control...
 The response of the world [to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait] had been 
 reasonable in the beginning as well as historically. The road of sanctions,
 would it have been followed consequently and controlledly, would have brought
 Iraq to her knees, without war. The U.N. did say force would be possible, not
 that it *must* be used. The consequences, economically, ecologically, 
 politically as well as militarily cannot be estimated. What results the war
 will bring, besides the overthrow of Saddam, and whether the means are still
 justified, nobody asks anymore.
 Not the so-called 'real politicians' follow the law of reason these days, but
 the 100000s in the streets who oppose war as a means...

This is the first time I have heard comments calling for an end of the Gulf War
here in Germany's mainstream media (most newspaper commentators today are not
yet that bold, but they'll learn, too...). The spell of Schwarzkopf's 'Video
Game' delusion is broken!

           Time's running out  -  STOP THE WAR  -  CEASE-FIRE NOW !