Protesting the protesters

Sometimes, when the protestors gather in downtown Seattle, I like to show up with my flag. I admit I've spent more time at anti-war rallies than most other pro-war Americans.

In protesting the protesters, I've been a vocal backdrop to the speech of Baghdad Jim, and I've carried my flag onto the main stage of the rally while the other side carries their shredded flags.

Without much surprise to me, I've been called every name under the sun by raging peaceniks. They often express their alarm that I would hold an American flag, whole and dignified. "Didn't you know that flag stands for terrorism?" they query. They often follow their interrogation with a bogus statistic from a recent edition of The New Federalist or International Socialist Review: Journal of Revolutionary Marxism. I chuckle and thank God these people are not in the majority in this country.

Clearly, there is too much time on the hands of such groups as Paddlers for Peace, Peddlers for Peace, Poets for Peace and Nudists for Peace.

One recent morning, I was on a radio talk show debating the Rev. Lucius Walker of Pastors for Peace. Rev. Walker, who seemed more a Saddam-defender than a Bush critic, stressed that appeasement is the best alternative to war. Walker's argument was not that there is no case for liberating Iraq, but that war is always unjust.

This seems to be the common denominator on which the global peace movement is built. The great assumption of protesters at home and abroad is this: Human nature is perfect and it is possible to have peace at all times and in all places.

This great assumption is the great danger of the anti-war movement. As communism and utopianism are deadly to the cause of peace and freedom, so, too, is the "peace" movement.

It is really quite pointless to argue whether Saddam Hussein is evil or not. He simply is. The free world made the case for liberating Iraq long ago. But pointing out the pointless has yet to stop the radical left.

In the face of plain evidence against a terrorist, the anti-war protesters have rallied to his defense. As the "human shields" march in Iraq — indirectly supporting terrorism — and as marchers tune their message increasingly anti-American, the overwhelming hideousness of the leftist worldview becomes apparent.

The real argument is whether or not freedom is worth fighting for. The left declares it is not — on the basis, again, that we live in a perfect world.

I carry the flag in downtown Seattle because I believe in what it stands for: republican government, unity, faith, liberty and justice for all. In a fallen world, these principles are the forces of good that are at odds with terror, slavery and oppression.

In the free world, America's job is not to provide absolute peace. Our job is to make the most of reality, to root out the forces that threaten the security of America and other freedom-loving people around the globe.

The world will never be perfect. But it only makes matters worse to go on railing against the right of free people to defend what is good in the world.

Hans Zeiger is a Puyallup High School senior. E-mail: NEXT@seattletimes.com