People have called George Galloway a “dove”.
Is his “Arabia uber alles!” speech consistent with ‘dovish’ behavior?
So I say to you, citizens of the last Arab country, this is a time for courage, for unity, for wisdom, for determination, to face these enemies with the dignity your [Syrian] president has shown, and I believe, God willing, we will prevail and triumph, fwa-salam aleikum…
..What your lives would be if from the Atlantic to the Gulf we had one Arab union – all this land, 300 million people, all this oil and gas and water, occupied by a people who speak the same language, follow the same religions, listen to the same Um Kulthum… The Arabs would be a superpower in the world if they had this unity, instead of the shameful situation in which the Arabs find themselves today.
..which is what Saddam and every other Arabist supporter of ethnic cleansing has been saying all along. This is a dove?
According to Konrad Lorenz, biologist and founder of the study of ethology, Galloway is very dovish. Non-predatory birds can be very violent – the difference is, they opportunistically attack and destroy only their own kind.
In her post Tuesday the Rabbi Kicked Ass, Cathy Seipp wondered why a Rabbi, a “peace”-loving dove, kicked a woman because he disagreed with her hawkish politics.
According to Konrad Lorenz, the great biologist and founder of the study of ethology, doves, those great symbols of peace are actually nasty and aggressive towards each other. When they are stressed even slightly one will often peck another dove’s eyes out, or even peck the fellow bird to death.
This behavior is also common in chickens, whose response to weakness or injury is to attack and often to kill the disabled bird.
But predatory birds are “less easily provoked, and indeed are normally careful not to harm members of their group. In his 1948 book “Man Meets Dog,” Lorenz describes purposely and repeatedly putting his wide-open eye right up against his pet raven’s big sharp beak to see what would happen; the poor raven kept carefully moving his beak away and eventually became visibly disturbed when Lorenz kept at it.”
By inverting our traditional misconceptions about predators and prey, Lorenz asked who we should try to emulate.
NPR describes Senior Democratic Representative John Murtha, who has called for an immediate withdrawl of U.S. troops for Iraq as a “long-time war hawk” who has turned into “an angry dove.” Watch out.
[cross-posted at Dean’s World]
Mary P. Madigan 