Progress in Iraq dampens demonstration fuse

National Business review ^ | 3/21/04 | NBR Ltd

[Mark Felton]

As the turnover date for the governance of Iraq nears -- and an independent poll shows that overwhelming numbers of ordinary Iraqis want Coalition forces to stay on, at least until a stable government is established -- anti-war protests around the world yesterday drew smaller crowds than anticipated.

The global protests were organised for the one-year anniversary of the day the Coalition began the attacks on an Iraq then under the thumb of Baathist dictator Saddam Hussein.

In New Zealand, a few hundred activists gathered in Wellington and Auckland, with smaller numbers in other locations.

The messages sent by organisers rang curiously hollow since many emphasised the importance of self rule for Iraq, a goal that is already part of the core Coalition agenda.

"It is hoped that this march will send a clear message to the government that New Zealanders do not want to be a part of these unjust occupations. Instead we call for self determination for the peoples of Afghanistan and Iraq," said one New Zealand organiser in a pre-march press release.

Where hundreds of thousands marched in protests a year ago, only thousands showed up yesterday, but the demonstrations in some cities made for impressive television nonetheless.

A few big centres of activity, like Rome, took in bus and train loads of protesters from all over Europe, but still fell well short of the numbers that filled the streets there last February, before the war actually commenced.

Rome officials put the turnout at 250,000 but organisers inflated those figures to upwards of 2 million.

Last year, anti-war demonstrations in Rome were the largest of the many seen in Europe, with more than 2 million involved.

Paris managed a turnout of 2,500. Amsterdam saw 3,000 in the streets according to one source (and "a few hundred" according to another), while Paris managed to gather 25,000. Germany reported 1,600 in Berlin.

The low turnouts in countries that have been loudest in their opposition to the war may indicate that the issue is losing steam in the popular imagination as Iraq moves toward political autonomy.

In Spain, where one journalist discounted the much lower than anticipated turnout as the result of demonstration fatigue, 150,000 people demonstrated in Barcelona.

Spanish Prime Minister-elect Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, a staunch opponent of the war, has called it a "disaster" and said he will withdraw Spain's 1,300 troops from Iraq by June, the date already tentatively set for the proposed turnover of Iraq's administration, unless the occupation receives a mandate from the United Nations.

MSNBC said that "thousands" marched in Madrid and noted that while "no crowd estimate was immediately available" the numbers "paled" in comparison to the mass demonstrations that had taken place all over the country following the bombings of Madrid's trains.

That story also put the numbers of demonstrators in Middle Eastern capitals at "hundreds" and said "tens of thousands" took to the streets in London.

The left-leaning, "alternative voice" Inter Press Service News Agency noted that organisers were "clearly disappointed with the turnout estimated by the police at no more than 25,000" in London. An organiser told media representatives that one reason for the low turnout was that "the weather isn't great." More than a million demonstrated in London last before the war last year. 21-Mar-2004

[Mark Felton]

These are not "peace protestors", they are anti-American protestors.

The root of anti-Americanism is hatred of Christianity and Judaism.

Both faiths dampen the spread of socialism and Islam.

[DentsRun]

The root of anti-Americanism is hatred of Christianity and Judaism.

How do you figure that? Would you say the root of anti-Mexicanism is hatred of Catholics?The root of anti-Germanism is hatred of Lutherans? The root of anti-Turkism is hatred of Muslems?

There were times when there was very little anti-Americanism in the world (leastways compared to now). But we have always been a Christian country. Why are people so worked up about our being a Christian country today, as opposed to say 50 or 100 years ago?

[EGPWS]

The messages sent by organisers rang curiously hollow since many emphasised the importance of self rule for Iraq, a goal that is already part of the core Coalition agenda.

The real message sent is that they are not for us but against us.

Let them make their message known, for Dubya has made his message very clear!

[Fiddlstix]

BTTT

[nutmeg]

As the turnover date for the governance of Iraq nears -- and an independent poll shows that overwhelming numbers of ordinary Iraqis want Coalition forces to stay on, at least until a stable government is established --anti-war protests around the world yesterday drew smaller crowds than anticipated.

Please FReepmail me if you want on or off my infrequent ‘miscellaneous’ ping list.

[Jorge]

The root of anti-Americanism is hatred of Christianity and Judaism.
Both faiths dampen the spread of socialism and Islam.

