Why the screams are getting louder

The neocons see their chances of total power dimming by the minute.

Glenn Greenwald:

The fact that he [Frank Gaffney, one of the most extremist, pernicious and influential neoconservatives in our country] became so shrill and defensive and even frightened reveals that neocons know that America is turning against them and beginning to realize the destruction they have wrought and the culpability they possess for what they have done to our country.

That is why they are so eager to equate criticism of them with treason and to stifle debate. They have not only lost the debate over Iraq and general Middle East militarism, but their continuous extremism and deceit is being exposed, and they fear being held accountable. It is only natural that they want to render criticism of their war and their conduct impermissible.

The desperation was most apparent when Bill Kristol went on Fox News and expressed his rage that Democrats and other war opponents "can't be quiet for six or nine months." The very notion that Americans have some sort of obligation to heed Kristol's demand to be silent while he pushes on with his war is audacious and radical beyond words.

And that was the point of Gaffney's column as well -- that it should be considered not only un-American, but actually criminal, to criticize the war and the people such as Frank Gaffney and Doug Feith who concocted it and sold it to the country. But ultimately, that tactic will get them nowhere. Americans are not going to be persuaded by the idea that they are obligated to refrain from criticizing Doug Feith, Bill Kristol and the wars they have spawned, to say nothing of the new ones they are attempting to foist on the country.