Posted on 04/09/2005 5:10:22 PM PDT by Matrix1948
Baghdad -- Two militant Muslim clerics, one Sunni and one Shiite, have called for demonstrations today to protest the continuing U.S. occupation of Iraq two years after the toppling of President Saddam Hussein. If the protests materialize, they will be the first large-scale rallies to occur under Iraq's new government, whose most senior leaders -- President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Ibrahim Jafari -- were formally installed this week. Jafari is now forming his Cabinet. Moqtada al-Sadr, a young militant Shiite cleric with a large following in Baghdad's huge slum of Sadr City, has urged a peaceful march from Firdaus Square -- where U.S. troops tore down a statue of Saddam to mark the capture of Baghdad on
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Two losers who lost out in the new Iraqi government are now crying foul. Let other Iraqi close in on them and finish them.
Let's see -- allowing for free elections, the free adoption of a new constitution, the toppling of a tyrannical dictatorship, the training up of a new Iraqi army -- yeah, that's right, the US is just an evil tyrannical force oppressing the Iraqi people, just like Saddam. That's the ticket.
Al Sadr again! Big mistake not to off him when the chance was there--but politicians feared a backlsh. Good grief!
vaudine
Chanting "No! No to terrorism!" and "No! No to America," thousands of supporters of a radical Shiite cleric who once led uprisings against U.S. troops called Saturday for American forces to withdraw from Iraq, staging a massive protest at the same square where - two years ago to the day - protesters pulled down a towering statue of ousted Saddam Hussein.
Compare the protests- which one looks like the ’voice of the people’ to you?
http://bellaciao.org/en/IMG/jpg/saddam_toppled-4-9-03.jpg
http://bellaciao.org/en/IMG/jpg/sunni_shia_protest1.jpg
They didn't. They were only able to manage a few thousand. They wanted a million. No where close.
Considering that Sadr had weeks to prepare, bussed people in, and the population of Bagdad, his was a pretty pathetic showing.
Both the Washington Post and the NY Times noted that the turnout of Sadr supporters was far below the million people Sadr had predicted and hoped to turn out.
It's worth repeating: Anti-Sadaam, anti-terrorist and anti-occupation by the U.S. long term.
Now stop reading your Comunista website for a moment and think for your self what the above means.
We knew for days that Sadr's people were planning this protest. It's not a surprise. The only real surprise is that the numbers failed to meet expectations. I really fail to understand your point in posting these pictures. Posting pictures you find on the web is easy. Making a coherent point is quite a bit harder but why don't you give it a try.
Do you look at every gathering of several thousand people at every disparate protest in the U.S. as "the voice of the people"? Just curious.
The "voice of the people" was the more than 8 million Iraqis who voted on January 30th for a national assembly that is not advocating the imminent withdrawal of U.S. troops.
Wow, we already see the Democrat Party forming in Iraq.
Pictures speak a thousand words
But another point is that these demonstrations are proof that we have brought democracy to Iraq. Now it is time to consider where we go from here.
Well, that I agree with.
Now it is time to consider where we go from here.
There's nothing to consider. The Iraqis are setting up their democracy and we are training Iraqi security forces to take over from U.S. troops. That's where we go from here.
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