Open Letter to the "Anti-War" Demonstrators

[Jasper Fidget]

I apologize for my poor taste and bad judgement, Judy.  I shall henceforth
endeavor to forward only those writers on your list.  Er, actually, I didn't
get that list, could you resend it?  You *are* in charge of taste and
judgement now, right?

Jasper Fidget

----- Original Message -----
From: "Judy Panetta" <judy at firemist.com>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Friday, October 12, 2001 1:02 PM
Subject: RE: Open Letter to the "Anti-War" Demonstrators


> I've read this and 6 other articles this man has written. Please, a little
> taste and good judgment would be appreciated.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org]On
> Behalf Of Jasper Fidget
> Sent: Friday, October 12, 2001 12:24 AM
> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Subject: Open Letter to the "Anti-War" Demonstrators
>
>
> http://www.frontpagemagazine.com/horowitzsnotepad/2001/hn09-27-01.htm
>
> An Open Letter to the "Anti-War" Demonstrators: Think Twice Before You
Bring
> The War Home
>
> by David Horowitz, FrontPageMagazine.com | September 27, 2001
>
> Editor's Note: The text below is being run as an advertisement in college
> newspapers around the country. To see a graphic version of the ad, click
> here.
>
> I AM a former anti-war activist who helped to organize the first campus
> demonstration against the war in Vietnam at the University of California,
> Berkeley in 1962. I appeal to all those young people who participated in
> "anti-war" demonstrations on 150 college campuses this week, to think
again
> and not to join an "anti-war" effort against America's coming battle with
> international terrorism.
>
> The hindsight of history has shown that our efforts in the 1960s to end
the
> war in Vietnam had two practical effects. The first was to prolong the war
> itself. Every testimony by North Vietnamese generals in the postwar years
> has affirmed that they knew they could not defeat the United States on the
> battlefield, and that they counted on the division of our people at home
to
> win the war for them. The Vietcong forces we were fighting in South
Vietnam
> were destroyed in 1968. In other words, most of the war and most of the
> casualties in the war occurred because the dictatorship of North Vietnam
> counted on the fact Americans would give up the battle rather than pay the
> price necessary to win it. This is what happened. The blood of hundreds of
> thousands of Vietnamese, and tens of thousands of Americans, is on the
hands
> of the anti-war activists who prolonged the struggle and gave victory to
the
> Communists.
>
> The second effect of the war was to surrender South Vietnam to the forces
of
> Communism. This resulted in the imposition of a monstrous police state,
the
> murder of hundreds of thousands of innocent South Vietnamese, the
> incarceration in "re-education camps" of hundreds of thousands more, and a
> quarter of a century of abject poverty imposed by crackpot Marxist
economic
> plans, which continue to this day. This, too, is the responsibility of the
> so-called anti-war movement of the 1960s.
>
> I say "so-called anti-war movement," because while many Americans were
> sincerely troubled by America's war effort, the organizers of this
movement
> were Marxists and radicals who supported a Communist victory and an
American
> defeat. Today the same people and their youthful followers are organizing
> the campus demonstrations against America's effort to defend its citizens
> against the forces of international terrorism and anti-American hatred,
> responsible for the September attacks.
>
> I know, better than most, the importance of protecting freedom of speech
and
> the right of citizens to dissent. But I also know better than most, that
> there is a difference between honest dissent and malevolent hate, between
> criticism of national policy, and sabotage of the nation's defenses. In
the
> 1960s and 1970s, the tolerance of anti-American hatreds was so high, that
> the line between dissent and treason was eventually erased. Along with
> thousands of other New Leftists, I was one who crossed the line between
> dissent and actual treason. (I have written an account of these matters in
> my autobiography, Radical Son). I did so for what I thought were the
noblest
> of reasons: to advance the cause of "social justice" and "peace." I have
> lived to see how wrong I was and how much damage we did - especially to
> those whose cause we claimed to embrace, the peasants of Indo-China who
> suffered grievously from our support for the Communist enemy. I came to
see
> how precious are the freedoms and opportunities afforded by America to the
> poorest and most humble of its citizens, and how rare its virtues are in
the
> world at large.
>
> If I have one regret from my radical years, it is that this country was
too
> tolerant towards the treason of its enemies within. If patriotic Americans
> had been more vigilant in the defense of their country, if they had called
> things by their right names, if they had confronted us with the
seriousness
> of our attacks, they might have caught the attention of those of us who
were
> well-meaning but utterly misguided. And they might have stopped us in our
> tracks.
>
> This appeal is for those of you who are out there today attacking your
> country, full of your own self-righteousness, but who one day might also
> live to regret what you have done.
>
>
> David Horowitz is editor-in-chief of FrontPageMagazine.com and president
of
> the Center for the Study of Popular Culture.
>
>
>
>
>
>