Theos-Talk Archives (October 2001 Message tt00011)

Patriotism...Nationalism.... The anti-thesis of theosophy.

Fortunately MOST of the youth see through MOST of it.

Are you for or against the War with China fought in Afghanistan?

Namaste

Novus ordo seclorum


-----Original Message-----
From: Michele Lidofsky [mailto:officerjenny@mindspring.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, 2 October 2001 6:28 AM
To: theos-talk@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Theos-World To the Anti-War Demonstrators


Folks - 

Here's an interesting essay currently being run in campus 
newspapers by former Marxist organizer David Horowitz:

Michele

An Open Letter to the "Anti-War" Demonstrators: Think Twice 
Before You Bring The War Home By David Horowitz 
FrontPageMagazine.com | September 27, 2001
URL: http://www.frontpagemag.com/horowitzsnotepad/2001/hn09-27-01p 
                         

I AM a former anti-war activist who helped to organize the 
first campus demonstration against the war in Vietnam at the 
University of California, Berkeley in 1962. I appeal to all 
those young people who participated in "anti-war" 
demonstrations on 150 college campuses this week, to think 
again and not to join an "anti-war" effort against America’s 
coming battle with international terrorism. 

The hindsight of history has shown that our efforts in the 
1960s to end the war in Vietnam had two practical effects. The 
first was to prolong the war itself. Every testimony by North 
Vietnamese generals in the postwar years has affirmed that they 
knew they could not defeat the United States on the 
battlefield, and that they counted on the division of our 
people at home to win the war for them. The Vietcong forces we 
were fighting in South Vietnam were destroyed in 1968. In other 
words, most of the war and most of the casualties in the war 
occurred because the dictatorship of North Vietnam counted on 
the fact Americans would give up the battle rather than pay the 
price necessary to win it. This is what happened. The blood of 
hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese, and tens of thousands of 
Americans, is on the hands of the anti-waractivists who 
prolonged the struggle and gave victory to the Communists.

The second effect of the war was to surrender South Vietnam to 
the forces of Communism. This resulted in the imposition of a 
monstrous police state, the murder of hundreds of thousands of 
innocent South Vietnamese, the incarceration in "re-education 
camps" of hundreds of thousands more, and a quarter of a 
century of abject poverty imposed by crackpot Marxist economic 
plans, which continue to this day. This, too, is the 
responsibility of the so-called anti-war movement of the 1960s.

I say "so-called anti-war movement," because while many 
Americans were sincerely troubled by America’s war effort, the 
organizers of this movement were Marxists and radicals who 
supported a Communist victory and an American defeat. Today the 
same people and their youthful followers are organizing the 
campus demonstrations against America’s effort to defend its 
citizens against the forces of international terrorism and 
anti-American hatred, responsible for the September attacks.

I know, better than most, the importance of protecting freedom 
of speech and the right of citizens to dissent. But I also know 
better than most, that there is a difference between honest 
dissent and malevolent hate, between criticism of national 
policy, and sabotage of the nation’s defenses. In the 1960s and 
1970s, the tolerance of anti-American hatreds was so high, that 
the line between dissent and treason was eventually erased. 
Along with thousands of other New Leftists, I was one who 
crossed the line between dissent and actual treason. (I have 
written an account of these matters in my autobiography, 
Radical Son). I did so for what I thought were the noblest of 
reasons: to advance the cause of "social justice" and "peace." 
I have lived to see how wrong I was and how much damage we did 
– especially to those whose cause we claimed to embrace, the 
peasants of Indo-China who suffered grievously from our support 
for the Communist enemy. I came to see how precious are the 
freedoms and opportunities afforded by America to the poorest 
and most humble of its citizens, and how rare its virtues are 
in the world at large.

If I have one regret from my radical years, it is that this 
country was too tolerant towards the treason of its enemies 
within. If patriotic Americans had been more vigilant in the 
defense of their country, if they had called things by their 
right names, if they had confronted us with the seriousness of 
our attacks, they might have caught the attention of those of 
us who were well-meaning but utterly misguided. And they might 
have stopped us in our tracks. 

This appeal is for those of you who are out there today 
attacking your country, full of your own self-righteousness, 
but who one day might also live to regret what you have done. 

David Horowitz is editor-in-chief of FrontPageMagazine.com and 
president of the Center for the Study of Popular Culture.

 

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