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CounterPunch
February
26, 2003
Mona Charen a True Enemy of
Freedom
Making Dissent
a Crime
by WILLIAM HUGHES
Public dissent in America may soon be a crime,
if Mona Charen has her way. Her demonizing of patriotic Americans,
who believe a U.S. war with Iraq is not in our national interest,
continues relentlessly. Where will her dehumanizing of the peace
and justice seekers lead?
In a Feb. 24th rant, (Baltimore Sun),
Charen, an ex-shill for Nancy Reagan, accused anti-war activists
of supporting the "Islamo-fascists and their enablers."
She blasted those who want the U.S. to stop playing the role
of global cop, as "appeas[ers] of dictators." She even
smeared the organizer of the peace rallies in Washington, "Act
Now to Stop War and End Racism," (ANSWER), as being "explicitly
communist."
If that wasn't bad enough, Charen also
insisted that pro-peace demonstrators, like the noted actresses
and Screen Actors Guild members, Susan Sarandon and Janeane Garofalo,
and the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Sr., President of the Rainbow/PUSH
Coalition, represent the "Left's default mode." They
are always ready to "protest against us," Charen continues,
without defining, exactly who is this us,1 that she's talking
about. She branded, without citing a shred of evidence, the above
trio, and other activists like them, as having a "jaundiced
view that the U.S. has given the world only pollution, low-skilled
jobs and crass commercialism."
Charen, too, tried hard to equate opposition
today to any U.S. war with Iraq, with the activities of Leftists
in the 1980s, who were supposedly soft on the USSR during the
Cold War. She railed that anyone, who can't see how dangerous
an enemy Saddam Hussein is to the U.S., is guilty of "wishful
thinking." Well first, Iraq doesn't have any nuclear weapons,
and the USSR had ten of thousands of them. And, secondly, if
Iraq did have such lethal weapons of mass destruction, it certainly
doesn't have the delivery system to use them against the U.S.
It's hard, under such circumstances, to take her analysis seriously.
Meanwhile, one of Charen's favorite thugs,
Israel's Ariel Sharon, killed 42 more Palestinians last week
in the Occupied Territories. She was silent about that murderous
fact. Like other Sharon sympathizers in the media, she also ignores
Israel's role, along with the interests of "Big Oil,"
and the "Military-Industrial Complex," in pushing America
towards the abyss in the looming Gulf War II. Naturally, she
also won't address the undue influence in the the Bush Administration,
over our foreign policy, by the Zionist cabal, (Washington Post,
02/09/03), known as the "Likudniks."
To tell you how desperate Charen is to
make her dubious case that peace activists are "enemies
of freedom," she linked the justified U.S. "war on
terror," with the planned, unjustified war with Iraq. In
Chareneese: If you're against the war with Iraq, then you also
don't "value democracy." She also cruelly labeled the
anti-war protesters, including "mothers pushing toddlers
in strollers," as suffering from 3moral obtuseness.2 She
also claimed, in a vicious slur on Islam, that if those seeking
peace prevail, then we must all prepare to "don burqas and
grow beards."
John Adams, one of the prime architects
of our Republic, and later our second president, said, "The
. . . fountain of all just power and government is in the people."
The scheming pro-Iraq War factions are presently putting this
principle to a severe test.
It's time to ask: Are the people the
true source of power in this country or is it the special interests?
If it's the latter, then the Republic itself is at risk. I think
if the war with Iraq is launched, Charen's attacks on the First
Amendment right to dissent will turn even darker. And, we may
soon be saying good-bye to our precious liberties. The Justice
Department itself is readying a sequel to the "USA Patriot
Act," (Center for Public Integrity, 02/07/03), that may
do just that.
© William Hughes 2003
William Hughes
is the author of 3Baltimore Iconoclast2 (Writer's Showcase),
which is available online. He can be reached at liamhughes@mindspring.com.
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February 22
/ 23, 2003
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