Last weekend millions of people all over the world marched against the war in Iraq, screaming about the evil United States and our Evil Leaders. Where did the protesters get the freedom to scream? In almost every country, from previous military action by the United States. Without our past military actions they would either be:

A) Under the boot of the Nazis or some equally despicable regime, unable to speak freely
- Or - B) Dead.

None of the marchers seemed to be aware of this.

Screaming at America is now the world’s most popular sport. The more a country owes their freedom to the US, the louder and shriller their screams.

South Korea is proud of their progress over the last several decades, and rightly so. They've quickly progressed from a rinky-dink third world country to a bright, clean, prosperous society, and they did most of it themselves with brains and hard work. But brains and hard work only flourish in free societies, and the only thing keeping their society free for the past forty years has been tens of thousands of American soldiers stationed along the DMZ. South Koreans recently showed their gratitude by electing a president who ran on an anti-American platform.

The Korean attitude is best illustrated by their reaction to a vehicle accident two years ago. Two fourteen year old girls, walking on a narrow road, were hit by an American armored vehicle, with predictable results. The solders driving the vehicle were cleared in a court-martial, enraging South Koreans who demanded they be handed over to their courts. The press routinely refers to the soldiers as murderers and killers. Some insist the soldiers did it intentionally. Meanwhile, just a few miles to the north, each year hundreds of thousands of North Korean kids starve to death before they get anywhere near fourteen.

The public sentiment in SK is that we should withdraw our troops. If we did, North Korea would overrun the south in a matter of days. Emotionally, that almost seems like an attractive option – pull out and let them learn their lesson the hard way, screaming under the treads of North Korean armored vehicles that would be doing it intentionally. But we're better than that, so we’ll stay there, defending them, even as they bitch and whine and vilify us, burn American flags and spit on the soldiers who are the only thing protecting them from the horrible fate faced by their northern brothers. Of course, if we left, the world would scream at us for subsequent massacre, insisting it was all our fault.

France, which has been an annoying little gadfly of a country throughout it’s entire history, is having a great time screaming at America. It’s always been a popular sport over there, but lately it’s become their number one obsession. French president Jacques Chirac, who would be calling his wife “fraulein” if it weren't for America, thinks that if he screams loud enough people will mistake volume for leadership. Sadly, it seems to be working among his own people.

When France saw Iraqi soldiers surrendering to reporters it fell deeply in love with the country, but their loyalty is also inspired by the sixty billion dollar oil contract they've signed with Saddam. For some odd reason the peaceniks who bitch that America's only motive is oil never mention France’s oily connection with the oily dictator.

Germany’s Schroeder is a pathetic figure of a man who was trailing in the polls by 15% until he changed his campaign slogan to “Let’s All Hate America Together!” It allowed him to slither into office by a very thin margin, and gives him something to distract his comrades from the country’s huge domestic problems. He seems unaware of the many Americans who died to free his country, and has forgotten the tremendous gift Germany received as part of the Marshall Plan. Evidently, there is no German word for “gratitude.”

The screamers scream no matter what we do. When we didn't interfere with the Taliban, they screamed at us for that, claiming it was our fault they were there. When we kicked them out, they screamed at us for that, complaining about civilian casualties and insisting the only reason we did it was to run an oil pipeline through the country. One year after the fight they scream because the country, which has been The Flinstones for centuries, hasn’t become The Jetsons overnight. They're still screaming at us for going into Somalia, and for not going into Rwanda.

There is no denying that the US has done some truly horrible things in the past. Every country has. And it would be foolish to think we’re not going to do some pretty nasty stuff in the future. Every country will. But it would also be nice, just once in a while, to have some of the many great things we do acknowledged, instead if this steady barrage of screeching.

Valid complaints, and there are many, have been drowned out by the obnoxious caterwauling. We've grown so tired of the screamers that we just put our fingers in our ears – our middle fingers – and ignore them. And of course, they scream at us for that, too.

Additional Information

French Military History

Visit Google, type in "French Military Victories," and click the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button.

February 2003

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© 2003 Dave Hitt