Those who would stifle dissent, claiming patriotism, are anti-democratic... they are the dangerous would-be tyrants.
A fine Slate article: slate.msn.com
Since the bombs began falling last week, critics of the invasion, from Sen. Tom Daschle to Michael Moore, have drawn brickbats for not stifling their sentiments. War has begun, it was said, so dissent must end. It's not simply hawks who are telling war opponents to shut up. On the NewsHour With Jim Lehrer, the normally estimable Walter Russell Mead said, "Unless you are a pacifist and opposed to all war, I think once the shooting starts, you need to … give it a rest." His interlocutor, Zbigniew Brzezinski, agreed.
If dissenters were to follow this advice, it would be not only a mistake, but a historic first. Protesting war isn't some Vietnam-era relic, like love beads or Country Joe McDonald, but an American democratic tradition.
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Even during that most mythic of causes, the Revolution, fully one third of Americans opposed independence, in John Adams' famous estimate, while an equal third favored it. Only in retrospect did the Revolution become an unambiguously glorious endeavor. Dissenters spoke out against virtually every subsequent conflict.
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In fact, the only major war that lacked an organized bloc of dissenters was World War II: Pearl Harbor had made an isolationist stance untenable, and as Americans learned more and more about Nazi Germany, most anti-war activists decided the defeat of fascism was worth fighting for. (Some rejoined peace movements, such as the nascent anti-nuclear effort, at the war's end.) Still, even during the "Good War," critics persisted. On the left, pacifists served prison time for refusing to fight or perform compulsory alternative service. On the right, congressional Republicans launched an investigation of Pearl Harbor, with some implying that Franklin Roosevelt had foreknowledge of the attack.
The case for dissent rests on more than its lineage. Critics of war—even when they've been wrong, or their comments distasteful—have done far more good than harm. Although enemy leaders may take heart from knowing that Americans are divided, the mere expression of opposition has never materially hurt any U.S. military campaign.
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the claim that by protesting dissenters are showing insufficient "support" for the troops is specious. Does anyone really believe that doves wish ill upon American fighting men and women? Sometimes hawks cite stories that Vietnam anti-war activists vilified or even spit on returning veterans—stories, as Jack Shafer wrote in May 2000, that range from the overstated to the bogus. In fact, like almost all anti-war movements, anti-Vietnam demonstrators argued for peace in the name of the grunts being sent to die. Remember Vietnam Veterans Against the War?
Not only have anti-war movements caused the nation little direct injury; they've made positive contributions.
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If the doves were give in to their critics and shut up, then we would all have to trust the Bush administration completely to decide whether to continue, escalate, or end the war. The government would have a free hand to do as it likes. Far from showing their patriotism, critics who muzzle themselves in wartime are abdicating a democratic responsibility.
So dissent is the rightful stance of libertarians, too <g> |
