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Rodney G. Graves
From the Archives

A Gauntlet 
Addressed 'To whom it may concern'

I've had it.

I'm fed up and I'm not going to go along with this any longer.

Is is just me, or does anyone else remember the strange and oft repeated message of the last few years? You know, the protagonists of various unpopular points of view were complaining that folks were questioning their patriotism?

The odd thing was that no one was.  Questioning their patriotism that is.  Lots of folks were stating in no uncertain terms that they did not agree, or that they thought the positions in question were dangerous to the Republic.  But (with very rare exceptions), the patriotism of the protagonists was not being questioned. 

It finally fell into place. They were preemptively throwing the patriotism card.

Let's crank the way back machine a little further though. Let's revisit for a moment Vietnam and "Hanoi Jane" Fonda's little propaganda tour of North Vietnam.

That little stunt was both injurious to the morale of our own forces, and benefited the Communist North Vietnamese.  That was providing aid and comfort to the enemy. That is one of the two forms of Treason specified in the Constitution.

Yes, that was over thirty years ago. But it's relevant, and it matters. Why? Because we didn't do the right thing, the hard thing, and actually put her on trial for Treason. We failed to uphold a standard.

Even an acquittal (not that I think she would have been acquitted) would have served to reinforce the standard that some things are simply not tolerated.

Now let us return to the present, or at least the very recent past:

If I read this to you and did not tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime--Pol Pot or others--that had no concern for human beings. Sadly, that is not the case. This was the action of Americans in the treatment of their prisoners.

Uh huh.

There you have Senator Richard Durbin (hereafter Dick Turban), D-IL morally equating the United States, the Armed Forces of the United States, the men and women who serve in those armed forces, and each and every one of us (since ours is a nation By, For, and Of the People) to three of the most brutal regimes of the 20th Century.

The "Hanoi Jane" precedent says we can't call it Treason, and the leftist lunatics think they have burnt the suit of Patriotism.

Have they?

Do you love your country so little that you will tolerate such a base slander against it? Will you stomach such an insult to the brave men and women who toil and bleed on our behalf halfway around the world? Would you tolerate someone spitting in their face, when all they have done is place their bodies between the horrors of war (a war started with an atrocity against us on our own soil) and your home, your family, and your person?

I do love my Country.

I shall not tolerate such a base slander.

I shan't tolerate those who would.