The Spittin' Mad Antiwar Extreme

One of the most immensely entertaining smackdowns in the blogosphere can be seen in the exchange between Tom Blumer and The Dean of Cincinnati over the matter of Vietnam veterans being, literally, spit upon after returning home from the war.

The web forensics are complicated. But it goes like this: Some corners of the Left have decided, for some mystifying reason, to suddenly "debunk this myth". To do so they are propagating the account of Jerry Lembcke, a Vietnam vet turned sociologist who claims that these episodes are all apocryphal. But many credible accounts exist, as Blumer fastidiously documents. And at least one blogger turned veteran says it happened to him personally. And still another person comes forward with this refreshingly candid account (via Instapundit):

... I was a red-hot leftist (marxist) revolutionary back then, and I did spit on a couple of returning vets. From the safety of a crowd, behind a barricade and a police line.

I was an America-hating asshole and a coward. I’ve learned better, and I’ve learned to feel regret for my shameful actions then.

Of course, all of this is difficult to prove according to the standards of folks like Jack Shafer at Slate, who wants a police report or news story as "evidence". There are two obvious problems with this. First - while it may be the habit of the aggrieved, pseudo-Marxist Left to make a federal case out of every perceived slight - it would be entirely inconsistent with the character of most military folks to call the cops over such an incident. Second, and most simply, journalists were very proudly against the war at the time - to such a degree that Vietnam-era "reporting" is one of the most treasured tales of baby boomer journalism. Why would they publish that story?

Let's not fool ourselves - all of this is really about Iraq. Some on the Left have chosen this moment to practice a quibbling, legalistic revisionism in an attempt to rehabilitate the image of the historic antiwar protestor. Of course, it's entirely possible to be strongly against any war - while treating those who disagree (or those who do the fighting) with a basic amount of respect. But, for whatever reason, the adherents of this far-Left orthodoxy consider it some forbidden heresy to admit that, both recently and in the past - some protestors might have gotten carried away.

Talk about picking your battles.

Update: Improved linkage. Also, thinking about the recent withdrawal of John Kerry from the 2008 race in the wake of his implied insult to the troops - it occurs to me that there are some circles that seem to be defective, cognitively, when it comes to recognizing how respectful and honored most Americans feel towards those who serve in the military.

And by most I even mean most Demcorats - heck, everybody short of the English Department at UC Berkley. Folks in the non-extreme Left would be doing the radicals a favor by requesting - not demanding, lest they twitter about censorship - that they simply stop digging a hole on these issues and shut their loud and tedious spitters.

Tags: Antiwar, Vietnam, Iraq