Teddy Roosevelt may not be the first person you'd expect to
utter this quote:

"Patriotism means to stand by the country. IT DOES NOT MEAN to stand by
the President or any other public office save exactly to the degree in
which he himself stands by the country".  [Emphasis added]

Maybe that is the meaning of the famous dictum, "Patriotism is the
last refuge of scoundrels".  Advocating true patriotism certainly does
not make one a scoundrel; the dictum refers only to the
pseudo-patriotism Teddy Roosevelt spoke about: what "scoundrels" do is
to use their own _proclamations_ of patriotism to bully others into
going along with certain policies -- policies that, more often than
not, turn out to be against the true interests of America.

Roosevelt was very precise in his terms:

"Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by
the President or any other public office SAVE EXACTLY TO THE DEGREE in
which he himself stands by the country".  [Emphasis added]

Meaning, a _true_ Patriot is someone who supports -- or opposes -- 
the policies of the President and other leaders, EXACTLY TO THE DEGREE
that such policies are right -- or wrong -- by the principles of this
country.

You would think that such truisms are so self-evident as to not need
stating, but unfortunately this is not the case; in recent weeks a
"military historian's view" has been circulating on the crisis, which
admonished its readers

* "Everyone I've talked to In the past few days has shared a common
* frustration, saying in one form or another "I just wish I could do
* something!" You are already doing it. Just keep faith in America,
* and continue to support your President and military, and the outcome
* is certain.

According to this twisted view, then, one should support the policies
of the President, period, unqualified by any idea of what the
President may actually do. That is a political philosophy that the
likes of Saddam Hussein, the Taliban, and their ilk would surely agree
with: "blind, unquestioning support for the policies put forth by
leaders is way to go, and don't even ever ask what those policies
might be!"

One very important question we are not allowed to ask is this: could
Bush's military solution be actually HARMFUL to the U.S.?

Notice that this is not the same question as whether it is right for
the US to use military force. It is not the same question as how
a "tradeoff" between defending US interests and respecting civilian
lives elsewhere should be decided. 

Rather, the it puts into question whether there really is such a
tradeoff. What if, instead of having to chose between doing right by
the US, and doing right by civilians in the third world, the real
choice was between (on the one hand) harming both the US and civilians
elsewhere, and (on the other hand), helping both?

To really understand this question is it necessary to remember some
history.

The current cries  for  military "solutions" are
coming exactly the same  portions of the  ideological spectrum and
precisely the same  mainstream military establishment
which brought us the Taliban in the first place: they created, funded,
and gave terrorist "how-to' training to the Taliban.

This is so striking, that it takes a kind of genius on the part of the
media to fail to notice it.

One can go back further. Back in the 1980s these same militarists had
the us "for" Iraq and "against" Iran. When patriotic dissidents like
myself found out about Saddam Hussein's horrible human rights record,
we asked, why is the US sending money to him? And you can imagine what
kinds of names we were called. Someone asked me, "what are you, a
friend of the Ayatollah?"

As if the only two options were either, send money and sell arms
(making handsome profit) to one dictator, or else send money and sell
arms (making a handsome profit) to another dictator. As if it is
unimaginable to have a foreign policy based on international law and
morality and just not support dictators. Our leaders weren't
interested in that; the more brown-skinned kids in the military (or
even civilians) died in Iraq and Iran, the more both sides were
weakened, while we make a profit, so that was ok by Washington.

IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT WE  REMEMBER  not only that these same
militarists are the ones who armed and funded Saddam Hussein: it is
critically important that we also remember that those of us who stood
up for the real interests of America, were called unpatriotic by
these militarists -- and we were called this FOR our opposition
of the actions which we now know resulted in Saddam's feeling
strong and secure (including secure enough, after our own April
Glaspie told him, "we have no opinion of your border dispute with
Kuwait", to invade it).

