Is speaking out against the war in Iraq a traitorous act?

Question

I just want to know if anyone actually believes this. If you do believe it, what would you do to these people?

Answer 1

This is how rep's want every one to believe!!
Like sheep, rely on what ever bush and his fellow criminals spreading!!!

On the contrary, those who stay silent for this unjust war, are the real traitors to humanity.

Answer 2

Democracy thrives on dissent and difference of opinion. It is actually patriotic to speak up about the war.

http://etext.virginia.edu/jefferson/quotations/jeff0750.htm

They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
Franklin's Contributions to the Conference on February 17 (III) Fri, Feb 17, 1775

Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president.
Theodore Roosevelt
26th president of US (1858 - 1919)

These days we see neocons using scare tactics to try and garener support for their little war. Here is a quote from one of their heroes:

"Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger."
-- Herman Goering at the Nuremberg trials

Answer 3

NOT speaking out against the Iraq war is a traitorous act. The war is a traitorous act. Bush is a traitor. Cheney is a traitor.

Answer 4

"We have thrown away the most valuable asset we had -- the individual's right to oppose both flag and country when he believed them to be in the wrong. We have thrown it away; and with it, all that was really respectable about that grotesque and laughable word, Patriotism."
Howard Zinn

"Intolerance of dissent is a well-noted feature of the American national character."
Senator J. William Fulbright

"To criticize one's country is to do it a service .... Criticism, in short, is more than a right; it is an act of patriotism-a higher form of patriotism, I believe, than the familiar rituals and national adulation."
J. William Fulbright

"The point of public relations slogans like "Support our troops" is that they don't mean anything... That's the whole point of good propaganda. You want to create a slogan that nobody's going to be against, and everybody's going to be for. Nobody knows what it means, because it doesn't mean anything. Its crucial value is that it diverts your attention from a question that does mean something: Do you support our policy? That's the one you're not allowed to talk about."
Noam Chomsky

"If the test of patriotism comes only by reflexively falling into lockstep behind the leader whenever the flag is waved, then what we have is a formula for dictatorship, - not democracy... But the American way is to criticize and debate openly, not to accept unthinkingly the doings of government officials of this or any other country."
Michael Parenti

"If the U.S. really believes that supporting terrorists makes you as guilty as the terrorists themselves, then it would have to put on trial most of its military and political leadership over the last handful of administrations, and more."
Peter McClaren

"A terrorist is someone who has a bomb but doesn't have an air force."
William Blum

"Democracy is not about trust; it is about distrust. It is about accountability, exposure, open debate, critical challenge, and popular input and feedback from the citizenry. It is about responsible government. We have to get our fellow Americans to trust their leaders less and themselves more, trust their own questions and suspicions, and their own desire to know what is going on."
Michael Parenti

"This country is in the grip of a President who was not elected, who has surrounded himself with thugs in suits who care nothing about human life abroad or here, who care nothing about freedom abroad or here, who care nothing about what happens to the earth... The so-called war on terrorism is not only a war on innocent people in other countries, but it is also a war on the people of the United States: a war on our liberties, a war on our standard of living. The wealth of the country is being stolen from the people and handed over to the superrich. The lives of our young are being stolen. And the thieves are in the White House."
Howard Zinn

"Somebody's paying the corporations that destroyed Iraq and the corporations that are rebuilding it. They're getting paid by the American taxpayer in both cases. So we pay them to destroy the country, and then we pay them to rebuild it. Those are gifts from U.S. taxpayer to U.S. corporations..."
Noam Chomsky

"The U.S. record of war crimes has been, from the nineteenth century to the present, a largely invisible one, with no government, no political leaders, no military officials, no lower-level operatives held accountable for criminal actions... Anyone challenging this mythology is quickly marginalized, branded a traitor or Communist or terrorist or simply a lunatic beyond the pale of reasonable discussion."
Carl Boggs

"Our leaders are cruel because only those willing to be inordinately cruel and remorseless can hold positions of leadership in the foreign policy establishment ... People capable of expressing a full human measure of compassion and empathy toward faraway powerless strangers ... do not become president of the United States, or vice president, or secretary of state, or national security adviser or secretary of Defense. Nor do they want to."
William Blum

"Odd that Bush and Cheney are so delighted to put us at war when, during Vietnam, they were both what we used to call draft dodgers."

a World War II veteran

"Our government has kept us in a perpetual state of fear - kept us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervor - with the cry of grave national emergency. Always there has been some terrible evil at home or some monstrous foreign power that was going to gobble us up if we did not blindly rally behind it ..."
US General Douglas MacArthur

" Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal. "
Martin Luther King, Jr.

" Americans cannot teach democracy to the world until they restore their own."
William Greider

Answer 5

To the extent that it emboldens our enemies and demoralizes our brave troops, if it is not traitorous, it is anti-American.

Answer 6

No, it is a poorly managed war and though I believe in the objectives, I think it needs much better management.
To give information that aids the enemy (as Murtha did) IS treason.

Answer 7

1) There's something called democracy, but I think many people forget that.
2) Just because Dubya wants to do war for a living, It does not mean we have to support him.

Answer 8

the guy who answered first seems to think that there are riots all over the country in protest of the war...

I must have missed all that...

Answer 9

I agree with wolf. Great answer, as it does demean our troops who voluteered to fight terrorism instead of sitting on the sidelines and bashing the those who fight for our very existance. We are very fortunate to have people looking out for our best interests. I don't think there is much you can say to those who are speaking against the war as they would not understand.

Answer 10

No, as long as you don't call our commander in chief a murder and lier and say our troops are committing genocide and atrocities. Freedom of speech is our most basic right, but even then that can go to far.