I agree that this is part of it. And many groups openly cite support for Israel as their major reason for hating America.

[livius]

I was at the Bush campaign kickoff in Orlando (Florida) today. Three sallow, incredibly ugly young persons (2, I believe, were female, and one may have been male, or maybe something else) were escorted out as they were shouting and unfurling a flag with a "peace sign" on it! Yes! After 30 years, these kids have rediscovered that stupid symbol, which looks as dorky now as it did in the 60s and 70s.

[Mark Felton]

" There were times when there was very little anti-Americanism in the world"

That was before the ascendancy of socialist globalism and the New World Order. Modern globalism is driven by the socialists. Their full fledged success is denied as long as there are people who believe in the Supremacy of God over Man rather than the Supremacy of the State over Man.

The stronghold of men who believe in the Supremacy of God is the USA. There is no other nation which has dedicated itself so strongly to that proposition.

Undermine that bastion through cultural attack and the path is created for a greater socialist state in the USA and therefore the world.

It is no coincidence that the world socialists and the Islamofascists have the same enemy, the USA.

[nutmeg]

I was at the Bush campaign kickoff in Orlando (Florida) today.

How cool... I'm envious! Dubya's speech was fabulous. Thanks to FReepers' posts here, I watched this event live on C-SPAN today. Glad to hear the unwashed peaceniks were "escorted" off the premises!

Just curious... how did you get tickets to this event?

[Southack]

"Their full fledged success is denied as long as there are people who believe in the Supremacy of God over Man rather than the Supremacy of the State over Man."

They are all fundamentalists who oppose the U.S.

The radical Islamists, of course, are no surprise. The Euro-Socialists, on the other hand, are Secular Fundamentalists...and their opposition to us stems primarily from that new brand of radicalism.

[FreeAtlanta]

So many have now learned a new slogan, "Give War a Chance" And, how, when done by a just nation, it can be carried out to better and to save lives.

[SedVictaCatoni]

Why are people so worked up about our being a Christian country today, as opposed to say 50 or 100 years ago?

Because 50 or 100 years ago, European nations were Christian as well. That is now very far from being the case, and modern Europeans see Christianity as a peculiarly alien force, a pernicious and puzzling influence upon the United States.

[Mark Felton]

No liberty, no peace.

[Texaggie79]

[Choose Ye This Day]

Where was that Commie photo taken? That's just the kind of stuff I used to see in Argentina.

[InABunkerUnderSF]

Where was that Commie photo taken? That's just the kind of stuff I used to see in Argentina.

They have a PCR in Uruguay too, and of course Brasil but the sign is in Spanish.

I think the commies in Spain are called the PCR as well but have never met one.

[jonrick46]

If you go back and read three decades of Saddam's speeches, what you find is someone who inherited a Nazi ideology through Michel Aflaq, the founder of the Ba'ath Party who believes in genocide as a racial tool, who believes that it is his mission to have an apocalyptic confrontation with the U.S., and who believes, as he says over and over again, that he wants to be remembered 500 years from now as someone who brought the U.S. to destruction, someone who created an Arab regime or an Arab civilization which dominated the U.S. civilization.

This same Nazi mindset is part of the ideological cook book being used by the world socialist conspiracy to win the masses. The Hitler regime developed the formula to control and win over the masses. These socialist political technicians are using the same techniques and, when you look below the surface, you will find that they are doing it for money and power.

[Old Sarge]

The Footprint of the American Chicken!

[livius]

Good one! I'd forgotten about that great description of it.

Does anybody else find it a little weird that John F(lip-flop, 'kn, etc.) Kerry seems to be stimulating a revival of 1968? These kids were certainly not even a gleam in their sperm-donor's eye in 1968 - but they looked as if they had been vacuum sealed at an anti-Vietnam demostration and dropped into our midst almost 40 years later.

[livius]

The tickets were distributed through the county Republican party. It was a little inconvenient, because I don't live in that county (it's 2 hours away), and people were supposed to pick up their tickets in advance. But it turned out that they could be picked up early on the day of the event, so I drove down the night before, stayed overnight and was at the conference center just after 7:00 a.m. to pick them up.

If you get in touch with your local GOP organization, they will probably have a mailing list or e-mail list that can notify you of things like this. If you have a Young Republicans group, sometimes they're more energetic than the old-line groups (who strike me as a real weak point in the campaign, because they are not good at informing people or at using volunteers well).