They Hate Us, Too
By Peter Schwartz (March 31, 2003)

At root, the "anti-war" rallies are generated not by any sympathy for Iraq, but by a hatred for America--or, more fundamentally, for the principle that America represents. The protest leaders oppose the individualism that lies at America's foundation. They despise the idea of a capitalist system in which the individual is sovereign, free to live his own life and pursue his own values, irrespective of the wishes of "the public." And they therefore despise the derivative idea that, as a free nation, America has the sovereign right to defend its self-interest, irrespective of the wishes of the rest of the world.
 

The "anti-war" forces are not opposed to war, nor even to a war against Iraq, if it were authorized by the United Nations. They just don't want the decision to be made by the United States. It is America's deferral to the U.N. that they frantically seek. It is American "selfishness"--the tenet that one has the moral right to uphold one's self-interest--that triggers anger and fear in them. It is the undercutting of America's sovereignty--the surrender of the principle of individualism to the principle of collectivism--that is the goal of all their marches, speeches and editorials.
 
They want the individual to subordinate his freedom to the collective will of his community, and they want the government of a free people to subordinate the liberty of its citizens to the collective will of the international community. Their one, overwhelming desire is to cut America down by making it bow to some higher authority. They want us to submit.
 
The proper response to these anti-American protests is to uphold our moral right to defend ourselves against the threat posed by a criminal-state, regardless of the demands of any other nation.