'Peace' Group Wants Wrong Man Behind Bars

With all the anti-America protests going on around this country, it has been quite a surprise that Grandmothers for Peace International hasn't been making headlines.

There has been plenty of coverage of "pacifists" throwing things at police and getting into street fights with those who disagree with them. We've seen Sacramento groups stage offensive "die-ins" to demonstrate their apparent support for Saddam Hussein, and we know that thousands of people have been creating traffic jams in San Francisco to get media attention.

But what happened to Grandmothers for Peace?

In the past, we could count on just about every anti-America protest story to include a quote from a member of the Sacramento-based organization, because it was a novelty to have a grandmother protesting amid a crowd of uneducated, nose-pierced youths. Lately, though, the group's name hasn't been popping up.

A search of the Internet reveals that the 21-year-old group may have slowed a little, but is still around, and as misguided as ever. Director Lorraine Krofchok, who took over after founder Barbara Wiedner passed away in December 2001, is carrying on the tradition of portraying the United States as evil incarnate while ignoring legitimate reasons for military action.
In a letter to her fellow grandmothers for pacifism, written just before the America-led coalition began its attack on Saddam's government, Krofchok worried about the "genocide of the Iraqi people."

"The madness and obsession of the current rulers in Washington have not an ounce of humanity in their souls," she wrote. "They will annihilate a country that is 50 percent children for their lust of oil, for domination and control. 'We' are about to commit the most horrible crime in history."

Let's get this straight. The Holocaust, the Bataan Death March, the chemical gassing of the Kurds by Saddam's regime -- those weren't the most horrible crimes in history. No, in Krofchok's opinion the most horrible crime -- ever -- is the current military action in Iraq.

That's not all. "When the bombings start," Krofchok wrote, "with the illegal move to destroy a nation, the Bush administration must be held responsible and tried for war crimes, they must! There can be no other choice if the planet is to survive."

Again, no mention of the litany of war crimes committed by Saddam and his blood-thirsty troops, as documented by Iraqi defectors and independent journalists. No criticism of a leader who hides troops in hospitals and school buses, who uses his civilians as human shields, who violates peace treaties and who executes prisoners of war.

No, it's the American president -- the man who is taking unprecedented precautions to protect Iraqi civilians while proceeding against their dangerous oppressor -- whom Krofchok wants to put behind bars. Incredible!

Grandmothers for Peace is worthy of special mention in a senior-oriented newspaper, but it certainly isn't the only organization espousing illogical, America-hating rhetoric. At many protests, it's been easy to find signs denigrating President Bush, but we've yet to see any protestors criticizing Saddam for such things as amassing chemical weapons after signing treaties promising he wouldn't.

Another troubling aspect of the protests is that many protestors believe their First Amendment right "peaceably to assemble" entitles them to vandalize property, assault police officers and block roads so even fire trucks and ambulances can't get through. Some protest organizers have gone so far as to propose sabotaging or hindering transport of U.S. military equipment. This sort of behavior crosses the line, and should be prosecuted.

In the meantime, it's more important than ever to hear from those who support the American soldiers and the others in the nearly 50-country coalition fighting to rid the world of Saddam's evil. It would be nice to see a group called Grandmothers for America quoted in the papers once in a while to balance out the ill-informed diatribes coming from the far left.

David Kline is a Sacramento native who has been writing about seniors' issues since 1991. He has served as Spectrum's editor for the past four years — a period that has seen the paper receive awards from the California Newspapers Publishers' Association and National Mature Media Awards program.