Bring out your morons! Bring out your morons!

Two days in Canada, what a way to celebrate reelection? Many communists, national socialists and other various bands of undesirables showed up in Ottawa to protest against our President. When asked about the hospitality, Dubya’s quip was a classic:

I frankly felt like the reception we received on the way in from the airport was very warm and hospitable, and I want to thank the Canadian people who came out to wave - with all five fingers.

A review of the protestors’ signs reveals all the same slogans we have grown accustomed to state-side: Bush is an idiot, a moron, an ape and simultaneously an evil genius and the second coming of Hitler. Bush is war criminal, the only terrorists are the American soldiers, blah, blah, blah. Alas, Canadian protestors are not anymore tolerant (or creative) than U.S. protestors.

I respect people that thoughtfully disagree with the war in Iraq or the war on terror, even thought I think they are dangerously wrong. If you are one of these people, please explain to me how to twist the meaning of the words “war criminal” and “terrorist” to be applied to a president and his military acting to enforce a decade of United Nations Security Council resolutions, including Resolution 1441, which called for “serious consequences” when Iraq subsequently failed to prove its disarmament.

If you are even semi-literate and vaguely knowledgeable about international law, I suspect you are unable to perform this Clintonian feat of language manipulation. Which is why protests are the least effective tool of political engagement. By chanting infantile slogans over and over again, protestors drown out the serious, intellectual arguments of others who agree with them. That’s worse than accomplishing nothing! It actually damages your position among moderates and acts as motivation for your opponents. Moore-ons!!