A Message to All "Antiwar" Protestors: You are suicidal.

Between 1965 and 1973, America was assaulted by an “anti-war“ movement that attempted to tear our nation’s democratic system to the ground. Demonstrators at “peace” rallies commonly chanted phrases like “Hey, Hey, LBJ, How Many Kids Did You Kill Today?“ and “Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Minh, The NLF Is Gonna Win.” Such “anti-war” chants say much about the agenda of those who orchestrated and led these demonstrations. Make no mistake about it: the “anti-war” movement of the Sixties was organized and carried out by a handful of hard-line leftists who viewed America as the world’s Great Satan. These radicals did not just want American forces to withdraw from Vietnam, they wanted the Marxist Vietnamese led by “Uncle Ho” and General Giap to tear through the American forces and consolidate their power over the people of South Vietnam. In short, they wanted the Communists to win the war.

Certainly, there were some people whose involvement in the anti-war movement arose not from hatred towards their own country but from pacifism, or, more likely, fear of being drafted into a war that American politicians were not committed to win. The movers and shakers of the Sixties “anti-war” movement, however, did not possess such benign intentions: they were America haters, plain and simple.

If we are going to understand the political agenda that drives the new “anti-war” movement, this is a fact about the Sixties “anti-war” movement that must be understood. The new generation of protestors borrows from its radical forbears not just its clichéd slogans and political theatre, but also its ant-Americanism. In fact, the current “anti-war” movement is dominated by a virulent fear and loathing of Western ideas. It is a movement whose central concern is hating America.

Perhaps the only thing unique about the current “anti-war” movement is the inescapable fact that it exists in the absence of a war. A popular phrase of the Sixties left was: “What if two governments threw a war and Nobody showed up?” A fitting question to ask the contemporary left is: “Why is there an anti-war movement, when nobody threw a war?” In last month’s issue of Politically Right, I posed a similar question to Jay Severin, a prominent GOP strategist who, in the Sixties, was an active anti-war demonstrator and a friend of Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman. Severin answered in this way: “When I was protesting, it wasn’t a profession. The presumption then, was that when what you’re protesting goes away, you’d stop protesting. Well today, protesting is a business. It’s an industry.”

The current anti-war movement, aside from being an “industry,” as Severin points out, is also very much a religion. Walking onto any college campus reveals this to be true. The contemporary university campus is dominated so heavily by leftist philosophy that the only comparable monolith would be a school run by Puritans, in the period prior to the American Revolution. Colleges and universities have become, for all practical purposes, radical factories, that, year after year, turn out thousands of left-minded young people, who, like missionaries, enter into the American mainstream.

For these fledgling lefties, radicalism is the world’s one true religion. The belief that a utopia can be constructed, and that the chains of oppression can once and for all be broken and tossed onto the ash-heap of history, is what fuels their every move. Unlike conservatives, people on the left believe that all of the evil in the world is derivative not of human nature, but of the failure of the American government to properly redistribute wealth: If socialism is implemented through the government, everyone will live in harmony.

By holding this world view, leftists insulate themselves from reality: If people are not evil because of human nature, they posit, evil is not a constant; utopia can exist; by implementing the proper social and economic structure, a world defined by good, rather than evil, can be created by the enlightened ones, the visionaries. This is where the religion aspect of leftism comes in. Radicals consider themselves to be on the side of the angels, therefore whatever mischief they cause can justifiably be dismissed. They are fighting for righteousness, therefore they are righteous.

It is at this point that we can begin to understand from where the anti-Americanism of the left derives. By considering themselves the arbiters of a world free of oppression and exploitation, they consider any viewpoint that counters their own invalid and unworthy of consideration. If the Bush administration is pushing for a war with Iraq, it couldn’t possibly be because the Bush administration is trying to protect American civilians, it must be because the Bush administration is unwilling to try socialism. By extending this formula to encompass other aspects of America’s history, such as slavery, the mistreatment of American Indians, the atomic bomb, Jim Crow, etc., we can see why the Left hates America. It views American policy, both foreign and domestic, and both current and former, as right-wing tripe. To the Left, there are no gray areas- everything is black and white.

