ACT! For America’s Veteran Defenders of America

Posted on 05 September 2010 by Garibaldi loonwatch

ACT! For America, or as they are better known Hate! for America have created what they are dubbing a joint project, Veteran Defenders of America. ACT! for America is the organization led by class A loon Brigitte Gabriel, it regularly defames Muslims and insists Islam is trying to take over America.

In my previous article, ACT! for America is better known as Hate! for America I wrote,

ACT! for America has a problem. Its first problem is that it was founded by Brigitte Gabriel. Yes, the same Brigitte Gabriel the New York Times called a “radical Islamophobe” and who in the past has made statements like “Arabs have no soul,” and “Arabs are barbarians.” She might be novel eye candy for some (which I’m guessing is the reason Bill Maher had her on his show) but it is clear that Brigitte Gabriel is a whacked out fundamentalist with a seething rage against Muslims and a determination on the one hand to destroy Islam and on the other to make as much profit in the process.

The other problem with ACT! is that it is an organization filled with the types of people we see at Tea Party rallies. You know the ones who dress up in late 18th century regalia a la George Washington or carry around posters about Obama being a Kenyan, or Hitler, or Joker or a Marxist Mooslim anti-Christ coming to change America from a Christian nation into the Soviet Union.

The ACT! for America scheme essentially boils down to an organization masquerading as a “defender of Western Civilization” akin to the claims of other Islamophobes such as Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller. They have a binary view of the world, the Bush mantra of “you’re either with us or against us.”

Now Brigitte and her goons are creating an organization of veterans who will be opposing “terrorism” (i.e. Islam) under the guise of “protecting our freedoms.” This development is pretty hair raising in light of the fact that threatening rhetoric has been observed from members of other anti-Muslim organizations who profess to also be veterans or soldiers in the US military.

We reported earlier on the existence of self-purported veterans in Stop the Islamization of America (SIOA) who made pronouncements of murder and genocide against Muslims,

Veterans know how to “lock and load.” They have honed their skills in the greatest and most powerful military in the world. When populists and fear-mongers unite to dredge up xenophobia, bigotry and hate against Islam and Muslims it lends itself to influencing our veterans and military personnel, especially considering they are involved in two wars in Muslim countries and are stationed on bases throughout the Middle East and the Muslim world.

Simple logic forces us to question: how many of the returning veterans are going to leave the fight against Muslims on the battlefield? Is it safe to venture that the process of dehumanizing the enemy, his religion, his culture, his race will not be limited to the battlefield but will actually see itself transported to the homeland, at least by a small minority?

When we combine this with those who seek to capitalize on anti-Muslim hysteria it is a volatile cocktail, and if the Veteran Defenders of America are any indication it is getting organized — and armed.

Richard Van Waes, founder and operating chair person of the Veteran Defenders of America has this message on his website,

The United States of America has long enjoyed freedoms no other country in history has ever known. The founders of our nation had vision to give us documents that entrusted freedom to all citizens.

As veterans, we swore to uphold the Constitution of the United States of America and to defend it against all enemies, both foreign and domestic. Quite simply, unlike any period in our long history, our freedoms are in jeopardy. Our domestic borders have been silently invaded with people who intend to harm us. There are thousands of terrorists and terror cells within the United States borders who have one goal as their agenda – the destruction of America as we know it. This simply cannot take place.

Most of us have families. I have children, grandchildren and extended family who all need protection. You, as a veteran, have training, skills and experience that uniquely enable you to respond to our government’s message that encourages family and community preparedness, citizen awareness and service to our families and our communities.

We’re asking all able-bodied veterans to join Veteran Defenders in an alliance to ensure our freedoms. REMEMBER, we ALL can contribute some of our skilled training, in some small way. Over 18 million strong, we are a valuable and frequently overlooked resource to our nation.

May God bless you, your family and our nation. The time is now, join us.

The idea that our domestic borders have been “invaded by people who intend to harm us,” that there are “thousands of terrorists and terror cells” within the United States who seek to take our freedom and destroy America is quite familiar. It is the language of paranoia, the language of those who sow the seeds of conspiracy to advance their own agenda. It is the same language that was used against Japanese Americans to justify the Internment camps, against Blacks to take away their personal freedoms and to perpetuate Jim Crow.

It is vital to the future of our nation that such organizations do not go unopposed and that the military, veterans of conscious, institutions such as the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) band together to ensure that this vitriol against Islam and Muslims does not spiral out of control.

Update: We thought it would be notable to point out the views of some veterans in response to this. John Bryant a former veteran himself and loonwatcher has this to say in response to the article,

“As a vet with kids in uniform, I find it unbelieveably offens[ive] that these assholes would use the symbols of our five services who fight to defend the constitution (including the first amendment, all of it!) to somehow equate service and patriotism with hate and bigotry!”