Origins of 'Hate America First'

Watching the latest liberal media feeding frenzy over a Marine shooting an allegedly wounded and unarmed terrorist who was no threat brought back memories of the 1960s. I was a personal witness to the origins of the modern "hate and blame America first" movement I spent the entire decade of the 1960s and most of the 1970s constantly engaged with students who regurgitated the communist philosophy their professors were teaching them in the leading universities of our country. Not all professors, of course, were doing this, but many of the most prominent and vocal were.

The "in thing" – or as we would say today, the politically correct thing – was to hate America and blame it for most of the ills of our world. "Scholars" vigorously rewrote American history so that all honor, religion and pride was expunged from it. The Vietnam War gave them a great proving ground to sharpen their techniques of "blaming America." As a result, American soldiers returned from grueling tours of duty only to be spit upon by these activist students.

Some of the brightest and best students were turned into dedicated activists who planned careers in strategic places of influence to spread this communist-inspired perception of America. Many went into journalism and the media. Some became university professors and teachers. Others went into politics – mostly becoming influential career bureaucrats in strategic branches of our government.

Now we are witnessing the results of these dedicated professors, who used their college classes as a pulpit to convert their students to a communist view of America. The fact that CBS, ABC, NBC, CNN, et. al, are all slanted toward radical liberal thinking didn't accidentally happen. It is the compounded results of the quantum shift toward the left in the thinking of the 1960s. I say compounded because these original disciples of the 1960s produced more converts that are more radical than they were.

There are war correspondents in Iraq who look for any incident that they can turn against our American soldiers and use to discredit the Bush administration's policies in Iraq.

Very little coverage is given of the atrocities that daily are brought against our soldiers. Not much is made of the beheadings and murders of defenseless Allied personnel – unless, of course, there is a way to turn it into somehow being America's fault.

In this latest incident, the action of one Marine who was in the midst of a violent house-to-house firefight has been blown into an international event. Never mind that the terrorist who was killed was using the refuge of a Mosque to fire upon the Marine and his comrades. Never mind that many of the wounded terrorist set off grenades to kill those who came to give them aid. Never mind that many terrorists played dead only to shoot soldiers in the back. But none of the atmosphere of this dirty war with the brutal barbarism of the Muslim terrorists is felt in the rarefied atmosphere of the media newsrooms.

These liberal news people are doing more to inflame the hatred of the Muslim world against America than any other factor.

One thing is certain: Had these people reported the invasion of Europe during World War II in this way, we would all be speaking German now.

I do hope that Americans will respond with outrage to this slander of one of our brave Marines. These brave young men face dangers daily that would send most Americans into a nervous breakdown. Let's not reward their sacrifice and bravery with an indictment for being a "war criminal."

Origins of 'Hate America First'

Watching the latest liberal media feeding frenzy over a Marine shooting an allegedly wounded and unarmed terrorist who was no threat brought back memories of the 1960s. I was a personal witness to the origins of the modern "hate and blame America first" movement I spent the entire decade of the 1960s and most of the 1970s constantly engaged with students who regurgitated the communist philosophy their professors were teaching them in the leading universities of our country. Not all professors, of course, were doing this, but many of the most prominent and vocal were.

The "in thing" – or as we would say today, the politically correct thing – was to hate America and blame it for most of the ills of our world. "Scholars" vigorously rewrote American history so that all honor, religion and pride was expunged from it. The Vietnam War gave them a great proving ground to sharpen their techniques of "blaming America." As a result, American soldiers returned from grueling tours of duty only to be spit upon by these activist students.

Some of the brightest and best students were turned into dedicated activists who planned careers in strategic places of influence to spread this communist-inspired perception of America. Many went into journalism and the media. Some became university professors and teachers. Others went into politics – mostly becoming influential career bureaucrats in strategic branches of our government.

Now we are witnessing the results of these dedicated professors, who used their college classes as a pulpit to convert their students to a communist view of America. The fact that CBS, ABC, NBC, CNN, et. al, are all slanted toward radical liberal thinking didn't accidentally happen. It is the compounded results of the quantum shift toward the left in the thinking of the 1960s. I say compounded because these original disciples of the 1960s produced more converts that are more radical than they were. "

Travis, what I find amazing is how many conservatives and moderates are not able to connect the dots and follow the time line of this hate America movement.

Origins of 'Hate America First'

Updated! Added Comment from Retired Marine

Following the publication of this column, I received the following from a retired Marine Gunnery Sgt. With his permission, I am posting it in full.

Dear Mr. Lindsey,
I hope that your column is not merely a notation of the end of an era. I spent my years from 18 to 40 as a Marine, I went to Beirut in 82, was off the coast of Africa while Somalia was happening, went to the gulf in 90 only to be returned to the states for recruiter duty, but through all these years, I've known that what I did, and what most of my brother Marines did, was exactly in keeping with our oath of allegiance to our Constitution.

During those years, I was well aware of something which had come to my realization long after the die was cast and I was destined to be a Marine, through all my childhood, in most of the books I read, there was a concept that recurred constantly, the theme that while all the official "State" capabilities regarding keeping the peace and ensuring that law and order were preserved, and that such were the first line of defense of our society, inevitably someone comes along and uses their charm and wit in order to essentially highjack the system and use it to their own benefit.

In American folklore, the common result is the arising of an independent person who manages to rally the less courageous, and they set off to turn things around, and bring peace and justice back, at the point of a gun with the unspoken writ of vigilante justice as the end of the story for the usurper.

