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Gorgo
SFN Die Hard
USA
5310 Posts |
 Posted - 03/07/2003 : 13:09:49
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ANTI-AMERICANISM
http://www.cbn.com/CBNNews/News/030306a.asp
Taking a Left Turn Toward Hatred: Anti-War or Anti-American?
By Paul Strand
Washington Correspondent
March 6, 2003
America has ended up with the strange spectacle of some who call themselves liberals taking the side of the most authoritarian, anti-liberal leaders on earth, simply because those are the present opponents of America.
CBN.com <http://www.cbn.com> - WASHINGTON, D.C. - In recent months, hundreds of thousands of Americans have marched against the likely war with Iraq. But some believe those protestors are actually marching against their own country, and that they are led by hardcore leftists who truly hate America.
This anti-Americanism has led some people who call themselves liberals to side with unmistakably illiberal dictators and terrorists.
Here is how some Americans have been talking about their own country and leaders at recent anti-war demonstrations.
"George Bush is a liar. We're against this war," one protest leader shouted through a bullhorn.
Another protestor said, "We've backed horrible dictators, we've backed
horrible regimes. And it's really just created hate."
One marcher chanted, "Bush and Rumsfeld, you can't hide. We charge you with genocide."
"It's about the ruling class that exploits this country and the rest of the world," one protestor said.
Another claimed, "...Our imperative to dominate the entire planet..."
Some even go so far as to call the U.S. "aggressive" and "Nazi-like." And they are blaming America for many of the world's sins, including even the terrorism that slammed America on 9/11.
Dan Flynn, author of Why the Left Hates America, said, "It's kind of a
reflexive anti-Americanism that I think is almost conditioned...where almost anything that goes on in the world, whether it's ecological catastrophe, whether it's terrorism, the fault's always America's."
CBN News met up with Flynn during one of the very first protests against a coming war with Iraq. The conservative former Marine waded into many such gatherings to do research for his book.
Flynn said, "When I went around the country speaking to Leftists, the
answers I got to questions about the war on terrorism, about what has gone on in the world after 9/11, the answers were that we were the true Axis of Evil - the real terrorist country in the world is the United States of America."
Back to the protestors, one angry liberal said, "It's kind of basic U.S. policy to give a macro-loan to a bad dictator, to give macro-military support to bad regimes and bad dictators and bad people, and then we wonder why it comes back at us."
Another protestor said, "The United States always preferred a dictator over democracy - Chile, Guatemala, anywhere where we've gone in with force...Panama."
"They're keeping everybody in a state of complete terror about terrorism. And basically, we're the cause of it. The United States is the cause of this terrorism. And as this one sign says, 'War is terrorism,'" one woman said.
Columnist Mona Charen says this syndrome dates back to the Cold War and Vietnam, when the Communists of the world were so aided by America's Leftists, people the Communists called "Useful Idiots," which happens to be the name of Charen's new book.
"The habits of anti-Americanism, of blaming America, that were forged in the Vietnam era have persisted to the present day," she explained. "And you noticed that after September 11th, the knee-jerk response of many on the Left was to blame us, to say, 'What have we done to bring upon ourselves this kind of hatred? There must be something that we did...that we're responsible.'"
David Horowitz, author of How to Beat the Democrats, said, "Every so-called peace demonstration is a hate-America demonstration."
Horowitz was a young radical Leftist himself, bus has now converted to
conservatism. He finds today's protests repugnant. "This is not a peace movement. This is a movement of sympathy and support for the enemy. And that's all it is. These people are committing a form of treason," he said.
So why do they do it? Why does the Left hate America?
"They think that America's a sexist country, that we're a bloodthirsty
imperialist country, that we destroy the environment, that we're a racist nation, that we exploit people of lower classes. This is the basic gist of the Left's argument," Flynn said.
Backing up Flynn's explanation, one protestor said, "The actual results of the policies they've been systematically inflicting on the world have been disastrous, especially for women and children. The U.S. military aggression over the past 50 years has done nothing but create hate. They're only interested in profit for themselves and control."
But others, like Republican Senator Jim Talent of Missouri, look at America and see something completely different. "This is a great country, and its influence in the world has meant an influence for good for hundreds of millions of people."
Flynn said, "If you hate capitalism, it's hard to love America. If you hate religion, it's hard to love America."
Horowitz says the very freedom that is so American grates on many of the socialists, communists and atheists of the so-called liberal Left.
"What are liberals liberal about except hard drugs and sex? Everything else they want to control your life. They're leftist. Their mentality is really totalitarian when you come down to it. They want to control you," Horowitz said.
And on many college campuses, where the Left has its firmest hold these days, that has led to frightening confrontations for conservative speakers like Flynn and Horowitz.
"On the campuses, last year I had to go with bodyguards," Horowitz said. "And the universities assign many, many, many police. At Berkeley, they assigned 30 police to keep order when I was there."
Flynn said, "I've been attacked at rallies like this for speaking out on these issues. For instance, at Berkeley, I was the subject of a
bookburning... They mooned me when I spoke. Protestors rushed the stage, tried to rip the microphone cord out of the wall, shouted me down."
Speaking about Flynn's troubles, Horowitz said, "He's a Marine and can
handle himself, but they burned his literature and obstructed his speech."
Why such rabid attacks on college campuses? Horowitz and Flynn both blame the radical Leftist professors and teachers who spew out a steady stream of anti-Americanism.
Flynn said, "The negative is accentuated, and that's very unique in the history of the world to have a country that teaches its children and future leaders to hate their own country."
And so America has ended up with the strange spectacle of some who call themselves liberals taking the side of the most authoritarian, anti-liberal leaders on earth, simply because those are the present opponents of America.
"They find themselves allied, well, not exactly allied, but sympathetic to regimes where women are practically chattel slaves, where there is no sexual freedom.and where of course there is no such thing as civil liberties," Charen said.
Horowitz said, "I call them 'Al Qaeda's little helpers.' Now they're
'Saddam's little helpers,' doing everything they can do to obstruct
America's defense of itself because they think America is the Great Satan."
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I know the rent is in arrears
The dog has not been fed in years
It's even worse than it appears
But it's alright-
Jerry Garcia
Robert Hunter
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