For the antiwar protesters, being the cause of over a million dead, having biological and chemical weapons, torturing people, and invading a couple of your neighbors' countries is, well, not so evil.  Not so evil to fight, not so evil to defend against, and not so evil because their target is the United States of America.

A lot has been written about the motives of the socalled "antiwar" movement. Most talk about the duplicity of the folks who condemn the United States for wanting to strike a sovereign nation before that sovereign nation strikes us.  "There is no imminent threat," seem to be the rallying cry of the protesters. However, the rebuttal--if we wait for an attack, millions of Americans would die--remains unheeded.

The logical conclusion is that American lives mean little to the protesters. Even the Iraqi people, who have suffered under a brutal regime for decades, mean little to the antiwar crowd, otherwise the protesters, would give at least equal time to protesting the oppres- sion imposed on the Iraqi populace by Saddam Hussein.

People who are willing to risk the lives of millions of Americans and who also close their eyes to the Iraqi people's subjugation by Saddam in order to buttress their argument to stop the war, have motives that are not in the interest of the United States.

Much of the criticism vented at the protesters speaks of the intended or not intended help they are giving to the Iraqi dictator. That contention may or may not be true, but the fact that what they are accomplishing is detrimental to America and Americans is obvi- ous.

It is very telling when a group will champion a despot and condemn a democratically elected President.  It is ominous when that group's goal is to leave the United States vulnerable to a chemical or biological attack.

Being the world's sole superpower creates an aura of invincibility to conventional at- tack.  After 9-11, however, those who despise the idea of America being a nationalistic superpower did find America's Achilles' heel.

They know America can normally deter any national power from attacking the U.S.A..  They know that America cannot deter terrorists from doing damage.  The one thing the terrorists need is state sponsorship for training and, more importantly, supplies.  Name- ly, WMD's.  If the protesters get their way, every despot on the planet with a yen for biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons will not only have them, but will ensure that terrorists have them as well, just so long as they keep attacking the United States.

It may be more easily accepted that the antiwar activists from European countries and other foreign lands--foreign political activists, many on the political Far Left and others on the narrow and parochial Far Right, all of whom are demonstrating against American military action in Iraq and all of whom have been shown to have a strident dislike for the U.S.A.--would not shed a tear if another 9-11, or something much larger, occurred again.  What's more difficult to accept are the Americans who join in their sentiment.

Looking at the situation America finds itself in today is a little like being a politician who gave the most compelling and articulate speech of his life, only to look down and find his zipper was undone for all to see.  It didn't matter what he said, all anyone saw or will re- member is that failure on his part to notice and attend to a personal and private matter and thereby avoid public embarrassment.

America, for most Americans, is a force for good, a beacon of light for all other nations. For many, however, America is a tree that needs cutting.

Pundits and pseudo-intellectuals report the obstructionist policies of Germany as an aberration, due to Germany's Leftist leaders' anti-American rhetoric during their cam- paign to get reelected.  Now they have "put themselves in a box" and can't get out.

"France is just being France," or "They'll come around" when referring to France's opposition to American defense of itself.

They all miss the point.  After 9-11, America and the world became acutely aware of American vulnerability.  What we are seeing now is not just business as usual.  Ameri- ca's interest in using force is for self-protection, nothing less.  Yet, our former allies, France and Germany, and our new "friends," Russia and China, not only refuse to cooperate, but also are unwilling to allow the United States to eliminate the threat to America's national well-being and possibly its very existence.

It was reported, "Millions march in protest around the world."  Of course, the numbers were reported in the media as "according to organizers," but few, if any, reports were describing the reality of the goals of those that protest America's war of survival.

Whether an individual or a group wants America destroyed and Americans dead, what should patriotic Americans feel about that individual or group?

To understand underlying motives or a "hidden agenda," one needs only to follow a proposal to its logical conclusion.  If America does what France et al, proposes, Saddam Hussein stays in power, and America is more vulnerable than ever.  America will likely be hit again in a more devastating manner than ever before.

And as far as the Left, "old" Europe and our "new friends" are concerned, peace in the world can only be achieved when there is no superpower, meaning, America's status as the sole superpower must be terminated.

In an interview for Time magazine on February 16, 2003, when asked about America's sole superpower status, French President Jacques Chirac said: "Any community with only one dominant power is always a dangerous one and provokes reactions."  In the same interview, "justifying" his antiwar stance, Chirac said: "A war of this kind cannot help giving a big lift to terrorism. It would create a large number of little bin Ladens."

France and others want Americans to buy into the notion that fighting the evil that threatens America helps our enemies.  The proposition is preposterous when scrutinized, but does make for good sound bites.

Their proposition is ridiculous on several levels.  It assumes that the evil ones only attack if actively provoked (as if the embassy bombings, the USS Cole, and 9-11, never happened) and it proposes that defending one's self or one's country is an exercise in futility.

It's the proposition that we have already lost the war, though we may win all the battles.  It is the Sheryl Crow School of diplomacy.  If we don't fight those who seek our destruc- tion, if we try to reason with terrorists and monsters, we won't have any enemies and harmony and tranquility shall reign.

What they purposefully ignore and, more to the point, forget to mention, is who or what we will be as a nation and people when we decide that what we have, who we are, is no longer worth fighting for.

The protesters, the obstructionists, and the so-called "new friends" of America have sinister motives.  They do not seek the "end of war." they seek the end of the United States of America as we know it.

Paul Walfield is a freelance writer and member of the State Bar of California, with an undergraduate degree in Psychology and post-graduate study in behavioral and analyt- ical psychology. He resided for a number of years in the small town of Houlton, Maine, and is now a California attorney. His articles appear in numerous periodicals and on numerous websites.  CONTACT INFORMATION:  Email:   paul.walfield@cox.net

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