Are US war critics traitors?

On power, patriotism, and betrayal

     On March 28, 2022, The New York Times published a guest essay by Peter Beinart, Professor of Journalism and Political Science at the City University of New York, entitled “The Friend of Our Enemy Is Not a ‘Traitor.’”  He begins the article with the observation that former Democratic representative Tulsi Gabbard and Fox News’ Tucker Carlson had been accused of treason by various media and political personalities for alleging that the United States was secretly funding biological research laboratories in Ukraine.  (For the Russian view on the laboratories, see “Biological labs found in Ukraine,” March 15, 2022).

     Beinart maintains that it is almost always wrong to accuse critics of U.S. foreign policy of being traitors, because they rarely are puppets of foreign powers.  In the case of the critics of U.S. policy in Ukraine, Beinart notes that the criticisms are based in disillusionment with an insular foreign policy establishment that has taken the nation to disastrous wars in A…