THE ROBERT W. WHITAKER ARCHIVE

LEFTISTS SHOT THEMSELVES IN THE FOOT OVER IRAQ | 2003-05-31

Leftists who opposed the Iraqi War shot themselves in the foot. This is not because they were wrong, but because their opposition to the war showed their warts. Leftists hate America and what they said in opposing the war was one long exercise in Hate America rhetoric.

Many leftists are now trying to say they were right about the war because no weapons of mass destruction have been found. If they had said they opposed the war because they doubted the existence of weapons of mass destruction, they would be in a strong position now. But that is not what anti-War leftists said in the period leading up to the war.

In the pre-war period leftists said America was Evil. They said that America was killing its young people just to get cheap oil. They said America was greedy, bloodthirsty, imperialistic and racist, and those were our good qualities.

Ever since World War II Americans have paid professors in American colleges to insult the American public. Every leftist spent most of that time telling us how awful Americans were and how good our enemies were.

Especially Communists.

Americans never did anything but grin and applaud these insults.

But at last, during the run-up to the Iraq War, those grins actually faded. Even the people who had cheered most loudly every time professors and Europeans told us how awful we were in the past suddenly woke up and wiped the drool off their faces.

Liberals shot themselves in the foot by opposing the Iraq War, but not because they opposed the War. They shot themselves in the foot because of the way they opposed the war.

For decades we have paid social science professors to insult the American public in college classrooms. For decades we have paid the United Nations to attack us.

Many people felt particularly good about paying professors and the United Nations to attack us because a lot of people have the idea that if something hurts it must be good for you.

That's sick thinking. In this world, you will be denounced plenty without paying anybody to do it.

Anti-War people who joined in the chorus about how evil or ignorant Americans are were the ones who really screwed up.

Those people included leftists, the United Nations, and Europe's Fashionable Opinion.