[Author's Note: this was originally posted on 2/13/2003 at Halcyon Media. I've made minor formatting, grammatical and vocabulary changes, but the gist remains the same - Russ]

History really does repeat itself. No matter how evil or twisted America's enemies are, they'll have their supporters right here in our own metaphorical backyard. I refer, of course, to the virulently anti-American, peace-at-any-price-even-our-own-destruction idiots from Hollywood and organizations such as ANSWER and NION.

- The Bund before WW2
During the years preceding the Second World War, an organization with thousands of members was formed which dedicated itself to the Nazification of America. The German-American Bund supported - and pledged allegiance to - Germany and its Fuehrer, with whom we would be at war a few short years later. These people, many of them German immigrants spreading the gospel of National Socialism, were truly the "enemy within".

Plagued by financial irregularities, however, the Bund had effectively disbanded by the time Germany declared war on the US in 1941^[1].

- ANSWER in 2003
Fast forward to 2003.

Now, for "Bund" substitute "ANSWER" ("Act Now to Stop War and End Racism") and their support of America's enemy Saddam Hussein. Whether by design or by thoughtlessness, the members and supporters of this group (and other anti-Americans of their ilk, such as "Not In Our Name" (NION), the volunteer "human shields", Susan Sarandon and Ed Asner, and so on) are playing a role we've seen acted before. The difference is that these 21st-century Bundists ought to know better. The ones who do know better and persist in their perfidy should be held to account for it^[2].

I am sure that, in their own minds, many of these sheep in people-clothes who show up at demonstrations are acting out of the purest of motives. Who can be against peace, right? What right-thinking^[3] person could be for racism? (But would someone please explain to me the connection between war and racism?) These people fall very neatly into the category widely known as "useful idiots".

I do concede that many of these hangers-on may be opposing American action against Iraq out of genuine pacifist beliefs. They're entitled to do so, just so long as they are prepared to be responsible for the consequences - though I earnestly hope that the determined defenders of our nation will not allow those horrible consequences to happen.^[4].

At the core of the present antiwar movement, though, is an assembly of people with far more sinister (and well-documented) motives. ANSWER (et al.), like the Bund before them, oppose America taking steps to defend itself and its allies from their mortal enemies, and actively support those who would destroy all that we value - life, liberty, the pursuit of a new SUV^[5].

- The Bundists, by 1945
By 1945 the Allied armies in Europe had crushed the armed might of the "Thousand-Year" Reich, and liberated thousands of Jews, Gypsies, Christians and others from the camps in which their extermination had been routinely carried out for half a dozen years.

While there had been for several years rumors of the atrocities being carried out in camps, it was not until these places fell into Allied hands that the full extent of the horror was really known. Indeed, many people of that era could not comprehend the enormity of the crimes carried out in these places with names - Auschwitz, Treblinka, Dachau and others - now synonymous with "Hell."

At the conclusion of the war, the immensity of the evil of that enemy was made known to all. Hitler's supporters here in America, had they not already left the country (unlike ANSWER, they had the courage of their convictions) or been discredited by scandal^[6], would have been utterly disgraced.

- ANSWER in 2004
Fast forward again, to 2004.

We already know - have known for years - the fate that befalls those in Iraq who oppose Saddam Hussein. He has used chemical weapons on his own people and on his neighbors. He has launched a war of aggression on a comparatively defenseless neighbor. He has created environmental disasters. He has brutally suppressed all dissent within Iraq, not hesitating to use the most cruel methods of torture on his own subjects.

"The dictator who is assembling the world's most dangerous weapons has already used them on whole villages - leaving thousands of his own citizens dead, blind, or disfigured. Iraqi refugees tell us how forced confessions are obtained - by torturing children while their parents are made to watch. International human rights groups have catalogued other methods used in the torture chambers of Iraq: electric shock, burning with hot irons, dripping acid on the skin, mutilation with electric drills, cutting out tongues, and rape." - President George W. Bush, State of the Union, January 28, 2003

So where will ANSWER be a year hence, after the liberation of Iraq? What will they do and how will they react when confronted with the evidence of the barbarity of the present regime?

Will the surgical precision of our attacks cause them to recant their accusations that we are making war on the people of Iraq?

Will Saddam's collection of homemade "snuff" movies finally show them the true nature of the maniac they support?

Will the capture of a nuclear/biological/chemical weapons production facility suggest to them that maybe they were wrong about Saddam's intentions?

Not. Bloody. Likely.

Behind ANSWER (et al.) is a collection of unrepentant communists^[7], which should give us a hint of what their response will be to being shown - again - to be on the wrong side of history.

Most of the hangers-on, I hope and believe, will have their eyes opened and be repelled by what they learn. They will be truly ashamed of their having supported Saddam's fellow-travelers, and many (possibly even some of the weaker members of the Streisand-Sarandon-Clooney-Baldwin axis) will denounce ANSWER and their cronies.

But there will remain a core of True Believers who will continue their anti-American rhetoric and activities. These people see America as the enemy of all they wish to accomplish, of which Trotskyite Socialism is just a piece. We would be foolish not to recognize them for what they are - the enemy within, a 21^st Century Bund.^[8]

^{[Note 1]} Yes, you read that correctly. We declared war on Japan on 8Dec1941 following the attack on Pearl Harbor, but not on Germany or Italy. One wonders what might have transpired had Germany not declared war on the US on 11Dec1941. http://www.law.ou.edu/hist/germwar.html

^{[Note 2]} Treason is what comes to mind as a criminal charge. First time one of these loons sets off a pipe bomb or shoots a cop, I'm all for the Charlie Daniels solution - "take a big tall tree and a short piece of rope".

^{[Note 3]} I'm not implying here, of course, that these people are actually thinking.

^{[Note 4]} Amazing, isn't it, how infrequently those who espouse pacifism have to actually live with the results thereof?

^{[Note 5]} If buying a new SUV isn't your idea of happiness, insert whatever you like - it's still a free country.

^{[Note 6]} See http://www.newsday.com/extras/lihistory/7/hs729a.htm for a very brief history of the Bund. Fascinating stuff.

^{[Note 7]} Since when is it wrong to call a spade a spade? Since when is it "McCarthyism" to call a commie a commie?

^{[Note 8]} I twice took an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign or domestic. I do not recall anyone releasing me from my vow when I left the Service. Got a problem with that? Too bad.

Posted by Russ at 02:37 PM, March 9, 2003 in Politics