Hell, Britannia

NY Daily News ^ | November 20 2003

[knighthawk]

The "massive" anti-war, anti-America, anti-George Bush demonstrations promised for London more or less fizzled yesterday, but the big guns - the peace-at-any-price people should pardon the expression - were expected to be out today. The Stop the War Coalition says 100,000 protesters will march past Parliament and up to Downing St. to condemn the U.S.-British alliance in Iraq.

Have fun, folks. And while you're marching, you might thank the British and American governments for upholding rights of free speech, and for bringing same to Iraq.

Yesterday, some demonstrators poured red dye into a Trafalgar Square fountain to represent spilled Iraqi blood. Pour some red dye into the Thames, why don't you, to represent the blood spilled under Saddam Hussein? The river would run scarlet.

But, as is typical in many such protests, tunnel vision applies. An Iowa college student who joined a demo said of Bush: "He's spending trillions of dollars on the war, but my tuition is almost $30,000, and I've got very little state aid." Save your money. With thought processes like that, you don't belong in college.

Let them march and whinge. Let them compare Bush and Blair to Saddam. No one who thinks such comparisons are legit can be taken seriously, no matter how loud their chants, no matter how many the chanters. Anyone who sees the U.S. as an "excess of evil" - as one of their banners proclaimed - has serious reality issues.

And, yes, that also applies to Ken Livingstone, the mayor of London, who proclaimed Bush "the greatest threat to life on this planet that we've most probably ever seen." When it comes to stirring rhetoric, this guy is not Winston Churchill. But he may have a future as mayor of Paris.

[knighthawk]

Ping

[Republican Red]

Surprised this was from the NY Daily News.

[bobjam]

100,000 protestors...that's well short of their goal of having one protestor for every body/remains found in mass graves in Iraq so far.

[Richard Axtell]

That brings to mind an idea for a potential political cartoon. A mass of anarchist protesters march and harange their way across Trafalgar Square. Out of the morning fog from the opposite direction, appear the ghostly apparitions of 3 times as many victims of Saddam Hussein's genocide, their eyeless skulls staring at the demonstrators. One ghost says to the Anarchist leader "Is this where we can join the march for peace and human rights?"

[HarleyD]

You have to keep in mind they're also protesting in Miami. They can't be in two places at one time. :O)

[alloysteel]

The projected goal of getting 100,000 protestors out on the street may be a little ambitious. These are not merely disaffected Muslim sympathizers, they are actively working to undermine and disparage the British and US elected administrations, and remove both Bush and Blair from office.

With careful camera angles, and selecton of interviewees, the band (which comprises perhaps only a few thousand at most) will look much more formidible than it is.

[johnb838]

From watching Fox, it appears that all of the massive demonstrations have failed to materialize, and no one is paying them much attention at all.

[KarlInOhio]

From watching Fox, it appears that all of the massive demonstrations have failed to materialize, and no one is paying them much attention at all.

Does that mean I'll be able to watch the cameramen from the other networks replace their wide angle lenses with telephoto lenses to get a shot of a dozen protestors without an empty background?