The smearing of Cindy Sheehan as a traitor continues, as Media Matters documents here and here.
Some of the worst offenders:
Michael Barone: “Today, we have many in the press — not most, I think, but some at least — who do not want us to win this war and think that we don’t deserve to win this war. It’s a more critical press.”
Frank Gaffney: “It will clearly be the case that enemies of this country, in a global war, of which Iraq is one front, will be emboldened and hardened, even as I think they are by these sorts of indications that we’re losing our nerve, that we’re being bloodied and that we’re going to try to — or at least some of us — are going to try to compel the president to give up, that will only bring the threat we currently face, principally overseas, to our shores and, I think, do so in a way that will make the losses we’ve sustained in Iraq pale by comparison.
Chattanooga Times Free Press: “[I]t is unfortunate that Mrs. Sheehan’s sadness now has caused her to be used as a ‘front’ and a personal ‘symbol’ by a variety of political anti-Bush and anti-war activists who are seeking to undermine the American military effort to establish freedom and defeat terrorism in Iraq and throughout the world… It is saddening that Mrs. Sheehan has lost a son. It is saddening that Mrs. Sheehan’s demonstration has sought to undermine the purpose of his service in a way that surely encourages his murderers.”
David Horowitz: “Cindy Sheehan is the most prominent symbol and chief mouthpiece of a psychological warfare campaign against her own country in time of war that can only benefit its enemies on the field of battle. It is one thing to criticize a war policy… She has made herself a willing tool of anti-American forces in this country that want America to lose the war in Iraq and the war on terror generally… She has betrayed his sacrifice and embraced his enemies.”
Charles Krauthammer reportedly also said that Sheehan is “hurting our troops and endangering our troops,” and said that her statements “have to be attacked because they are libeling America, endangering America, and they are untrue from beginning to end.” According to Media Matters, when this claim was questioned by Juan Williams, Krauthammer said, “You don’t think it’s encouraging, you don’t think it’s going to encourage Iraqis who are attacking us, particularly this kind of stuff about American imperialism?”
What’s especially sad is that this sort of anti-democratic smear campaign is par for the course since 2001, as I documented on Spinsanity. Henry Farrell of Crooked Timber has compiled an updated list of commentators claiming that the left is rooting for the other side in Iraq or the war on terror.