Anti-war vs. Anti-American

I have heard many times people who are anti-war being labelled anti-American. Indeed, my fellow travellers and I up here in Canada hear that quite a bit as well. I distinctly remember hearing that a lot when I was in the peace movement during the time leading up to the war in 2003.

Of course, it should be obvious to the objective reader that the failure to make a distinction between anti-American and anti-Bush is a gross intellectual one. I can simultaneously love my country and hate what my government is doing.

I think that there are basically two groups of people who make this kind of comment. The first group are those who say it out of just plain ignorance. They are gullible to right-wing propaganda put out there that one necessary equals the other. Their minds, due to either stupidity or intellectual laziness, are either unable or unwilling to make a distinction between the two. The second group are those who know full well that there is a distinction between the two, but have a vested interest, be it ideological, political, economic, or some combination thereof, to blur the distinction in the minds of the larger public.

I would submit that American's who are opposing the Bush administration's war on Iraq and drive for global empire are in fact exemplifying patriotism in its highest form. Let me use an analogy. Martin Luther King, in his "Letter from Birmingham Jail," argued that there is a distinction between just and unjust laws, and that those who engaged in civil disobedience with respect to unjust laws were in fact showing the highest regard for the law, because they are upholding the spirit of truth and justice upon which law is based. Likewise, I would argue that those who oppose the war in Iraq and other US foreign policy decisions are in fact displaying the highest form of patriotism, because they are demanding a higher standard from their national goverment, defending the spirit of America as a beacon of truth and justice, and defending the right to free expression by exercising that right.