Traitors in our midst

I often see bumper stickers and signs in the windows of cars that say "Dissent is Patriotic." I agree with this, provided that you are dissenting because you think the current path the country is taking is not in its best interests. If you think a different course is the best one for the US and its people, then you have a right, even a duty, to speak out and advocate your views.

But does there come a point where your words and actions cross the line from protected speech to treason? Take a look at these pictures from the April 10 rally in San Francisco and tell me. (Thanks to Mike, Charles, and Michelle for the link).

The message is clear. Many of these people are advocating the deaths of our soldiers in Iraq. They are supporting and encouraging our enemies. They want the US to lose, to fail, to die. Is that treason?

The supreme irony of these people is that, if the US really were as they believe it is, they would not be able to say what they are saying. They would be either dead or vanished. The fact that they are not is prima facie proof that they are wrong.

Mike has this to say:

These people are not just antiwar; they’re not just on the other side. They’re not just stupid, or misguided, or eccentric or well-meaning or “just kids” or any of the thousand other dodges we employ to avoid acknowledging the appalling truth. These people are the enemy - just another tentacle on the body of the beast that would sooner see us destroyed than accommodated or compromised with. I don’t have any practical suggestions on the best way of hacking this particular tentacle off, but we’d better start thinking about it. Because sooner or later, the impulse to treason on the part of these detestable mouth-breathers is going to have to be reckoned with just as surely - and quite possibly just as harshly - as the impulse to murder on the part of anybody sitting in Gitmo right now has been. They might well be simply dupes, useful fools - but does their blind ignorance make them any less of a threat to victory?

Michelle's post addresses these pictures as well as an article by Ted Rall. She says something that I've been saying for some time:

Back to Ted Rall.

Read and understand: They hate us simply because we're there. Leave, and the hatred goes away. If you doubt that, visit Hanoi as a tourist.

I no longer give Rall the benefit of the doubt and call him misguided or naive. Now, he's just an idiot. A blind, foolish idiot.

The don't hate us just because we are there. They hated us before this. Way before this. And "they" are not just Iraqi insurgents. They are Iranians and Syrians and members of the UBL fan club. They are followers of Hamas and Arafat. They are worshipers of the culture of death, whose goal is one thing: to convert the world to their religion, thereby making everyone in the world subservient to them, to their ideals, to their power.

Treason is a federal crime that is specifically defined in the Constitution. It is one of the few federal crimes for which one possible penalty is death. Do I think that these people deserve death? No. Do I think they should be arrested and punished in some way? No. We must tread very carefully when it comes to matters of speech and we must always err on the side of caution. These people have not yet crossed the line to active aid and support of our enemies (i.e. providing them with money or other material support, or acting on their orders). Certainly if they cross that line then they should be arrested and tried.

And it is just this restraint which proves that they are completely wrong.