Define Treason

John Kerry said this weekend that it’s patriotic to oppose the war. On the surface this is a benign statement. Dissent is a basic right in a free society, but a free society can still have laws against sedition and treason.

The anti-war protesters have every right to voice their opinion, but when they deliberately distort facts, defame our leaders and leak classified information, all for political reasons to damage the current administration, to the effect that their actions undermine our war effort and lend aid and comfort to our enemies, it borders on sedition and treason.

Check out these definitions:

Dissent:
INTRANSITIVE VERB: 1. To differ in opinion or feeling; disagree. 2. To withhold assent or approval.
NOUN: 1. Difference of opinion or feeling; disagreement.

Sedition:
NOUN: 1. Conduct or language inciting rebellion against the authority of a state. 2. Insurrection; rebellion.

Treason:
NOUN: 1. Violation of allegiance toward one's country or sovereign, especially the betrayal of one's country by waging war against it or by consciously and purposely acting to aid its enemies. 2. A betrayal of trust or confidence.

Patriotism:
NOUN: Love of and devotion to one's country.

It is definitely consistent with patriotism to dissent. If fact it is one’s duty. It may even be one’s duty to engage in sedition and treason. Maybe if a few courageous Liberals (pardon the oxymoron) in Nazi Germany had dissented and turned traitor, WW II would have been prevented.

Even if it is justified in this case, calling it ‘dissent’ does not change the fact that it’s sedition or treason! There’s a difference in saying “I oppose the war” and accusing the military of war crimes and the president of lying-especially when you have no proof of either. (BTW Those who were convicted of crimes at Abu Ghraib have been punished)

John Kerry has done both. He accused his fellow soldiers of atrocities which he could not corroborate or prove, and which the enemy used to harass our POW’s. He has been one of the loudest accusers of the president as a liar, when all documentation has proven that while the intelligence may have been wrong (which is still an open question), Bush certainly did not lie.

In fact, it has been proven that one of Bush’s biggest accusers, Joe Wilson, was the one who lied. This being the case, it is those who accuse the president of lying who are the liars, so their anti-war rhetoric is no longer mere dissent, it has become treason.

When you hear John Kerry say our soldiers are terrorizing women and children in the middle of the night, does it sound like “love and devotion to one’s country,” or does it sound more like “consciously and purposely acting to aid its enemies?”

- Matt