Posted on 04/12/2004 6:41:25 AM PDT by prairiebreeze
Eighty-five years ago, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes authored the Supreme Court's opinion condemning a man named Debs for causing and inciting "insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny and refusal of duty in the military and naval forces of the United States and with intent so to do delivered, to an assembly of people, a public speech ..."[1]
Under the Espionage Act of 1917[2], it mattered most that Mr. Debs prosecuted his anti-war message while his countrymen were fighting World War I in Europe.
Mr. Debs gave his speech on June 16, 1918, three months after the U.S. joined Allied Forces heavily engaged in trench warfare and repelling the German offensive on five fronts. But anti-war efforts overall were sporadic and largely unknown to our faraway troops. By August 8, 1918, American forces led the counteroffensive that pushed the German Army back from the Somme, and Germany surrendered on November 11, 1918.
Yet, when the Allies were signing the Armistice on November 11, 1918, Mr. Debs was serving a ten-year prison sentence for "activities affecting the armed forces in a time of war."[3] His severe punishment sent the anti-war movement into hiding until the 1960s, when social revolution and widespread civil disobedience gave the anti-war movement its greatest forum to vindicate Mr. Debs and to make the Espionage Act forever toothless.
Mr. Debs would be the last one to face any meaningful justice for subversive acts in a time of war. Gone with the common sense of a nation supporting its embattled troops when they need it the most were the gates barring socialism and its roots in the anti-war movement. The gates swung wide during the Vietnam War, and the antiwar movement succeeded at spinning protest in a time of war into an act of patriotism.
Mr. Debs was, after all, an avowed socialist, and his message was no different than the one that anti-war protestors are selling today. Underlying Mr. Debs' anti-war message, Justice Holmes recognized that "[t]he main theme of the speech was Socialism, its growth, and a prophecy of its ultimate success."[4]
Eighty-five years later, and despite proven failures of socialism throughout the world, anti-war protestors are still embracing socialism's theme, its growth, and the prophecy of its ultimate success in the United States.
For example, leading the opposition against war in Iraq is International A.N.S.W.E.R. (web site), United for Peace (web site), and World Socialist Web Site (web site).
The cause of International A.N.S.W.E.R. is to "stop war and end racism." Its members believe that war and racism go hand in hand and that ending one will snuff out the other. They must also believe that waging war against Nazi Germany was not the best way to end its attempt to dominate the world with racism. Go figure.
International A.N.S.W.E.R. was instrumental in last month's Global Day of Action, marking the year anniversary of Coalition forces' G-Day invasion into Iraq. At its January 18, 2003 March on Washington, DC, the organization boasted of protestors in 200 cities and 45 states -- at a time when our troops were gearing up to defend against the uncertain threat posed by an army that used Sarin nerve gas on its own people.
Headlining as endorsers of International A.N.S.W.E.R.'s March on DC were Hollywood's finest -- Michael Moore, Janeane Garofalo, Jessica Lange, and Mike Farrell. Aligned with them to stop war and racism were Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. The endorser list, which is identical to that of United for Peace, would certainly make Mr. Debs proud.
As an indication of just how wacky the anti-war movement has become, International A.N.S.W.E.R. lists as an endorser, White Rabbit Cult (web site), "an association of modern-day druids dedicated to keeping the Cosmic Door open to all those seeking access to archives of Knowledge stored deep in the Consciousness." When these modern-day druids are not out protesting the war, they are worshiping in the "First CyberTemple in the Universe."
Together with the undeniably wacky, the anti-war movement sides with any group furthering the perpetual, socialist theme. Groups like Socialist Party USA, Socialist Action, and Freedom Road Socialist Organization dominate not only as endorsers, but also as the main force behind the anti-war movement today. They do so, however, with a much greater effect over morale in a time of war, and they operate without any political or other restraint against subverting the military's cause and increasing the peril of our service people at war.
Since the Debs case, courts consistently promote anti-war causes and free speech over any demoralizing effect on our troops, but, in 1919, socialists thought they found their judicial champion in Justice Holmes. He was known as "The Great Dissenter" and issued opinions at political odds with his appointee, President Theodore Roosevelt. Critics regarded Holmes as a Massachusetts liberal and Harvard elitist, ideally suited to uphold Mr. Debs' rights to speak in opposition to war, whether in a time of war or not.