We were also called unpatriotic a second time for questioning
the military "solution" of the war in Iraq: "what are you, a friend of
Saddam?" we were asked. A strange question to ask those who opposed
funding Saddam in the first place, and were asked, "what are you, a
friend of the Ayatollah?" not many years earlier, by those the same
militarists who whose funding of Saddam against our objections
had harmed the US and was thus unpatriotic -- THEY were calling US
unpatriotic! 

The militarists of the mainstream establishment and of the right  have
long promoted "covert" actions, too. Such covert actions are usually
not a secret from our enemies; they know about these actions; they are
cover mostly to one group -- the American tax-payer!

These same militarists, using the part overt, part covert dirty work
of the CIA, helped create and fund the  Taliban, and even used our
tax-dollars to train this group (the most fanatic extreme one they
could find -- and they were delighted to find such extremism!). This
was literally training in how to engage in terrorism. Apparently when
the Taliban were fighting the Soviet Union, terrorism was somehow a
good ideas, according to the warped minds at the CIA and the
militarists.

IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT WE REMEMBER not only that these same
militarists are the ones who armed and funded and trained the Taliban:
it is critically important that we also remember that those of us who
stood up for the real interests of America, were called "unpatriotic"
by these militarists, and were called this FOR our opposition
of the actions which we now know resulted in the Taliban being as
strong as they are today.

So I ask: who is really unpatriotic? Who should really hang their head
in shame? After 10 years of policy in Iraq, we have 10 full years of
proof that the anti-militarists were RIGHT: Saddam Hussein is a live
and well, while over a half million Iraqis have died directly,
according to the UN, due to the particular type of sanctions
Washington has chosen to impose -- a very different type than
the type used against South Africa, and the latter proved 
quite effective as an alternative to militarism.

Do you see the militarists hanging their head in shame that they have
not ONLY killed so many Iraqi civilians, but left Saddam in power for
the civilians they've killed? No, they haven't left Saddam as strong
as ever; they have left him even stronger than ever, which is entirely
predictable when you torture civilians in a country, that they will
rally around their leader even if he is an otherwise brutal dictator,
when the leader resists the sanctions killing your countrymen.  After
ten full years, folks, they can hardly claim that they haven't had
enough time for history to pass judgment on their militaristic
"solutions", after all! 

Do we see the militarists hanging their head in shame for having
created, funded, and "trained" the Taliban? Does the media show how
un-patriotic the actions of these militarists was? Hell no! There are
even calls for MORE "dealings with unsavory people", after the
September 11 bombing, an idea put forth as a "SOLUTION"! And the media
report it with a straight face.

Did we see the militarists hang their head in shame when the US
invaded Pamana, killing scores of civilians, in oust Noriega, who was
a dictator the CIA also loved and helped and funded?  Were they called
un-patriotic? Again, no, those of us who opposed BOTH the CIA funding
of Noriega, and the unnecessary and illegal uses of force, that were
branded un-patriotic. 

So when you follow your own conscience, and your own reason, and when
YOU get called "un-patriotic", remember all of this. 

Remember who the ones are who should REALLY be ashamed, and who are
the really un-patriotic bunch: the militarists.

The True Patriots are those who better this country. The True Patriots
are people like Martin Luther King, Jr, and the movement he lead,
scores of Patriots who made this country a better place.

The True Patriots are people like Susan B Anthony, and the women and
men in that movement and the modern feminist movement, who have also
made this country a better place -- not just better for women, but
better for all of us, with many women in the workplace bringing their
college educations and other skills towards solving today's problems.

The True Patriots are those who made America a better place by getting
the Americans with Disabilities law passed. The True Patriots are
those who fought to bring equality and civil rights to gays, lesbians,
bisexuals, and transgendered people. They are the Grey Panthers and
other groups fighting for the rights of older Americans, and thereby,
are fighting to make this country a better place for all of us.

There are plenty of "everyday folks" too, who are the Real
Patriots. The True Patriots are not the high-profile CEOs "earning"
fifty million a year by running an HMO, or the high-profile sports
super-stars or the marketers who flood us all in a daily deluge of
advertising.

