Well, that seems to be the litmus test. That seems to be the consistent way, that people acquire the label of "patriot" or "traitor".
You called GST a "dyed in the wool Baathist". Since we are at war with the Baathists, what you said, is identical to calling GST a traitor to his country.
Throughout American history, in every war, every "police action", every "intervention", every CIA plot to prop up our thugs and kill the Other thugs, from the Napoleanic Wars (Alien and Sedition Acts) to the War on Militant Islam (Patriot Acts, suspending habeas corpus and the right to a trial for the duration of our permanent war), anyone who publicly disagrees with plans for Americans to kill non-Americans, gets labelled a traitor.
Once the label "traitor" has been affixed to any and all of the Imperial President's opponents, it is easy to put them in prison, deport them, outlaw their organizations, put them in concentration camps, shut down their newspapers, strip citizens of every right in the Constitution. Such despotism and repression on the home front, is characteristic of every American war, and today's is no exception. We are, now, well down that slippery slope to tyranny.
"In a government bottomed on the will of all, the life and liberty of every individual citizen becomes interesting to all." --Thomas Jefferson, 1805
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