"Just to clarify . . . we support the troops," Pearl Jam lead singer Eddie Vedder told a Denver audience last week after getting booed and told to shut up for criticizing President Bush on stage. Some in the crowd, perhaps soothed a bit, cheered.

Carrying a sign with a modified flag, Bruce Hopkins of Albany joined the anti-war demonstration. Chronicle photo by Chris Stewart

In the current minefield of political expression, many peace activists are creating their own version of patriotism, whether it's carrying U.S. flags at anti-war rallies or slapping "Peace is Patriotic" bumper stickers on their cars. "Support the troops, not the war" has become a mantra at anti-war demonstrations nationwide.

The use of nationalistic symbols and language by the peace movement occurred during the first Gulf War and even before. But as the current Iraq war continues, a new movement is emerging to wrestle patriotic words and images from conservatives -- and allow mainstream Americans to feel more comfortable about participating in anti-war demonstrations.

UNDERGROUND PUBLIC RELATIONS

An underground public relations campaign has begun to introduce patriotic language into left-leaning groups, said George Lakoff, a UC Berkeley linguistics professor and author of "Moral Politics." Conservatives have "pretty much commandeered patriotic language," said Lakoff, who has been working with peace activists and others to craft a new strategy for progressives.

"It became very clear right after Sept. 11 there was no patriotic language for progressives, that all the symbols had been taken over," Lakoff said. "This was a great shame because progressives are just as patriotic as anybody else. That is, progressives are loyal to the ideals of the country."

Working Assets, a San Francisco long-distance service and credit card company that supports liberal causes, recently put up 100 signs on Washington, D.C., buses that read,''Support Our Troops. Bring them Home Now." The group also placed that slogan on billboards in Houston, Detroit, Manhattan, Los Angeles and San Francisco. The Houston billboard prompted a few death threats, the company's president said.

"We are trying to take back the language," said Michael Kieschnick, president of Working Assets. "Our message is that it's time for those who are anti-war to make it clear that we care just as much about our soldiers as those who are pro-war. . . . It really isn't some tactic."

GLOBAL SYMBOL

Many peace activists, however, are bothered by the use of patriotic symbols and are raising questions within their own movements. Some are internationalists who believe the entire U.S. government is immoral, not just Bush and the war itself, and they have chosen the globe or an upside-down U.S. flag as their symbols.

The disparate groups of anti-war demonstrators have tried to remain united about the issue, however angry words have been exchanged between demonstrators who have brought U.S. flags to protests and others who view them with suspicion or derision.

Jeff Paterson, a former U.S. Marine corporal who was discharged for refusing to fight in the first Gulf War, said the "support-the-troops thing is really the best PR they can put on an unjust, immoral and illegal invasion."

"Personally I think the image of the earth is the best symbol to express our solidarity," said Paterson, 34, a San Francisco peace activist. "We're all in this together, and looking at the world through an American lens is actually in the long run not beneficial."

Maya Jones, another Bay Area peace organizer, said the U.S. government used the symbolism of the U.S. flag after Sept. 11 to "manipulate people's grief and really capitalize and commodify grief, and used it as a symbol of a united people. This flag does not represent unity."

CONSERVATIVES SUSPICIOUS

Al Williams, 96, joined thousands of people in a anti-war protest that marched through the streets of Oakland and Berkeley on Saturday. Chronicle photo by Chris Stewart

Conservatives, too, are suspicious when they see U.S. flags at anti-war rallies and draw parallels to the "traitors" who protested during the Vietnam War. Demonstrators have been labeled communists and "terrorist-supporting leftists" by a vociferous and vocal conservative wing.

Kathy Wood with the Washington, D.C., chapter of Free Republic, a conservative group, said she witnessed a protester rip down a U.S. flag that was being held by a Vietnam veteran at a recent anti-war demonstration. She said the protester ripped the flag apart.

"That is what they really feel about the American flag," Wood said. "This is just a charade to make them look more mainstream and get their message out."

Indeed, patriotic messages from peace activists are commonplace. A marquee at the Grand Lake Theatre in Oakland reads: "Honor Our Troops, Bring Them Home,

Peace Is Patriotic." A convoy of 100 hybrid vehicles converged on San Francisco in January, some carrying "Real Patriots Drive Hybrids" bumper stickers -- a message that environmentally friendly cars wean the U.S. from Arab oil.

Kieschnick said Working Assets recently offered a service for protesters to choose between a half-dozen different protest signs available on a Web site. Those signs were then printed on placards, attached to sticks and made available at protests.

He said the most popular sign requested was the "Support Our Troops. Bring Them Home Now." That is evidence, he said, that a large segment of mainstream America does not support the war and feels uncomfortable with the "hard left, down-with-America approach."

MORAL DISTINCTIONS

The "support the troops" message opens up questions of the moral distinctions between the U.S. government that wages a war and the soldiers who fight in it. This has been a debate for decades, particularly during the Vietnam War when the treatment of individual soldiers came into focus.

Not In Our Name, an activist group in the East Bay, decided the best response during this war is to support any soldier who refuses to fight, without making any official "support the troops" statement.

Peace activists overwhelmingly say U.S. soldiers should not be personally attacked for fighting in Iraq, even if the anti-war movement believes the war itself is immoral.

Andrea Buffa, a peace activist in San Francisco, said most of the soldiers in Iraq "are 19 years old and they are being ordered to do this by a lot of people who have never fought in a war. So I hold the leadership who are doing this accountable."

"Fundamentally," said John Bostrom, 58, a consultant from Staten Island, N. Y., who has been debating the issue online with other peace activists, "support-the-troops is a cry of fear and despair that our kids are going to die. That is the emotional level. Who could possibly oppose that?"

©2003 San Francisco Chronicle

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