This is why the current “anti-war” movement is dominated by America haters- It is controlled by leftists who don’t think. They look sophomorically at a situation, such as the Bush administration’s movement toward war, and they take it as unarguable idiocy. To the left, if a person or a group of people conclude that war is the only option, those people are stupid and should be treated as pariahs.

It is unfortunate for those on the left that, at this critical point in American history, they are unable to think logically through a situation of national importance. Of course, there is the occasional leftist who rejects the nihilism of the radical movement. Christopher Hitchens is the most obvious example of someone who refuses to toe the political line of the anti-war movement. In the wake of 9-11, he left the political company of men like Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn, resigning his post as a columnist for the Nation and referring to the terrorists who attacked American soil as “Islamo-fascists.” Hitchens, however, is a voice in the wilderness. The majority of American leftists simply refuse to admit that the war on terror needs to be fought. Instead, they stick their heads in the sand and refuse to look at the facts.

The facts, nonetheless, are the facts: America was attacked. If America does not take preemptive measures to thwart future attacks, it will be attacked again. These are the facts. And they are ugly. But we must act like grown-ups and do everything that we can to support our military, which has the sole responsibility of making sure that the bad guys are killed in their homes, rather than in our homes, with us. I concur with my leftist contemporaries that this reality is unpleasant to contemplate, but America did not go looking for war. America was attacked by an enemy who arrived unannounced and unprovoked. Worse, our enemies targeted innocent men, women and children. Our enemies, and I mean this with all sincerity, are evil.

I do not expect those on the left to agree with me on these points. The left is blinded by a false-consciousness that prevents its members from applying logic and reason to most situations. Therefore, the leftists who turn out in tens, sometimes hundreds of thousands to protest a war against Iraq- a war that does not yet exist- are probably not going to stop what they’re doing and begin using their brains to think through the situation at hand. If they did, however, they would realize that by invading Iraq, we are saving ourselves.

With the onset of this war on terror, the left is faced with an inescapable dilemma; a dilemma that is has not even begun to confront- that it probably has not even recognized. For the first time since the War of 1812, foreign enemies spilled the blood of American civilians on American soil. Moreover, if our enemies are not stopped, they will visit upon us further, possibly more grievous, acts of terror.

In the Sixties, the greatest danger faced by anti-war demonstrators was the possibility of being drafted, in which case one might have to do a combat tour in Vietnam. Or, the draftee could go to jail; or simply walk across the border into Canada. Today, anti-war demonstrators face the possibility of being blown to pieces in their own homes and classrooms by suicide bombers, who don’t give a damn about the political posturing of their victims. To the terrorists who want to destroy America, all Americans are infidels, including the left-wing malcontents who congregate on the capitol mall while holding protest signs and singing “We Shall Overcome.” The terrorists do not discriminate. They will kill us all, if we let them.

Therefore, the war on terror is entirely different than the Vietnam War. Today, all Americans live in constant danger of a terrorist attack. Our radical Muslim enemies are working night and day to murder innocent American civilians. Meanwhile, the anti-war protestors are trying to cripple our government’s efforts to eradicate terrorism. If they succeed, they will endanger the lives of every American. The anti-war movement, then, is actually not an “anti-war” movement at all. It is a pro-war movement. It is a movement that is working in lock step with the Muslim radicals who have waged a bloody jihad against America.

I do not doubt that this piece will generate a slew of angry emails from irate leftists who will attack me for calling them “pro-terrorist;” but, that’s what they are. In the war on terror, Americans must side with those in the government who are doing their best to protect American civilians, or, they must side with the terrorists. This is not Vietnam. America cannot pull out of this war and end the fighting. If America pulls out of the war on terror, the fighting will speed up; and it will be American women and children whose blood will spill. Like it or not, our nation is locked into a war with fanatical murderers whose sole religious mission is to slaughter Americans. If these butchers lose their lives in the process, all the better for them, because they believe that such barbarism will deliver them directly to paradise.

This is a war from which Americans cannot withdraw. Wherever terrorism rears its evil head, we must chop it off. There is no alternative but death.

These people do not protest Saddam gassing people, executing family members, torturing dissidents, jailing political opponents, invading Iran, Kuwait, etc...

They are hypocrites, and actually are unaware of it. Their blind hatred of their own country puts any other act by any other person or power around the sight that they can view with their own blinders.

