The Week

The Marines are requiring reporters who want to cover any Kuwait offensive to pass a physical-fitness test. Once more the First Amendment is sacrificed on the altar of Mars.

The nation’s capital had its first real taste of antiwar protest the Saturday after the air strikes began, and there was a strong sense of déjà vu. This was not just because of the desperate attempt of the mostly youngish crowd to appropriate the symbols of another day—peace signs and tie-dyed T-shirts were conspicuous—but also because the protests were dominated by the same visceral anti-Americanism. Just as the protests of the 1960s saw Vietcong flags fluttering overhead, the thousands who jammed Lafayette Square represented a melange of interests, from a former Black Panther to the Marxist Workers World Party to gay-rights groups. Although many political movements have been derided as “single issue,” the willingness on the Left to embrace any and all causes suggests that the only principle uniting it is a loathing of American society. Indeed, the Reverend Shadow Senator Jesse L. Jackson showed up on Saturday after agreeing to marry his planned pro-D.C.-statehood rally with the hard-Left antiwar protest. In their prosecution of the war, George Bush, Colin Powell, and Dick Cheney have evidently learned the hard lessons of Vietnam. The same cannot be said of the peace movement.

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The Marines are requiring reporters who want to cover any Kuwait offensive to pass a physical-fitness test. Once more the First Amendment is sacrificed on the altar of Mars.

The nation’s capital had its first real taste of antiwar protest the Saturday after the air strikes began, and there was a strong sense of déjà vu. This was not just because of the desperate attempt of the mostly youngish crowd to appropriate the symbols of another day—peace signs and tie-dyed T-shirts were conspicuous—but also because the protests were dominated by the same visceral anti-Americanism. Just as the protests of the 1960s saw Vietcong flags fluttering overhead, the thousands who jammed Lafayette Square represented a melange of interests, from a former Black Panther to the Marxist Workers World Party to gay-rights groups. Although many political movements have been derided as “single issue,” the willingness on the Left to embrace any and all causes suggests that the only principle uniting it is a loathing of American society. Indeed, the Reverend Shadow Senator Jesse L. Jackson showed up on Saturday after agreeing to marry his planned pro-D.C.-statehood rally with the hard-Left antiwar protest. In their prosecution of the war, George Bush, Colin Powell, and Dick Cheney have evidently learned the hard lessons of Vietnam. The same cannot be said of the peace movement.