The Real American Patriots are the teachers in the schools today,
helping educate tomorrows generation; they are the nurses and doctors
who help treat the sick; they are the construction workers and
firefighters and those who volunteer at homeless shelters and soup
kitchens -- THEY are the true Patriots. And so are those Patriotic
Dissidents who have opposed the militarists and who continue to
oppose the militarists' "solutions" which work to bring us an even
more vicious cycle of violence, just as history has proved time and
time again with their "solutions" of funding Saddam, and Noriega, and
CIA cover involvement and meddling all over the world, and move
military bases, and on and on.

In fact the 10 years of military occupation in Iraq was a key reason
for Bin Laden's hate. Does that excuse any terrorism he or the Taliban
may have been involved in? Of course not! But that begs the question:
was it a smart policy in the first place?

As we saw, the militaristic "solution" in Iraq was a dreadful, dismal,
complete and utter FAILURE which only strengthen Saddam and which
killed hundreds of thousands (citing the UN's own figures) of innocent
Iraqi civilians who had (thanks in part to Washington's funding of
Saddam) already suffered under Saddam earlier. So if it was a bad idea
to begin with, if it was a bad idea to have a militaristic "solution"
of a near-permanent US military presence in Iraq -- then it is still a
bad idea after Sept 11 since it was a bad idea before.

The fact that it was NOT ONLY a bad idea in its own right as far as
Iraq and the region, but ON TOP OF THAT also inflamed the bitterness
of those in the region, the bitterness which has helped the Taliban
and Bin Laden, then that tragic irony only underlies the
double-failure of the logic of militarism: it's un-American policies
are not only not helpful to America, they actually harm us all, twice:
directly from the militaristic actions, and a second time, indirectly,
as it fans the flames of resentment among those who, not surprisingly,
dislike having strong-arm tactics applies to their countries -- even
if their countries are headed by dictators. Nay, especially when those
dictators (e.g. Saddam) they are suffering under, were originally
funded by the Superpower which now inflicts a second wound

Yet instead of hanging their head low in shame for using the money of
American tax-payers again and again in pursuits of militarism which
harms BOTH Americans AND those in the third world, these unpatriotic
militarists call _us_ unpatriotic, who dare oppose these harmful
policies -- what shameful hypocrisy!

One has to be naive not to see that the current "solutions"
being proposed are excuses to carry out policies that They have
always wanted to implement, long before September 11: more militarism,
less social spending, less civil rights, more "secret police" powers
of a real kind of  Big Government, an idea they claim to
oppose. Attacking gays, promoting tax cuts for the top 1%, anything
under the sun on their wish list before 9/11, is now in the most
disgraceful way being trumpeted as "patriotism" by the un-patriotic
militarists and reactionary political forces in this country who have
always opposed the work of the True Patriots we just spoke of...

Yes, let's bring to justice those who are shown (under international 
law and international courts)  by the evidence to have been behind
the terrorist attacks of September 11. We may or may not find
these people; It's easy to think of at least 19 of them (the suicide
hijackers) who we will never "bring to justice". But it's also easy to
think of people that we KNOW for certainly helped the Taliban, and we
don't have to use our military to scour the earth to find them: they
were the ones who created, funded, and trained the Taliban. Will THEY
be brought to justice? When will the public's anger be directed at
THEM, those who year after year, have brought militaristic "solutions"
which have meant death and destruction both here and abroad?

And maybe, just maybe, we should listen to the voices of
today's Patriotic Dissenters, of the  True Patriots, as we look for
solutions to the mess the militarists have gotten America into?

Harel Barzilai

Remember:

"Patriotism means to stand by the country. IT DOES NOT MEAN to stand by
the President or any other public office save exactly to the degree in
which he himself stands by the country".  -Teddy Roosevelt

Pass it on, put is in you signature file, and talk with
your friends and the people you know, about the True Patriots;
by doing so, you will become a True Patriot, too.