99% of the middle east is arab land, arab people, yet they blame Israel for the lot of the "poor palestinians", while not questioning the rich oil states, who have the land and resources to lift these people out of poverty if they chose to do so.

It is racism and cultural relativism pure and simple.

In their heart of hearts, I think these folks would admit that Saddam, Arafat, Bin Laden are worse than the things they would ascribe to Bush. They however, think they need to shield the dirty ignorant masses, who murder, torture, subjugate women, etc... because they are too backwards to know any better.

This kind of thinking has infested the left and poisoned it rotten to the core. You can only look at the paternalism that these people show towards racial and ethnic minorities in our own country to know this is true.

These granola white bread volvo driving types truly believe that blacks, browns are inferior and that without their protection, they would get swallowed up in a system that put everybody in an equal footing. If I was an intellectually honest latino, black, or arab, I would be ultimately offended with the crowd who is coming out to "defend them".

Protesting against their birth right, while still enjoying its benefits, is a great way for cowards to make themselves feel heroic.

It IS self loathing and it IS suicidal.

"The facts, nonetheless, are the facts: America was attacked. If America does not take preemptive measures to thwart future attacks, it will be attacked again. These are the facts. And they are ugly" summed it up best.

Colleges and universities have become, for all practical purposes, radical factories, that, year after year, turn out thousands of left-minded young people, who, like missionaries, enter into the American mainstream.

Who promptly grow up and leave their juvenile perspective behind. How many people at FR would have considered themseleves liberal in college? The trend only works in one direction: there's probably no one at DU who was formerly a conservative.

Personal perspective: I remember lecturing my boss at my part-time job while working my way through college early in 1980 about the evils of Reagan. In fact, I may have even uttered those immortal words 'may have to leave the country if he's elected'.

Fours years later, after working late in downtown LA, I'm at the Century Plaza hotel in my suit, holding a Heinenken, with a pretty girl on my arm, chanting "Four more years", as Ronnie gets up on stage to thank all his supporters for his 49 state sweep.

I betcha this type of political evolution has been experienced by a majority of conservatives and Freepers.

These protesters didn't have a problem with bombing Yugoslavia. Slobodan Milosevic, unlike Saddam, WAS ELECTED. And the worst Slobo did to the Kosovars and Bosnians was 1/10th of what Saddam has done to his own people. Slobo was no threat to the US. Yet these "war is never the answer" protesters cheered Klinton's bombing. This is proof that these protests are nothing but anti-GOP, anti-Bush in nature.

Everything this author says about leftists nails it. They are an industry, it is their religion, they cannot think rationally about the situation, they hate America.

I was a commie-lefty in the sixties, and I believe that the process that gets you to where these protesters are today involve one precondition and three developmental conditions:

The precondition is simply the natural questioning quality of youth, and the overwhelming need on the part of college age kids to belong to something meaningful, making them easy marks for older leftists in pursuit of recruits.

First, you must come to view your country on a moral equivalent basis with ANY other country. This requires effort which over time, brings you to a point where you don't see your own country as yours, but as some place you smugly look at from above.

The second part of the process involves the tremendous "warm fuzzy' from belonging to such a morally superior entity, fondly referred to as "the movement" in the sixties. This is no small part of what has those people out there demonstrating, they feel at one with each other as much as Saddam.

The third part of the process is the sustaining glue. The anti-war protestors around the world fall into two categories; either this activity is helping them to sustain their prosperity or position in life, (this would be the college professors, Chomsky et al.)or they are there to justify their failure in life by lashing out at those they have come to believe put them in that position.

Unlike Bill Clinton, I went out and got a job.

To the terrorists who want to destroy America, all Americans are infidels, including the left-wing malcontents........The terrorists do not discriminate. They will kill us all, if we let them.

In actual fact, the Muslims hate the socialist secular-humanists the most, because the latter's pet projects (atheism, women's rights, widespread pornography, etc.) are what Islam most abhors in Western Culture.

I agree with you and on Sunday I posted a story from my local newspaper, which opens with these words:

Nearly 200 area people stood in front of the McKinley Center for a peace rally that evolved into more of an anti-Republican campaign.

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