The US Women’s Soccer Team played Mexico in Miyazaki, Japan, on July 4. And, once again, these self-centered ball kickers demonstrated disrespect for the national anthem and the flag. What’s even worse is that this happened on foreign soil, and while a World War II vet played the anthem on his harmonica. And on Independence Day, too.

“Harmonica Pete” DuPré, a 98-year-old WWII vet who served as a Army medic, has become somewhat of a rock star by playing the anthem at sports events. He delivered the anthem on Sunday from the field prior to the US/Mexico Olympics send-off game.

Pete and his harmonica may not have been Whitney Houston at the Super Bowl. But since he is a member of a rapidly dwindling population of veterans, that made his performance especially poignant.

However, for some members of the soccer team, their performance activism was more important.

Here’s what happened:

Some Twitter users were pretty damned pissed off.

“If you don’t feel the US represents your values and you want to protest by turning away from the flag, fine… what confuses me is why you’d choose to represent that same country on a national level.”

Another Twitter user blasted the activists on the soccer team, writing that they “do not understand what blood was shed so they could have their little protest fit.”

However, US Soccer Communications said there was nothing to see here. All the women loved Pete, and even autographed a soccer ball for him. Not a word about the players who turned away from the flag, however.

“This is not true. No one turned their back on WWII Veteran Pete DuPré during tonight’s anthem. Some USWNT players were simply looking at the flag on a pole in one end of the stadium. The players all love Pete, thanked him individually after the game and signed a ball for him.” 

But a reporter for the conservative Daily Wire tweeted that maybe their actions didn’t me an what others thought it meant, and agreed with the communications team.

As bad as the U.S. Women's National Soccer Team is for a lot of reasons, this does not appear to be accurate.

They were facing the flag near the scoreboard and several of the women that turned had their hand on their heart so it's hard to argue they were being disrespectful. https://t.co/kQmaLwHlFe pic.twitter.com/SJP8wFX1eZ

— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) July 6, 2021

But Richard Grenell, former acting Director of National Intelligence, didn’t buy that argument. He responded to Soccer Communications:

“Several players turned away from honoring the US flag and the US national anthem he was playing. Not one of those who snubbed the flag & anthem tuned [sic] toward Pete. Pete was to their left. . . They aren’t turned to him. (Every Mexican player turned for their anthem).”

Meanwhile, the Right Scoop website also observed that five of the players refused to face the flag, and placed their hands behind their backs.

And this being the internet, there’s always someone who will dig up information about previous shenanigans of the Women’s Soccer Team. For example, in November, several players took knees during the anthem. Plus, all of them were wearing Black Lives Matter jackets.

Hey @RichardGrenell, here's the same characters from today taking knees last year. https://t.co/Bkwd82gcUf

— Tim Young (@TimRunsHisMouth) July 6, 2021

And, looky here. Two of the kneelers from November, circled below, were the same players who stood during the anthem, hands behind their backs, and faced away from the flag during Pete’s anthem in the above video.

I have had it up to my eyeballs with performance activism on the parts of athletes who not only despise their country, but have no clue as to the things that men like Pete DuPré experienced during WWII.

Pete apparently did not see combat, since he served as a medic in England during the war. But he saw what the war did to young men’s bodies and minds.

However, my father, who would have been 97 this year, did see aerial combat as part of a B-17 bomber crew in Europe. He completed 50 missions in 1944, and even though he came home unscathed, the terror he experienced stayed with him. Once he broke a window in his parents’ house during a nightmare. And he refused to talk about the war for decades. Yet he never thought of himself as a hero for his service, just that it “was a job we had to do” — the attitude that most of those veterans had.

But these women soccer players see themselves as heroes, warriors for justice who are — what’s the term? That’s right: “stunning and brave.”

Stunning and brave, my ass. They’re self-righteous, ignorant attention whores — yes, I said it! — who slavishly follow leftist causes like a religion. And they see themselves as martyrs for that religion, too — martyrs without suffering for their stunts. After all, PR flacks from the soccer world cover for them.

Shame on them all. They disgrace America.

The Tokyo Olympics are starting later this month, but screw the US Women’s Soccer team. I don’t give a rat’s tuchus if they win or lose in the Olympics. If they can’t honor the flag or anthem of my nation on an international stage, especially when performed by a WWII veteran, then they don’t deserve my support. They don’t deserve yours, either.

Featured image: Jeremy Wilburn/flickr/cropped/CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.