Someone needs to give all the anti-war protesters a nudge and tell them that the fight's over. They lost.
In the past month, war in Iraq has gone from being an issue to being a reality. Even if we ignored the basic truth that protesting an actual fact is beyond foolish, with every passing day the anti-war left continues to grasp at straws, and they keep coming up with what they've always come up with: nothing.
Lately, the protesters have taken up an unexpected tack: trying to claim that they, too, support our troops. They, of course, only oppose this war because they want our soldiers back home. That's so sweet, but I forgot to take my idiot pills this morning, so excuse me if I don't believe that.
That position might hold some weight, if it weren't for the simple reality that liberals have been in bed with the groups that have opposed our military for about the past fifty years. Don't believe me? Who was spitting on returning Vietnam vets during the 1960s? Who consistently slams our armed forces for being "sexist" and "homophobic"? Which political party consistently cuts funding from the military?
I'd give you a hint, but the fact is that if you actually needed a hint, you'd probably be an inanimate object - and one of the less intelligent inanimate objects at that. The left¸ in general, hates the military for the same reason it hates the police, Christianity and country music: because they are good.
For the liberal anti-war crowd to suddenly come out and embrace the armed forces is maximum hypocrisy, and the blatant transparency of it should produce nothing less than absolute outrage from our men and women in uniform.
The anti-war crowd has one real goal in mind with all of their protests: undermine a popular Republican president. It used to be that the protesters could rally behind the looming death of millions of innocent Iraqi civilians to attack Bush, but as MSNBC is finding less and less boneheaded anti-war Iraqis to interview and more and more grateful Iraqis to interview, that argument is gradually being exposed for its weakness.
Speaking of which, those Iraqi citizens are the very reason that continued anti-war protests have crossed the line from irrelevant to dangerous. Protesters, let's say that all of a sudden your anti-war message succeeds. President Bush listens to you (ha!) and pulls out every single American soldier from Iraq, post-haste. Where does that leave the Iraqi people?
You know, the ones who have gone on international television and professed their gratitude at being freed from Saddam's tyranny, beat his picture with a shoe, or gladly laid down their arms to American troops?
Where does that leave their friends, their families, their villages? Does the term "fubar" mean anything to you? No? How about "torture chamber"? Or "rape room"? Maybe "plastic shredder"? "Genocide," perhaps?
At best, continued anti-war protests are a simple, juvenile middle finger against the President. At worst, they will condemn the people of Iraq back to Saddam's slaughterhouses in record numbers.
That's why I'm telling them all right here and now: shut up! You want to help? Support our troops for real, and pray for their swift victory. Support the families waiting on pins and needles for news of their loved ones, and console those who are grieving because they've already received it. Do something useful. If you can't, then at least shut your damn mouths.
Eric Spratling is a journalism junior. Reach him at ericspratling@cox.net.
