Column: The silent majority

Liberalism is disgraced by those who usurp its mantle to propagate anti-American and Israeli hate. Protesters have the duty to state beliefs; that is the patriotic thing to do. But those with signs "We support our troops--when they shoot their officers!" are repulsive. Celebrators on indymedia.org of Asan Akbar, soldier who murdered two of his colleagues, are disgusting. Sedition's pinnacle was scaled by Nicholas deGenova of Columbia University wishing, "Peace anticipates a world where the US has no place... I personally would like to see million Mogadishus" for US forces in Iraq.

These are not liberals; they are an unholy alliance of Stalinists and Islamic fundamentalists. Many anti-war protests have been organized by ANSWER, a subsidiary of the World Workers' Party. Protesters should reflect on WWP's pedigree. It split from the Socialist Workers Party over the USSR's 1956 invasion of Hungary; WWP supported the invasion. WWP and ANSWER supported China's massacre of Tiananmen Square, supported Milosevic after the butchery of Srebenica and today support North Korea in the mass starvation of its citizens, Saddam Hussein, Iran's repressive mullahs, Hamas's suicide-bombers, and Colombia's narco-terrorists. At recent protests, their speakers have condemned the "United Snakes of America" and declared the difference between Bush and Saddam is that "Saddam was elected."

The other engine of protests are apologists or abettors of Islamic fundamentalism. Protesters labeling America and Israel as terrorist states routinely excuse suicide bombers who target civilians in Tunisia, Israel, India, Russia, Bali and New York. It's time to review their activities. Sami Omar Al-Hussayen, leader of the University of Idaho's Muslim Students Association, is under arrest for visa fraud and suspected of facilitating online networking of terrorists and collaborating with the Islamic Assembly of North America in laundering money to Iraq. The IANA is a Saudi-funded group that propagates jihad recruitment tapes and fatwas approving suicide bombing. The MSA of Queensborough Community College hosted a talk featuring leaders of al-Muhajiroun, the London-based group that celebrates Sept. 11; speaker Muhammad Faheed proclaimed, "We reject the UN, reject America, reject all law and order. Don't lobby Congress because we don't recognize Congress! The only relationship you should have with America is to topple it!â_| Eventually there will be a Muslim in the White House dictating Shariah."

Recent decades have sadly witnessed liberals fall prey to cheap philosophies of relativism and self-loathing, a culture where, in the words of the late Patrick Moynihan, "articulation of purpose is valued over achievement of good," enabling the above-noted imbeciles to hijack the left's cockpit. Sadly, genuine debates about the merits of the war focusing on credible analyses of risks and benefits are poisoned by these loons' anti-American agenda. Protests have degenerated into a menagerie of people ejecting body fluids into public places, exclusion of Iraqis who suffered under Saddam and silly slogans. Those who decried UN sanctions now promote them; others say Saddam should be removed, but not by force. Laments of action's risks omit inaction's consequences.

American and British protesters who say the war is counterproductive have some credibility; others who feign moral outrage are hypocrites of the highest order. They did not and do not demonstrate against Saddam's gassing of 100,000 Kurds, Algeria's repression, the Taliban's forcing Hindus to wear yellow stars and destruction of ancient Buddhas while killing 1.5 million Afghans, Syria's murder of 20,000 in Hama in one week, China's occupation of Tibet, Egypt's persecution of Copts, Saudi Arabia's gender apartheid, Pakistan's genocide of Bangladeshis, Syria's occupation of Lebanon, Pakistan's invasion of India, Morocco's occupation of Western Sahara and countless other atrocities that not only dwarf unintended casualties of US action but which are also deliberate. Where are human shields, fulminations and boycotts for those victims? Disdain for democracies has morphed into tolerance of tyranny, a tragic betrayal of liberalism's deepest values.

It is time for the liberal silent majority to retake the left's captaincy by standing against enemies who destroy everything liberals cherish. The need for struggle is not grounds for avoidance. Let us again recall Moynihan, "Liberalism falters when it cannot cope with truth."

Bala Ambati is a former fellow in the School of Medicine and is currently on the faculty at the Medical College of Georgia. His column appears every third Wednesday.