Hatred of the Military on the Political Left

Earlier this year, I wrote about Kenneth Thiesen of Oakland, a Stalinist anti-military recruiting activist who declared, during the Berkeley protests, that "we need to expose" the troops in the military "to be part of a 'killing machine.'"

Although the war in Iraq has not dominated the news cycle of late, we're of course still seeing a good amount of extreme left-wing opposition to the U.S. military deployments around the world, as well as example of direct hatred of American service personnel as well.

Steve Almond at the Boston Globe, for example, illustrates the left's fundamental rejection of the troops as part of its anti-military ideology (via Anti-Idotarian Rottweiler):

PERHAPS the most insidious byproduct of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has been a reflexive sanctification of the military. To put this in bumper stickerese: Support the Troops.

Well, I have an ugly confession to make: I don't support the troops ... When somebody tells me they serve in the military, my first impulse isn't to say, "Thank you for your service!" like those insufferable chickenhawks on talk radio.

My first impulse is to say, "I'm sorry to hear that." Because I am. I'm sorry to know that the person I'm talking to might someday be maimed or killed on the job, or might someday kill someone else. Or refuel a plane that drops bombs on buildings.

I can't see how anyone who calls himself or herself Christian - or human, for that matter - wouldn't be sorry.

I can't express how despicably nihilist the left's culture of anti-militarism is to me. In a world of ever-present challenges to the safety of the nation, without the military American freedom would not survive. But Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler puts it much more clearly than I can:

Hate to break it to you, twinkletoes, but there really are bad people out there and yes, some of them really do want to hurt you. That’s why we need rough men and women ready to do violence for us, and if you’re not happy about somebody else doing it, then we suggest that you do so yourself. Or, alternatively, you could go see how that Kumbaya blather of yours works in real practice. Go sit around out in the open, all alone and unarmed, right in the middle of a war zone and declare your unconditional refusal to defend yourself against harm. Let us know how that worked out for you. Actually, we’ll probably see it on video. On al-Jazeera.

Not all expressions of military hatred on the left are as explicit as Almond's, but they're no less vehement.

It turns out there were a couple of non-hostile shooting deaths in Iraq last Sunday (fratricide), and Cernig at the anti-American Newshoggers blog is extrapolating from this one case (and apparently two others) that the extended strain on the military from the Bush administration's policies in Afghanistan and Iraq has caused these "fratricide incidents" rather than the episode being a case of aberrent interpersonal aggressiveness.

Keep in mind, of course, that the Newshoggers blog generally applauds the killing of American troops in the field, and has, for example, cheered Downs syndrome suicide bombers in Iraq.

Folks like this, with their rabid hatred our military service personnel on the ground, are the shock troops of the leftist fifth column in America.