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• Friday, September 15, 2006 09:32 PM

  On Protest Art

  Thanks, Salon, for running this story to highlight both DeLappe's work, and that of the US Army. Much more attention should be paid to both of these, as Rebecca Claren's article doesn't state the obvious metaphor: To Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld, the Iraq war IS a virtual war. They never considered the human or financial cost of the endeavor before they started it; it's not their children dying over there; and they care about as much for our soldiers as we do for computer-generated images wiped out in a computer crash. They don't listen to the experienced generals who advise them well; they don't strategically plan for anything but elections & Halliburton & friends' profits; they don't provide the resources (body armor, vehicle armor, sufficient troops) to support those who give their lives for this nation.

  I respectfully disagree with Professor Nagler, who says protest art is ineffective. Protest art is how artists contribute. I believe we would be more effective at changing policy by talking daily with people who disagree with us, rather than get ourselves tossed into jail where we are too easy to shut up. In Bush's world, thinking and informing oneself is in itself civil disobedience.

  Now that more US soldiers have died in Iraq & Afghanistan than civilians were killed on September 11, 2001, it's time for US citizens to start demanding accountability for the irresponsible decisions that led us into it. We need to force the neocons out of their virtual entitlements and into the real world where you can't just turn the game off.

  —juliaannd Read juliaannd's other letters
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