"The unreal has about as much influence on them as the real..." Gustave Le Bon (1)

It is all in the realm of a collective madness! Apologists for the Iraqi War, a motley mob of sanctimonious Right Wing ranters, ranging from Ann Coulter, to Linda Chavez, to Robert Novak, and others, are going bonkers. (2) They are literally cracking up under the strain of seeing a war that they fully supported, which was based on a pack of deliberate lies, turning into a huge debacle. Their roles as shameless boosters for the Bush-Cheney Gang in the failing scheme known by its dubious Pentagon-imposed title, “Operation Iraqi Freedom,” should forever darken their names and sully their reputations.

As their pro-War ship of bile continues to sink, these lackeys for the Establishment have targeted for abuse a prime symbol of the rising opposition in the country to the immoral conflict: Cindy Sheehan! They have also begun a malicious smear campaign against pro-Peace groups, like: Code Pink-Women for Peace, United for Peace and Justice and Veterans for Peace. The obviously unstable Robert Novak, on Aug. 20, 2005, even questioned the patriotism of the members of these fine organizations, who have showed up to support Sheehan at her vigil in Crawford, Texas, by wrongly labeling them as “extreme antiwar demonstrators.” (3)

Novak is an ultraconservative egomaniac. He recently walked off a CNN program, "Inside Politics, throwing a hissing fit and cussing on air, too, because questions about his sleazy role in the Valerie Plame affair might have been raised on the show. (4) One Capitol Hill insider suggested to me that the aging Novak’s bizarre conduct that evening might have had something to do with the fact that, despite Washington’s searing heat wave in early August, he stupidly persists "in wearing a suit, with a vest!"

This brings me to Ann Coulter, the Madame Defarge of the looney Right! I get the impression when I watch her ranting on the TV that she has just been released on a weekend pass from the local insane asylum. Coulter has been called everything from a "Neo-Nazi" to the "Antichrist" to someone with the "charm of a rattlesnake." (5) On August 18, 2005, she viciously accused Cindy Sheehan of "engaging in Stalinist agitprop outside President Bush's Crawford ranch. It's the strangest method of grieving I've seen since Paul Wellstone's funeral. Someone needs to teach these liberals how to mourn," she insensitively roared. (6) After the 9/11 tragedy, the whacky Coulter railed on Sept. 12, 2001, "We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity." (7) I wondered: "Did she ever work as an intern under the ex-NY Times editor, 'Mad Abe' Rosenthal?" (8) Later the mean spirited Coulter penned another racist, fascist-ringing creed for the Far Right "National Review," that babbled, "Congress could pass a law tomorrow requiring that all aliens from Arabic countries leave....We should require passports to fly domestically. Passports can be forged, but they can also be checked with the home country in case of any suspicious-looking swarthy males." That disgusting column was, mercifully, spiked by the editor of the NR and she was quickly dropped as one of its contributing editors. (7)

Another conservative incendiary, who is apparently losing his mind, too, is the pompous Tony Snow. He branded Sheehan as a "useful idiot." Then, he went on to falsely characterize her passionate supporters as: "A cadre of nostalgic malcontents, which includes septuagenarian ex-war protesters, a confirmed Beatnik and some people who regularly wear shoes. Their bodies are there, but alas, most of them abandoned their minds in 1968." (9)

Moving on to the mostly shrill Linda Chavez. She is a "Grade A" warmonger and a notorious basher of the Labor Movement. I remember seeing her at a pro-war rally on the National Mall, on April 12, 2003, in Washington, DC. When I noticed her standing next to that revolting Neocon and Chickenhawk, William Kristol, I wanted to throw up. Here is one of Chavez's falsehoods about Cindy, "Perhaps Mrs. Sheehan truly believes the Bush administration and its 'neo-con' -- read pro-Israel -- allies orchestrated the horrific deaths of 3,000 Americans in order to justify going to war with Iraq, but if so, she's gone mad. More likely, she's spouting the lies fed her by conspiracy theorists who hate America and Israel in equal amounts." (10)

Finally-(and this is a very big if)-IF this were a just world, the rabid war hawks, like Novak, Coulter, Snow and Chavez, et al, would all be destined to be branded on their foreheads with a "W" for Warmonger. This would serve as both a punishment for their vile actions and as a reminder to their fellow citizens that there is a price the media pimps for the Iraqi War must pay for advocating using our military forces in a conflict that is based on a pack of lies. (11)

Notes:

1. "The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind," by Gustave Le Bon.
2. There simply isn't enough room in this commentary to include outrageous examples on the above referenced topic from Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Michael Savage, Sean Hannity and others .
3. www.townhall.com/columnists/robertnovak/rn20050820.shtml
4. www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_7161.shtml 3. 5. www.urbandictionary.com/define.php Coulter&defid=1154790
6. www.townhall.com/columnists/anncoulter/ac20050818.shtml
7. For "Wisdom of Ann Coulter," check out: www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2001/0111.coulterwisdom.html
8. On September 14, 2001, in a spiel for media mogul Mortimer Zukerman's rag, the NY Daily News, A.M. Rosenthal wrote that the U.S. should give an ultimatum to six Arab countries - Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Iraq, Iran and Syria - giving them three days to hand over documents and information relating to weapons of mass destruction and terrorist organizations. If they didn't comply by the fourth day, "Mad Abe," a raving Likudnut, urged that the capitals of those six countries should be "bombed to the ground." Just try to imagine the media's reaction, if someone, had publicly dared to suggest that the U.S. should bomb Israel to retaliate for its murderous attack on the USS Liberty, on June 8, 1967. See, www.ussliberty.org
9. www.townhall.com/columnists/tonysnow/TS20050819.shtml
10. www.townhall.com/columnists/lindachavez/lc20050817.shtml
11. www.afterdowningstreet.org/


© William Hughes 2005

William Hughes is the author of “Saying ‘No’ to the War Party” (Iuniverse, Inc.). He can be reached at: liamhughes-AT-comcast.net.