Battleground

For the "Who in the world do you root for?" file:

Protesting members of the controversial Westboro Baptist Church were met with an unlikely group of counterprotesters Monday at Arlington Cemetery.

Among those counter-protesting at the cemetery's main entrance: About 10 members of a group that claims to be a branch of the Ku Klux Klan from Virginia called the Knights of the Southern Cross. They were cordoned off separately in a nearby area, but drew little attention as they gave out small American flags behind a banner that read "POW-MIA."

They said they were there to object to the Westboro Baptist Church's anti-troop message.

If I were a troop, I'd definitely worry about my "friends" as much as my enemies. Abigail Phleps, daughter of Westboro founder Fred Phelps, got off the funniest line (though she did not intend it as such): Klan members, she said, "have no moral authority on anything." The Klan, she says, is all about white power, which is not biblically based: "The Bible doesn't say anywhere that it's an abomination to be born of a certain gender or race." There's equality for you -- all American soldiers, no matter what race or creed or sex, are equally likely to be struck dead by God as punishment for our fag-friendly ways. The Klan leader, meanwhile, insists that his group isn't about racism or "hate-mongering" but just fighting against the fact that the white race is "slowly and assuredly being denigrated."

That's quite a fight for the moral high ground there.