August 31, 2007

Patriots Vs. Professional Demonstrators

By Kyle-Anne Shiver

I'm old enough to remember well the anti-war demonstrations of the Vietnam era. They got lots and lots of fawning press coverage. But I don't believe that those hot-headed college students were being paid cash for their willingness to hideout in their mob identity, the way today's anti-war demonstrators are. Those college kids of the 60's at least believed in what they were doing.

Nobody had to pay them for one simple reason. The vast majority of them were affluent college students, living the high life on Daddy's dollar. And their prime motivation, I believed at the time - and still do - was just plain old-fashioned, yellow-bellied cowardice that crouched in the protection of their numbers. Why should they give up the good life for a bunch of folks on the other side of the world just because American Presidents - John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Baines Johnson - had made a promise?

But their cowardly passion did succeed in getting the Democratic Party-controlled Congress to cut off South Vietnam's funding in a wholesale abandonment of American honor and principle, a dastardly move that cost approximately 4 million lives in Cambodia and Vietnam, and has encouraged the enemies of liberty around the globe ever since.

Today, however, there is no military draft in America, and hence no eager crop of cowards ready to march, burn flags, and destroy property. For the first time since our own voluntary militias formed during our War for Independence, every man - and woman - who wears the uniform for America's armed forces is there because he chose it. Ours is the smartest, bravest, fiercest force ever to fight the cause of freedom in the entire history of civilization.

And this time, there is a strong and determined counter-punch to those who aim to destroy America's stance in the world as the defender of freedom - those paid "demonstrators" who plan to intimidate our Congress into abandoning our brave troops. "A historic cross-country, pro-troop caravan with 27 pro-troop rallies from September 3-15," is being sponsored by Move America Forward.

The folks that will take to the highways this Labor Day aren't getting paid. They are real American citizens determined to show our troops and our Congress that there is very impassioned, substantial grassroots support for not abandoning the fight - for staying until the job is done. They will hold rallies in Nevada, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Illinois, Ohio, and finally in Washington, D.C. to make sure our Congress gets the message. They will be collecting cards and letters of support for our wounded troops, and delivering them in person to VA hospitals in Washington.

So, when you see news coverage of these convergent demonstrations, just remember that some Americans are making substantial sacrifices of both their own time and their own money to say, WE SUPPORT YOU, OUR AMERICAN TROOPS! The others are just paid stooges, dressed and propped up to appear legitimate.

Let's just hope our Congress is wise enough to know the difference.