Within days of the Attack on America the peaceniks were writing articles and staging protests. Most of them complained about how evil America is while justifying the terrorists actions. Now that the war has started they’re even more annoying, making the most of every opportunity to make pests of themselves. Most of them are just misfits and miscreants who hate the country they live in. They sit in the comfort the country provides them, knowing their hateful speech is protected, telling all within earshot that we are evil bastards who got what was coming to us. The pseudo-intellectuals pontificate from the left about the evils of imperialism and jingoism and any other ism they can blame on the US government. The anti-intellectuals make an even more jarring noises.

These people are pathetic, a miserable load the country has to carry, their hateful combination of ignorance and nonsense making them even more useless than telemarketers.

I'm sure glad they're out there.

If they were missing, something would be seriously wrong. The fact that they can spew their ignorant spew, wallow in their stupidity, luxuriate in their blather, and look down their noses at those of us who have a clue, all without worrying in the least about being arrested, tortured, or even beaten up by people walking by, tells us the country is still free, healthy, and working the way it's supposed to.

Sure, it's frustrating, knowing that these yellow bellied misfits are misusing the freedoms won by the very people they despise, patriots and solders who have given life and limb for the country. These freeloaders are enjoying themselves because hundreds of thousands of people with the courage they lack fought so that everyone, even them, could say and think what they please. It's unfair that they enjoy the fruits of such sacrifice, but that's the nature of freedom.

This doesn't mean we should accept them. We should shun them and mock them and point at their genitals and giggle and pull out the thesaurus to make sure we don't miss any of the derogatory descriptions they deserve. But while we’re despising them, we should cheer that they're here.

A very few of these folks are genuine pacifists. They believe that because Gandhi was the right man for his time and place, that he's the right man for all times and all places, against all enemies. Brad Lyttle, a former presidential candidate for the Pacifist Party, was asked how he would have fought the Axis powers in WWII. He answered "I would have organized nonviolent resistance against any kind of aggression. . . If it were carefully and thoughtfully used it could have stopped the Axis aggression." Imagine how much Adolph would have enjoyed that scenario. Another pacifist told me he'd fight terrorism with peaceful protests. He evidently believes that if we're apologetic enough, and refuse to defend ourselves, that the terrorists will accept our contrite attitude and promise to be nice from now on. People who think this way are very sincere, and they don't deserve our scorn. They deserve our pity.

We can save the scorn for those who absolutely hate America and despise capitalism, while they gleefully enjoy the freedoms and wealth they provide. The darling of this "America Sucks" movement is Noam Chomsky. Safely ensconced in his ivory tower, he spits pseudo-intellectual vitriol against his country at every opportunity. This is what he had to say about the attack:

"The terrorist attacks were major atrocities. In scale they may not reach the level of many others, for example, Clinton's bombing of the Sudan with no credible pretext, destroying half its pharmaceutical supplies and killing unknown numbers of people (no one knows, because the US blocked an inquiry at the UN and no one cares to pursue it). Not to speak of much worse cases, which easily come to mind. But that this was a horrendous crime is not in doubt. The primary victims, as usual, were working people: janitors, secretaries, firemen, etc. It is likely to prove to be a crushing blow to Palestinians and other poor and oppressed people. It is also likely to lead to harsh security controls, with many possible ramifications for undermining civil liberties and internal freedom."

He got the last sentence right, but note the hatred of his country that oozes and slithers around each of his words. He never comes right out and says the US deserved it, or that the US is more evil than the terrorist that attacked us. A cunning linguist, he implies it so strongly his meaning is unmistakable, but he never says it outright. This gives him and his followers plenty of room to weasel out of his hateful diatribe with "He never said that!" (He also never mentioned that we carefully timed our attack to minimize civilian causalities, while the terrorists did everything they could to maximize them. Evidently he considers this major difference to be an unimportant detail.)

 

Some folks believe these protesting lily-livered chowerheads are traitors. They point to Vietnam, where resistance to the war had a detrimental effect on the morale of the fighting troops. But the comparison is flawed. Many Vietnam solders were there against their will, being forced to fight a war they didn't believe in, against an enemy that they didn't care about. That's hardly the recipe for a successful military operation. Today's military consists entirely of people who want to be there. The enemy is real and terrible and hated by every one of them. None of them are going to be deterred by any remonstrating superficial fainthearted jobbernowls.

Our entire political system is adversarial by design. It encourages all sides to be heard, so ideas can be tested and considered before they are implemented. Even really stupid ideas, like those proposed by the protesters.

The argument that these timorous simpletons are providing aid and comfort to the enemy is also flawed. Does anyone honestly think that bin Laden or his cadre of loonies felt bad about what they did until they saw the half-wit nincompoops protesting? Can you picture them watching the protesters and saying to each other "Ah, we feel much better about ourselves now!"

So please don’t call them traitors. Call them yellow-belly poltroons, spineless chuckleheads, chickenshit recreants, fainthearted cretins, rectal – cranial inversion losers, dim bulb fraidycats, pusillanimous witlings, lily-livered addlebrained dunderheads, faint-hearted yellow-streaked timorous pea-brains, or cowardly ninnyhammers every chance you get, preferably to their face. But don’t call them traitors.

And be very glad they’re here.

(And now, dear readers, I’m putting the thesaurus away, and promise never to do this to you again.)

 

Additional Information

Sometimes a protest just works out perfectly.

Overseas protesters are even stupider than ours.

Good Speech from Quaker Scott Simon.

 

October, 2001

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© 2001 Dave Hitt