Thu - November 13, 2003

Calling upon Iraqis to kill American soldiers, Iraqi collaborators, and foreign relief workers is taking political commentary too far.  

The war in Iraq stirs passions the world over. But passion has its limits. When an American columnist, writing in an American newspaper, calls for the deaths of U.S. servicemen in Iraq "until the last one has gone home to America," he crosses the line separating righteous rhetoric of opposition from advocacy of sedition.

That's exactly what happened two days ago when Ted Rall's Veteran's Day op-ed piece, "Why We Fight" appeared in hundreds of papers and on news sites around the internet. Written in the form of a mock recruiting brochure for Iraqi resistance forces, Rall's column borrows its title from William Bennett's latest book on terrorism. But if Rall meant to write a parody, he wrote a poor one. This is how his column begins:

NEW YORK--Dear Recruit:

You are joining a broad and diverse coalition dedicated to one principle: Iraq for Iraqis. Our leaders include generals of President Saddam Hussein's secular government as well as fundamentalist Islamists. We are Sunni and Shia, Iraqi and foreign, Arab and Kurdish. Though we differ on what kind of future our country should have after liberation and many of us suffered under Saddam, we are fighting side by side because there is no dignity under the brutal and oppressive jackboot of the U.S. Coalition Provisional Authority or their Vichyite lapdogs on the Governing Council, headed by embezzler Ahmed Chalabi.

No dignity? Brutal and oppressive jackboot? I'm no expert on life in Iraq, but as I recall, it was Saddam Hussein, his sons, and his government who achieved high marks as murderous thugs by gassing, shooting, and maiming their own people. If American forces have stepped on toes in Iraq through ignorance of language and custom, they are guilty of offense—not crimes against humanity.

It is no easy thing to shoot or blow up young men and women because they wear American uniforms. Indeed, the soldiers are themselves oppressed members of America's vast underclass. Many don't want to be here; joining America's mercenary army is the only way they can afford to attend university. Others, because they are poor and uneducated, do not understand that they are being used as pawns in Dick Cheney's cynical oil war.

Unfortunately, we can't help these innocent U.S. soldiers. They are victims, like ourselves, of the bandits in Washington. Nor can we disabuse them of the propaganda that an occupier isn't always an oppressor. We regret their deaths, but we must continue to kill them until the last one has gone home to America.

Can't you just hear patriotic theme music welling up in the background as Rall advocates a turkey shoot of America's finest, beginning with the "vast underclass" and working its way up to the vice president? Can't you just imagine the thrill felt by the Iraqi people as they regain rights of freedom and self-determination that they haven't enjoyed since the Saddam era? Can't you appreciate why Rall goes on to advocate killing foreign aid workers and Iraqi collaborators too "as a warning to other weak-minded individuals"?

Pullll-ease. This guy is on our side?!?

If Rall sees no irony in calling upon Iraqi to kill Americans while he relies upon the United States' constitution and democratic institutions to protect his remarks from government censure, so be it. The constitution guarantees only that his words can receive a hearing; it doesn't warrant that any of them are worth listening to.