Sometimes "anti-war" just means "anti-war."

One of the most despicable smears frequently employed against opponents of wars is that they are “really” rooting for the other side. We saw this during the run-up to the Iraq war, where anti-war types were routinely characterized as being “pro-Saddam.”

Fortunately, military men are often more sensible than civilian laptop bombardiers so eager to send them into action. Here’s an interesting recollection from a Vietnam vet reflecting on the very different kinds of anti-war activism practiced by Jane Fonda on the one hand and Joan Baez on the other:

For those who don’t quite understand, being in favor of one side over another in a war is not “anti-war” activity. To the contrary! The articles about [Fonda] and her “apology” (for choosing the wrong vehicle of publicity, not for her position in favor of the enemy) should not continue repeating the canard that she engaged in “anti-war activities” when she so clearly sided with a party to a war: North Vietnam. She absolutely refuses to acknowledge that she wasn’t just a part of the anti-war or pacifist fringe in the United States at the time, but was in fact a true believer and supporter of North Vietnam during its war with the United States.

By contrast, look at the trip to Hanoi that famous folk singer Joan Baez, with Brigadier General Teleford Taylor (well-known Nuremberg war prosecutor) made just two and one half months after Jane Fonda’s notorious propaganda visit. Ms. Baez and Gen Tayor were trapped in Hanoi during the entire “Linebacker II” Christmas bombing raids over and around that city–in which I again was heavily involved. Ms Baez made no bones about her pacifist beliefs and her hatred of wars. Yet, even after suffering through some of the most intense bombing raids of the entire Vietnam War, when asked by her hosts/watchers to make anti-US statements, she stuck to her beliefs, saying she hated all war by all sides, no matter what. We fighting men heard Baez’s statements as soon as they were made. Somehow, we ignorant warriors were sophisticated enough to recognize the difference between Baez’s anti-war statements and Fonda’s open promotion of North Vietnamese victory–an apparently too-subtle distinction that has escaped the press even today. Most of us respected Baez’s view, even if we differed with it–and acknowledged her right as an American to express that view even during a war. I was able to talk personally to Ms Baez about that several years later; she was pleased that we warriors certainly understood her point.