I am thrilled that Brian Stewart and I share literary heroes, namely Alexis De Tocqueville. But as Stewart was “leafing through” Tocqueville’s Democracy in America, he must have managed to skip this particular passage, “No protracted war can fail to endanger the freedom of a democratic country. ... All those who seek to destroy the liberties of a democratic nation ought to know that war is the surest and the shortest means to accomplish it.” \nStewart continues by asking servicemen and women what support they have received from the “fainthearted ‘anti-war’ faction” and dutifully reports that they believe that “fundamental to supporting the troops” is that one support “the worthiness of the mission.” This is a fascinating claim given the December 2006 poll taken by “The Military Times,” which found that barely one-third of service members approve of the way the president is handling the war.\nI am sick and tired of these tough, brave, keyboard warriors like Stewart calling my anti-war stance fainthearted and cowardly. But for argument, let us assume that the position I have chosen to take is indeed cowardly and unpatriotic (despite Thomas Jefferson’s assertion that “Dissent is the highest form of patriotism”). What does it say about people like Brian “Fighting Words” Stewart? What have you, Mr. Stewart, done to “advance the cause for which our embattled warriors stand sentry”? I can think of nothing more cowardly than to wax passionately and poetically in defending “America’s brand of international patriotism being played out on the ground in Iraq” yet at the same time refusing to enlist.\nAre the same servicemen and women who bemoan my failure to “support the mission” impressed by Stewart’s “support the troops” sticker on his car? Yeah, I thought so.
Bob Piercy\nIU Staff
