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CAN WE PLEASE STOP USING THE PHRASE "AID AND COMFORT" TO DESCRIBE WAR OPPONENTS:
David Frum has done it again. As you may recall, when last we heard from him, he was attempting to stifle anti-war speech by saying that it has no value to society. Now, he gives us this piece (free registration required), in which he argues that Ted Kennedy's arguments against the war "suggest [that] leading Democrats are now stepping beyond criticism to lend aid and comfort to the antiwar movement in the United States and Europe". This passage confirms that Frum is a sleazeball. The phrase "aid and comfort" comes from the definition of the crime of treason in the US Constitution (Article III Section 3): "levying War against [the United States], or adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort". Frum knows this-- he is deliberately using these words to make Ted Kennedy (whose two brothers gave their lives for this country) sound like a traitor. Further, the passage is especially noxious because he uses the words "aid and comfort" in the context of the anti-war movement in the United States and Europe; the implication is that giving "aid and comfort" to these entities is the same as giving aid and comfort to Saddam Hussein.

Unfortunately, this type of rhetoric is way too common among hawks, many of whom miss no chance to accuse doves of being anti-American, pro-Saddam, and treasonous. This needs to stop. Giving "aid and comfort" to the enemy is a legal concept that refers to overt acts of treason, such as if an American citizen supplied weapons to the Iraqi military during the current war. That language has no place in the debates as to whether the war is justified. Frum and his ilk need to stick to reasoned discourse and stop accusing everyone who disagrees with them of being a traitor.
posted by Dilan at 1:42 PM