Justice Holmes was also, however, a Brevet Colonel in the U.S. Army and, as a lieutenant during the Civil War, he suffered wounds at the Battle of Antietam -- ironically a battle in which the single day's killed in action approached the 58,169 who died in what would become America's most protested war in Vietnam.
In affirming Mr. Debs' sentence, Justice Holmes no doubt reflected back to his combat at Antietam and imagined Mr. Debs' message making a major difference in troop morale at a time when Union troops were losing the war. That was intolerable to Justice Holmes.
It is not so intolerable today. The anti-war movement's ability to demoralize our troops is without limits.
Assisted by the unlimited electronic means of e-mail, Internet, and cellular communication, protestors can prosecute a powerful socialist message advanced by anti-war exploits worldwide. The electronic, cyber era makes for a much more demoralizing consequence to the military mission compared to Mr. Debs speaking from a soapbox.
Today's protestors also have the vast, liberal press at their fingertips, and they are guaranteed lucrative financial support from wealthy Hollywood activists. When facing legal challenges, war protestors benefit from the rulings of liberal judges who are similarly estranged from the military and secretly aligned with the protestors' socialist aims. Now more than ever, our courts ignore the judicial precedent set by Debs.
Our troops, fortunately, remain masterful at heading off the dissent by using the same electronic, cyber means to contact people they trust at home and by seeking out information from those who more overwhelmingly act in support of the mission and the cause.
Last year, days before G-Day in Iraq, the Pensacola News Journal ran an article entitled "Sandstorms, keeping up morale among challenges around Iraq." Troops deployed from Eglin Air Force Base talked of their apprehension of impending war and dealing with the demoralizing effect of anti-war reports filtering into camp.
Psychologist Captain Tim Sheahan was counseling troops to make regular "morale calls" to family, friends and supporters to counteract rumors of radical opposition to the merits of the war. Knowing morale to be incredibly high during the buildup for combat operations, Capt. Sheahan urged troops to be more attentive to trustworthy reports about the righteous reasons necessitating the war.
After Coalition forces routed the Iraqi Army, the protestors sent shills out to find some dissent among the thousands serving in post-war operations. It took The Washington Post until July 2, 2003, to manipulate one, Staff Sergeant Charles Pollard, who vented his frustrations at having to serve with the 307th Military Police Company since that May.
By August, Pollard's family rallied with the World Socialist, which postered Pollard as its spokesperson for poor morale purported to be affecting units throughout Iraq. The protestors also pushed the false generalization about bad morale through Pollard's 13-year-old daughter, who commented to World Socialist that "all of the people want to come home. It is too hot over there..." At a World Socialist rally, Pollard's mom repeatedly called President Bush a liar. It was "mission accomplished" for the protestors.
At the forefront of the 2004 presidential race are those who remain divided about the criminality of subverting the military mission and protesting our troops while they are fighting our enemies. There is no doubt that, today, war protestors intentionally further socialist ends by demoralizing our troops in a time of war. Nothing at all deters them.
In 1919, Justice Holmes decided that such subversive acts carried a ten-year prison sentence. Today, they qualify you to be a candidate for president.
1 -- Debs v. United States, 249 U.S. 211, 212, 39 S.Ct. 252 (1919).
2 -- The Espionage Act is currently codified as 18 United States Code, Section 2388.
3 -- Id. at 18 U.S.C. Section 2388.
4 -- Debs, Id. at 212, 39 S.Ct. at 253.
He died in a sanitarium in 1926.
My crazy great-grandfather was a committed socialist and so named my great uncle Eugene in honor of Eugene Debs.
NOTE: ALL would fall under the limits of the U.S. Constitution - the original one that is :-)
(Everyone who wants the SCOTUS arrested for Sedition raise your hand)
But it is wasted on the dumb republican politicians; who to this day won't use the word socialist in the same paragraph when talking about a socialist(dems). -Tom
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