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Posted on 10/05/2001 6:26:46 AM PDT by Stand Watch Listen

Every war flushes out the disaffected, the disloyal, and the plain creepy, and this one has been no exception.

Early entrants in the creep sweepstakes were the Revs. Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson. Falwell, in an interview on Robertson's 700 Club, was discussing the possibility that God had withdrawn His providential protection from the United States. He then said that "the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way--all of them who have tried to secularize America--I point the finger in their face and say, 'You helped this happen.'"

In the wake of the worst wartime civilian death toll in American history, discussing God's Providence and possible wrath was hardly inappropriate. Lincoln did the same in the Second Inaugural. But singling out specific sinners--who happened to be Falwell's regular targets--was as presumptuous as it was idiotic.

Falwell apologized--almost. "I do not know if the horrific events of September 11 are the judgment of God, but if they are, that judgment is on all America--including me and all fellow sinners . . ." He weaseled at the end of his statement, though, saying that he "had no intention of being divisive." Robertson weaseled all the way, claiming that he had not "fully understood" Falwell's remarks at the time, and that the statements had been taken "out of context" by hostile spinners. The hostile spinners are out there: Liberals have for years called the two ministers ayatollahs. All the more reason for them to speak intelligently.

You would think, from the attention that Falwell and Robertson have gotten, that they were the only cracks in the home front. But there were many other burps and blasphemies, and they all came from predictable quarters.

There were the lefty entertainers. Kevin Richardson of the Backstreet Boys thought America was "a little bit of an arrogant nation." Would he have dropped the hedging "little bit" if they'd taken out only one Trade Tower? Director Michael Moore said that "we have orphaned so many children . . . with our tax-payer funded terrorism" that "we shouldn't be too surprised when those orphans grow up and are a little wacked in the head." Hanoi Jane Fonda feared "saber rattling and the calls for vengeance." Maybe she can pose in a hijacked cockpit.

Then there were the intellectuals. Susan Sontag deplored "the sanctimonious, reality-concealing rhetoric" of post-attack politicians, and urged Americans to "not be stupid together." (Probably the only reason Joan Didion didn't say this first is that she is closeted in a hotel room somewhere and doesn't know that the attack occurred.) Noam Chomsky, quoting Robert Fisk in The Nation, urged Americans to consider that the coming war "is also about American missiles smashing into Palestinian homes . . . and about a Lebanese militia--paid and uniformed by America's Israeli ally--hacking and raping and murdering their way through refugee camps." Time to be a linguist, Noam: Let's just say the Jews did it, and be done. Katha Pollitt informed readers of The Nation that she would not fly an American flag out her window as her high-school-age daughter wants to do. "Definitely not, I say: The flag stands for jingoism and vengeance and war." Tell the kid to turn down her damned music, too.

Democratic congresswoman Barbara Lee cast the lone vote against allowing President Bush to respond to the attack, but it was consistent with a lifetime of hard-Left activity. As a young politician in Oakland, Lee cozied up to the Black Panthers. She became an administrative assistant to Rep. Ron Dellums, whom she accompanied on a trip of solidarity to Communist-run Grenada. In 1992 she was elected to the National Coordinating Council of the Committees of Correspondence, a faction of the American Communist Party. In 1998 she succeeded Dellums in the House. Memo to the leadership: Don't let her take Gary Condit's seat on the Intelligence Committee.

Finally, Europe, the continent of Nazism and Communism--a high-GDP equivalent of the Arab world in terms of political incompetence and the resulting shame--produced several doozies. Harold Pinter called the United States "the most dangerous power the world has ever known." Communist Nobel Prize winner Dario Fo said the present economic system kills so many millions, what difference does "20,000" in the Trade Towers make? German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen hailed the dedicated planning, and the spectacular effect of the bombing, as a great work of art.

Unpunished Communists, demented America-haters, morons: We will be hearing a lot more from them.

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