EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN

Well, it's official. WE DIDN'T LEARN ANYTHING FROM THE VIETNAM WAR. Once again, if you criticize or even question the official government line, you're giving aid and comfort to the enemy. Taken to its logical end, such a view would have resulted in the Vietnam War never ending, tens of thousands of more troops dead or maimed, and the same goes for Iraq.

This particular conservative mantra -- America, right or wrong, love it or leave it -- bewilders me. Aren't conservatives supposed to be the champions of family values? Isn't it a core value that parents are to admonish and correct their children, while still loving them no matter what? I love my country with a fervor I'd put up against that of any chickenhawk. Yet my husband (boyfriend at the time) and I were perfectly willing to pull up stakes and flee to Canada if he got drafted (he applied for conscientious objector status but when the draft lottery awarded him a high number he withdrew his application so there'd be another spot for someone else) rather than participate in an unjust, feckless war not in America's short- or long-term interests. We saw no conflict with our patriotism -- we still loved our country, as we do now, but unlike our detractors, we also have FAITH in it, in our public institutions, and we knew then, as we know now, that nothing can defeat us except ourselves. Blind adherence to governmental policies not consistent with America's values is not love, it's partisan politics.