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War = Patriotism?

© Lisa Casey Perry

When we think of war in terms of a literal definition, we perceive it as a conflict between two or more opposing forces. By identifying oneself with a "side" it is easy then to understand why so many Americans equate war with patriotism. I propose that nothing could be further from the truth.

Currently we are being inundated with rhetoric by an executive administration concerning the need to launch a war in the Middle East against a country we both distrust and fear. The ratings obsessed press seems to have exhausted all angles of covering a military conflict that has not yet officially begun--officially. When will it happen? How will it happen? How long will it last? What will it mean to Main Street, USA? Who will live and who will die? If diplomacy prevails and the world succeeds in taming the beast of Iraq, 2002 will go down as the biggest waste of journalism in the history of the world. What we have been told over and over is that Saddam is the anti-American; a would be assassinator of presidents, a war criminal with no regard for the lives of, wait let's all say it together, his own people. I don't mean to belittle horrific, and unfathomable cruelty, it's just that what part of that statement haven't we heard already, ad nauseam. By forcing on us their mantra of "...his own people", "weapons of mass destruction", "axis of evil", they attempt to simplify the war argument into a two-sided one. Hence, you are either an American patriot who opposes evil or you are a threat to the safety of everyone who flies in a plane or works in a high-rise. It's propaganda, folks; it's the knee-jerk, reactionary mindless marching of lemmings into the sea.

The fact is many Americans who oppose a war with Iraq, do so for very patriotic reasons; respect for the constitution and a distaste for preemptive aggression, conservative economic values, or a desire to focus on international terrorism exclusively, and, yes, of course, old-time isolationists and I dare anyone to call them unpatriotic, prefer to sit this one out.

The problem gets really discomforting for the loyal opposition to war when the military, the living sons and daughters of us all, are deployed into the line of fire. God save the dissenter then, because as everyone knows, war equals patriotism equals support for the troops. Anti-war demonstrators are never perceived as the advocates of soldiers and their lives, but instead are seen as the anti-heroes, the ill informed, crybaby liberals.