At War IV - Hall of Shame.(Brief Article)

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 Falwell, in an interview on Robertson's 700 Club, was discussing the possibility that God had withdrawn His providential protection from the United States.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 ...