The Code Pink Hate-America Happy Hour By Mary Katharine Ham Tuesday, September 18, 2007 Itâs a canard of the hard anti-war Left that they all, without exception, hate the war, but support the troops. Loathe the president but love the country. In fact, itâs a talking point that hating the war and loathing the president are very special, smarter ways of loving oneâs country than all that Neanderthal flag-draping and militaristic âDonât-Tread-On-Meâ rhetoric on the right. You know, because, why send a soldier a box of Slim Jims when you can jimmy the lock at the local fascist war-machine recruiting office and put it out of commission, right? Dissent is patriotic, especially when it involves pointless perpetrations of vandalism. Well, thatâs the logic on display on the anti-war Left these days. Saturday, I went to a Code Pink and Iraq Veterans Against the War karaoke night to check it out first hand. They always say they truly love the country. Surely, after a couple beers, theyâd be raising one for Old Glory and singing God Bless America. Wrong. The first break in the singing, which consisted of lilting old protest songs and wilted old hippies from another war, came a few minutes after I walked in. An emcee from one of the sponsoring groups took the stage to announce the purpose of the night. Emcee: Weâre here tonight to recognize that the government is moving us in the wrong direction. And itâs not just now. Itâs a whole series of what we call wrong direction. Audience Member: 200 years! Emcee: How many years? Audience: 200! Emcee: 200 years of so much hypocrisy, so much not understanding what weâre doing, not only to ourselves, but to the rest of the world. Get it? Since the Founding, weâve been going the wrong direction. A beautiful start to a night of loving the country and the troops, first and foremost. Up next was a spoken-word artist wearing jangly anklets, gesticulating and shaking so that her anklets rang out with the misery of the thousands of victims of the Bush administration. And, of course, all the victims of the United States of America over the years. A few choice moments from the poem she performed, which started promisingly: A moment of silence before I start this poem Before I start this poem, I'd like to ask you to join meIn a moment of silenceIn honor of those who died in the World Trade Center and the Pentagon September 11th. Well, thatâs nice, I thought. So straightforward and unequivocal in its honoring of American victims. How refreshing. Not so fast: I would also like to ask you To offer up a moment of silence For all of those who have been harassed, imprisoned, disappeared, tortured, raped, or killed in retaliation for those strikes. Ahhh, thereâs always a catch (full poem text. Thereâs no mention of the people Saddam Hussein killed or those the Nazis finished off, but victims of the embargo on Iraq, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and the settlement of the American frontier get shout-outs. What is it that we always say about the anti-war Left? That itâs living in a 9/10 world? Turns out, theyâre writing our campaign lit for us: Because this is not a 9/11 poem. This is a 9/10 poem, It is a 9/9 poem, A 9/8 poem, A 9/7 poem This is a 1492 poem. This is a poem about what causes poems like this to be written. And, some anarchy for good measure: If you want a moment of silence Then stop the oil pumps Turn off the engines and the televisions Sink the cruise ships Crash the stock markets Unplug the marquee lights, Delete the instant messages, Derail the trains, the light rail transit. If you want a moment of silence, put a brick through the window of Taco Bell, And pay the workers for wages lost. Tear down the liquor stores,The townhouses, The White Houses, the jailhouses, the Penthouses and the Playboys. It was so dead-on loony liberal, I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasnât watching a really skillful parody. Deeelightful. Next up, Jeff Millard, head of the D.C. Chapter of Iraq Veterans Against the War. Watch how he supports the troops after spending 9 years in the military. âIâll just tell you real quick what the national strategy of Iraq Veterans Against the War is. As far as I know, weâre the only peace organization I know of in existence that actually has a strategy to end the war. Ours is to deplete the military of its manpower to end the war in Iraq. We actively encourage G.I. resistance, oppose things like stop-loss. And, we are also kicking off on Monday our Truth in Recruiting campaign.â What is this Truth in Recruiting campaign? According to the IVAW web site, itâs none too military-friendly: Every day, all across this country, there are military recruiters lying to persuade young people to sign up for the military. Proponents of the policy in Iraq are quick to point out that everyone in the military volunteered, but what does that mean if most soldiers were tricked into enlisting by the lies that recruiters tell? They support the troops only when the troops can be characterized as uninformed children who unwittingly became tools of Bushâs war machine. The Truth in Recruiting campaign also requires, ironically, lying to recruiters. Recruitment levels are low thanks to âtruth in recruitingâ efforts, but now it is time to shut recruitment down. By flooding recruiters and recruitment centers with phone calls, appointments, questions, and smiling faces, recruiters will waste their time and resources on you. By calling and asking every question you can think off about all the false opportunities the military is offering, you are stealing away recruiters ability to do recruitment. So call your local recruiter today, and make a new friend! Allâs fair when youâre as intent on supporting the troops as this crew is! And, finally, the most tasteless of the tasteless, a local D.C. âcomicâ whoâs âcomicalâ in much the same way Susan Sarandon is in her prime. I think there is something inherently wrong when we call our president a motherf***er. Amen and Awomen. Because clearly heâs not f***ing a mother because Lauraâs not getting any. But f***ing a mother is a sacred act. Itâs a sacred act. She went through a similar monologue on the word, âfatherf***er,â but by the time she got to âbabyf***er,â even this laid-back D.C. bar decided to nix it. She was rather unceremoniously told that we âneeded to move on from this part of the program.â I wish I were cherry-picking from the night, but I was there for hours, this is a fair representation of what went on, and Iâm only reporting on what they were bold enough to say over the mike. Can you feel the love?