by Charley Reese
Some advocates of war with Iraq have questioned the patriotism of some Americans who oppose the war. This is a valid issue that people ought to think about. What is "patriotism"? What is "unpatriotic"?
My definition of patriotism is someone who loves the land and the people who live there. It does not include loving the government. Government, at least in the eyes of the Founding Fathers of this country, is merely a tool for achieving a higher end — to wit, the protection of the rights of the people. It was not just Thomas Jefferson who warned against the dangers of government. George Washington, in the opposite political party, the Federalists, warned that government was like fire — a useful servant but a fearful master.
So, obviously, one might love the country but disagree with the government, since the country and the government are not the same. Under what circumstances is it unpatriotic to disagree with the government? The Constitution defines treason, the ultimate unpatriotic act, this way: "Treason against the United States shall consist only of levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act or on confession in open court."
(Note, by the way, that the Constitution always speaks of the United States in the plural, just as my Confederate ancestors believed them to be, but that is a subject for another column.)
No one opposing a war against Iraq is levying war against the United States. "To adhere" means to give support and allegiance. No one that I know of is supporting or pledging allegiance to the government of Iraq. Furthermore, since there is no declaration of war by Congress, there is legally no enemy. That, by the way, was how people who gave aid and comfort to the North Vietnamese escaped prosecution during the Vietnam War, which, in the legal sense, was not a war.
During the past 100 years, the United States was attacked only twice: once by Japan and, on Sept. 11, 2001, by al-Qaida. After the attack by Japan and the subsequent declaration of war against us by Germany, it would have been unpatriotic to argue against the United States defending itself. It is, in my opinion, unpatriotic to argue against pursuing and destroying al-Qaida, since we have been attacked by it and the leader of that organization has declared war on us.
President Bush erred, however, by focusing his ire far beyond al-Qaida. There is no link between al-Qaida and Iraq. The terrorist who Mr. Bush claims is connected to al-Qaida has his camp in Northern Iraq, which is controlled by Kurds and the United States, not by the Iraqi government. When Mr. Bush declared his intention to war against any country "harboring" terrorists, he opened a can of worms. He opened another can when he expanded his war against terrorism to groups that have not attacked the United States.
Al-Qaida is a clandestine organization of separate cells, each containing a few individuals. Are we harboring terrorists? There certainly were and probably still are al-Qaida people living in our country, as well as in Western Europe. Unless a government openly supports al-Qaida, as the Taliban did in Afghanistan, I don't think you can say it is harboring terrorists just because some members live there or pass through. Al-Qaida is not openly operating in any country in the world today.
It is no more unpatriotic to disagree with the government's foreign policy than it is to disagree with its domestic policy. Policy disagreements are an essential feature of a free country. We don't say someone is unpatriotic if he or she doesn't like the way the government operates Medicare; we should not say that about people who disagree with the government's foreign policy.
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