comparing two sides

Victor Davis Hanson

@VDHanson

Can We Know Them by What They Say and Do—Here and Abroad? As a general rule, in a free society, when there are two sides demonstrating, the merit of their respective causes can be assessed by the relative methods of protests that they each employ—as can be adjudicated by the following 10 criteria: 1) Does one side attack the other, or try to tear down or destroy their opponents’ posters, flags, etc.? 2) Does one side illegally occupy buildings, swarm roads, or block bridges? 3) Does one side incite violence against or directly attack the police? 4) Does one side deface public and private property and vandalize? 5) Does one side more often wear masks to hide their identities? 6) Does one side use obscenity and profanity and call for violence in their chants and sloganeering? 7) Does one side ally with or support terrorists officially labeled as such by the US government? 8) Does one side have a greater likelihood to have protestors arrested? 9) Does one side more likely attack or oppose their own country of residence or burn the American flag? 10) Does one side pose a greater danger to bystanders or third-party observers? Again, the methods of protests here often mirror-image the respective military protocols of the war abroad that spark the protests. That is, the relative conduct of a protestor in the US usually reflects the values of the combatants which he supports. So, consider the following 10 criteria abroad that may explain the character of the protests here: 1) Which side starts a war at a time of peace? 2) Which side launches the attack at a time of holiday in surprise fashion? 3) Which side deliberately seeks as its targets unarmed and the most vulnerable civilians? 4) Which side employs acts of terror such as mutilation, decapitation, torture, and rape? 5) Which side uses human shields to sacrifice civilians to protect combatants? 6) Which side takes hostages and threatens to kill captives for military advantage? 7) Which side does or does not drop leaflets or otherwise warn those in the target area of an impending rocket or bombing attack? 8) Which side occasionally shoots its own civilians if they do not agree to be human shields or seek to leave the combat zone? 9) Which side shields their own command and control centers under or inside hospitals, schools, and religious centers? 10) Which side is more likely to kill or capture US citizens?