the Pentagon protest last month, where counter-protesters were allowed by on-site police to shove, spit on, yell at, and otherwise bully and assault anti-war protestors without consequence (according to two three separate witnesses at least; I reacted to those events here). The "Gathering of Eagles" counter-protesters outnumbered anti-war marchers by 4 to 1, but still the police failed to intervene to stop their intimidation.
And some people complained about it.
This, apparently, was too much for SWAC Girl, a prolific right wing cheerleader who has exercised her free speech on many occasions excoriating the anti-war movement, hippies, and Democrats. She's like the non-patrician version of Right Thinking Girl, only she plays the Christian card more often. In response to these complaints from the loyal opposition, she unleashed a tirade of ranting which had something to do with troops, Vietnam, and her children living under the constant threat of somebody, somewhere, not wanting the U.S. meddling in their affairs (sorry, I know, 9/11 happened because of the freedom-haters). Playing the role of the victim doesn't go as far when your party's in power, but she summoned enough God-fearing hysteria to make up for it.
I won't insult you with any extended quotes (read that filth on your own if you must; it goes on about how the troops guarantee that she can shop and drive her SUV - how posh! - without getting blown up) but there was one thing she wrote that I found deliciously ironic. Not only does she fail to denounce the intimidation of those on her side, she acts like the Left are the ones who are demonstrating uncivic brutality:
Some are nieve enough to think [peace] doesn't come with a price. Others know better. And when those of us who know better speak up, the Left tries to silence us by calling names and with personal attacks ... but we can't let them silence us. We can't allow them to cower us.
Of course, nobody wants to be cowed, which is why neither side should be disrespectful to anybody. And when one side wants to bully and intimidate the other, say if the other side is outnumbered, the police should intervene to protect people's safety, right? Well, SWAC Girl let's this go without mention as well.
I seem to recall a protest that she was at where her side was outnumbered, and yet they got full protection from Richmond's finest - for precious little taunting from my side, which I can attest to because I was there. If safety guarantees are good enough for her, why not for us? Or are there only special privileges for one side of the debate - incidentally, the side of the debate that supports the fat politicians, the big-government, interventionist establishment, the whole system they shed others' blood over? The system of back-scratching and special privileges run all the way down from Daddy and Bubba Bush to the stormtrooper cells on the ground.
This is what I mean when I call people like her "brownshirts" - militant brutes who physically threaten anybody who disagrees with their rabid jingoism and nationalism. Bullying is just one of their tactics - like the guys in the photo, they also question the loyalty of those who disagree with them. It's all part of their plan to make America, the flag, the troops, everything stand for exactly what they want it to stand for: their partisan, extremist agenda. It's totally unacceptable, and I'm not alone in that opinion.
Referring to the October protest mentioned earlier, SWAC Girl once asked "why did a hundred hate-America, hate-Bush, hate-freedom anti-war protesters feel so threatened by three American flag-holding patriots?" Now she has her answer: because people like you cause trouble.
UPDATE 1: SWAC Girl is letting my comments through (this time) but failing to address my main points. I provide documentation of the bullying by the Gathering of Eagles counter-protesters (including another report of police indifference to counter-protester assault). Her best answer? At a protest of thousands of people, nobody to whom she spoke saw it. Apparently, it fails to occur to her that just because her friends didn't see it doesn't mean it didn't happen.
And she still refuses to denounce these tactics so she gets no quarter from me. All her breathless preaching about her family is a huge lie so long as she endorses the G.O.E. without addressing the instances of bullying.
UPDATE 2: A G.O.E.-affiliated article blatantly endorses the prospect of violence, while drawing a better Nazi brownshirt parallel than I could have anticipated!
The group defending the Wall will be wearing armbands to identify themselves. Those who are unable to stand with the defenders are being asked to wear armbands with small U.S. flags to show their own communities that they abhor the Fonda-Sheehan tactics.
"We'll be there to act as a countervailing force against the Cindy Sheehan-Jane Fond march from the Vietnam Memorial to the Pentagon," retired Navy Capt. Larry Bailey said. "We will protect the Vietnam Memorial. If they try to deface it, there will be some violence, I guarantee you."
It is more important now than ever that SWAC Girl denounce this violent rhetoric - at least if she wants to use her family as anything more than a political prop.
Read this article
