The real ANSWER

Today, Washington D.C. is filled with dunderheads like the guy above who don't understand the meanings of either "imperialism" or "occupation," folks like Wesley Clark and Cindy Sheehan getting together for a "die-in," which was apparently the next evolutionary step from the 1960s "love-ins." I've been out at far too many of these ANSWER Coalition events, and thus refuse to call them peace demonstrators (because supporting Hezbollah or Hamas is not peaceful, nor is attacking counterprotesters who show up to give a different point of view) or anti-war demonstrators (because supporting Hezbollah, Hamas, Iran and other agitators is not anti-war, and a fanatically isolationist stance is more properly labeled as "avoidance of war at any cost" advocates).

Getting up for work and flipping on the news, the first image they showed was a speaker with a PLO kaffiyeh draped around his neck. And that's the thing viewers should know about the group staging this protest: I was out in downtown L.A. for their disgustingly anti-Semitic display during the Hezbollah-Israel war, where signs hailed Hamas and Hezbollah as "freedom fighters" and counterprotesters with Israeli flags were attacked. ANSWER is pro-Hugo Chavez (currently in the process of squashing freedom in Venezuela), pro-Cuba (no matter how many Cubans have drowned trying to escape Castro's repression over the years), pro-Iran (the current theocratic regime and mad mullahs, that is), anti-Israel and anti-Semitic, and they're featuring the face of murderer Che Guevara on their "Resist Imperialism!" T-shirts.

The freedom to express dissent is a right we enjoy here in the U.S. But when it comes to anti-war demonstrations that are disguised as humanitarian efforts for peace and justice, everyone deserves to know the real story about the organization putting on the event. They are for anything or anybody that opposes America or poses a danger to America. And that is a service to neither peace nor justice.