Another piece of American folklore is that at the end of the last scene, the "hero" is essentially driven off by the self righteous towns people who were there to call upon him in their time of need, but find him a bit too bloody, too stodgy and not a "team player", entirely forgetting that the "team" was the enemy that only too recently needed to be put down.

This particular aspect of Americana is well documented and is not just a story from the cowboy westerns, it is a living piece of our history and it has been repeated over and over again.

When I was a kid, the hero was a cowboy with a gun on his hip, and at the end of the show, he rode off to some desert wasteland where the "good people" of the town won't have to look at him and remember how weak and cowardly they behaved, with an unspoken message that the "hero" would be relegated to the "outlaw" trail until or unless he was needed again.

What is happening today to my brothers in arms is no different, and the people of America are no more grateful to their defenders than they were in the 1890's.

The big difference is that today, after the gunfight is over, there isn't an "Indian Nation" for him to retreat to and disappear until he is needed again, instead there is a court standing ready to judge him and his actions, nice and clean back here at home, no sand to dirty up the floor, no sweat to ruin the nice uniforms, and that nasty barely civilized "jarhead" can be judged by civilized people unsullied by the sweat and blood of war, after all, are there any innocents who are doing battle? Can one be a courageous and gallant warrior and still be considered one of the "good guys"?

This incident haunts me, all I can see is "there but for the grace of God goes I", and I know that the Marine in question is doing his duty because I myself charged young Marines who I was the mentor for, the students that I taught, the enlistees that I recruited, these boys are the ones who got my lectures, who had to stand up to my challenges and meet my standards, or all hell was going to break loose, and I would become a monster to them, and it is in that way, that Marines are and have been trained.

I would give anything I have to be in Iraq today rather than sitting at home watching my boys do the right job, and listening to them being monday morning quarterbacked by a bunch of lily livered sissies who would probably feint at the first sight of a battlefield.
Some years ago, I was highly incensed over the Court-Martial of an Army Private who refused to wear a blue U.N. helmet and serve under the direction of the U.N. That soldier was right then, and what we see today is the absolute proof if this proclamation of rightness of actions.

I knew that many of the things I did to prepare my Marines to live through the battle would bring me to a court-martial if I failed to keep them alive in training, but one cannot know what the future holds, so many times I had to simply do what I knew needed to be done, and hope that it was not on "my watch" that someone went down.

Those Marines are doing their job well as can be told by the fact that they are surviving, that they are doing their job right is because their leaders taught them right during training. Some of those Marines who are directly responsible for the high quality of Marines in Iraq have been busted down or busted out because what they did was considered "over-zealous" in the same way that "Heartbreak Ridge" demonstrated what over zealous means in the world of training for Marines.

In the end, something that almost ever single Marine learns is that no matter how right their actions, no matter who the orders come from, no matter what the situation, you stand a good chance of being charged with being too zealous if a civilian gets a glimpse of a real "operation", because in order to be a Marine, one must be an extremist, it is the only way to earn that title.

I have understood the very bitter irony of this aspect of "the American way" since I was about twelve, and its corollary is to be found everywhere people proclaim freedom to be, the example being the criminalizing of the British farmer who shot the thieves with a shotgun, and then went to prison for longer than either of the thieves.

I have never been in any Nation that I would prefer to America, however I will never lose this bitterness that comes from a lifetime of observing the sheep taking down the dog that killed the wolf, only after the wolf was certified as down. I don't suppose that the majority of those who watched the scene connected what was said right before that Marine did his duty, something to the effect, of "watch it, that one's playing possum", and if they did, I suspect they would have wanted that fine Marine to go over to the man and ask if he could kindly turn out his pockets and show that he was really just a nice guy caught in the wrong house.

We walked guard posts in Beirut with ten rounds in two magazines, magazines in a closed and secured magazine pouch, with a nylon "flag safety" sticking out of the ejection port proclaiming to all within sight, that this Marine is for all intents and purposes, unarmed.

After all, we were just there to keep the peace, why should we have needed guns? These are the times I get a vitriolic hatred of the "democratic" aspect of America, and it will be a long time before the bitterness passes.

At least you understand.

Sincerely,
John McClain
GySgt, USMC, ret.
Vanceboro, NC

You said "The Vietnam War gave them a great proving ground to sharpen their techniques of "blaming America." As a result, American soldiers returned from grueling tours of duty only to be spit upon by these activist students".

You are exactly right!

When the liberal media realized it had succeeded in discrediting the Viet Nam War and the brave soldiers who served, the socialist element of the media became even more emboldened to spread it's venom of hate towards American Traditions and our founding fathers.

The media plants started working on family values, Boy Scouts, homosexual agendas, limiting religous expression, gun control, private property rights, etc. They have unfortunately been far too successful. But only because too many Americans have silently watched the assult on tradition and family values and assumed somebody within our government would stand up for them.

But within our government there too are planted socialist elements within the cabinets of the bureaucracy. Those un-elected operatives have had free reign to implement policy because they are unelected, unappointed, and virtually unaccountable to the citizens who do complain. As we know, once policy is established within a government operative, the ability of citizens to fight is severely limited because the vast financial resources of government are turned against the citizenry.

The media is all too willing to echo environmentalists and "diverse interests" in the name of making headlines. The media is responsible for the festering of hatred against those who implement policy as well as those who resist. The media is wholly responsible for the division of America because it has managed to turn friends against friends over political issues.

United we stand, divided we fall. The MSM woulld rather report on a sinking ship than a floating ship.

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