Thinking Out Loud

By Gerard Meister

I can keep quiet no longer about a particular type of protest over the war in Iraq. It is one thing to have been against the war if you thought that Saddam posed no threat to us, and it would save lives both Iraqi and American. But quite another thing to urge and applaud doing harm - nay, raining death - upon our Armed forces. The first time I came upon this new revelation from the radical Left was in the aftermath of 9/11. A professor at the University of New Mexico, Richard Berthold, instructed his class that, "Anyone who could blow up the Pentagon would get my vote." When first questioned about the remark he repeated it to his next class! Only later, after public outcry, did he retract that appalling statement.

Initially, I thought this was an aberration. After all, none of America's severest critics, the gadfly intellectuals of the radical Left - Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Gore Vidal, et al, - applauded the terrorism, even though they felt that, in large measure, it was our political and economic courses of action over the years, which fomented the hatred of much of the Islamic world. Fine, this is what free speech in a free country is all about. You can say what you want. We even have room for the flatulent Michael Moore and the sophomoric blathering of Sean Penn in the American landscape of dissent.

But something entirely different has happened a few times too many. Last month, for example, I saw a huge banner unfurled at a peace rally in San Francisco, which read: "We support our troops/especially those/ WHO SHOOT THEIR OFFICERS." And a professor at Columbia University, Nicholas De Genova, called for: "a million Mogadishus!" (In case you've forgotten, that's where the slaughtered American boys were dragged through the streets to the delight of jeering crowds.) De Genova, who was written up in the New York Times, has had ample opportunity to retract his horrendous statement, but chose not to.

This is not free speech my friends, this is beyond the pale. For the record, I spit on them, as should every American. And may God continue to bless America.