Wounded Iraq Vet Threatened, Spat on by 'Antiwar' Protesters (D.C. Chapter Report on 1/27/07)

Sunday, January 28, 2007 | Kristinn

[kristinn]

I'm angry. I'm angry at the 'antiwar' protesters who heaped abuse on our troops. And I'm angry at the people who couldn't be bothered to stand up for our troops yesterday.

Tens of thousands of anti-American leftists and their dupes marched on our nation's capital calling for America's defeat in the war on terror in Iraq.

Only about forty people could be bothered to turn out in support of America's victory in Iraq. Among those forty was a civilian POW held by the North Vietnamese communists and several Iraq war veterans--including wounded warriors who left the hospital to stand up for their brothers in arms on the home front.

Why did former POW Mike Benge and Iraq vet Joshua Sparling only find a few dozen people willing to stand with them? Why, as the anti-American left is heading toward repeating their victory in Vietnam, are so many people sitting on their asses and doing nothing to stop them?

Why, when Joshua Sparling was spat on, cursed at and threatened by 'peace marchers', were there so few people there to defend his honor?

Why was Jane Fonda allowed to desecrate the Navy Memorial and only face token opposition?

Why did Mike Benge see thousands more people showing up to cheer Jane Fonda than there were to denounce her?

Those who were there to support these patriots will be posting their observations and photos on this thread. I've said my piece.

[kristinn]

Bless you. And thank your husband, please.

We will not give up on him. Never.

[kristinn]

I appreciate your reconsidering and coming back on the thread to say so.

Thank you.

[davidlachnicht]

[Humidston]

>>I usually try to stay away from trouble<<

What a sad shame. You have no idea what you're missing. The worst you'll see is hippies swearing at you. Those of us who alumni know the police love us and stick close by to keep an eye on the bad guys. When the dust settles the police wink at us, give us thumbs up, and generally let us know how they appreciate us being there.

I'm an old grandma now, and I've never felt threatened at a rally. NEVER. All I know is that we can't sit by and let those communists get attention any longer. Back in the '60's I saw how they almost destroyed America and if I have anything to do with it, they won't go unchallenged ever again!

Kristinn, I'm in TX but if I had transportation and housing out there I'd be there in a New York minute! You guys are my all time heroes.

[PleaDeal]

They may have the media, but they do not have all of us fooled or cowed, and never will.

ditto! You know where you can always find a friend, USMCWife6869. We will always support -- *unconditionally* -- our brave troops and their families.

[GunsareOK]

The back up was appreciated. Wish you guys had told me you were going to lunch--I left the Navy Memorial and went directly to capitol hill.

There was a definite need for more police presence at this event.

[GunsareOK]

The car show was available for six days so there's no excuse there.

[Bob J]

"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results"

Benjamin Franklin

How many DC rallies are you going to hold, have them sparsely attended and then run back to FR to whack people over the head for not showing up? Expecting huge turnouts for conservative rallies in DC is not working, hasn't worked and probably won't ever work. Hundreds of activist FReepers understood this over five years ago and here you are in 2007 pushing the same shtick. FR had dozens of committed people and the vehicle to organize rallies all over the country and you and your friends helped kill it. For you to now complain that activism is dead on FR is unbelievably ironic.

Maybe it's not FReepers or conservatives in general, maybe it's you. Salvation lies within my friend.

[trooprally]

I think you mean a "Washington Minute". :-))

But you are right. The police thought they had the commies fenced off from us until a fence down the block from us came down. Once they learned of their mistake, they came quickly to keep the peace.

The UFPJ marshals also keep the idiots moving, letting them stop long enough to curse us. And they kept them off the sidewalk section where there was only one line of fencing.

[Mr] T

[trooprally]

Read your "About" page and was impressed. Thanks for what you are doing.

But I believe you are wrong here. It can be understood why in the past, when both houses and the presidency were held by Pubs, FReepers were complacent.

But now that the President is standing alone, the anti-American groups are emboldened. Now more than before, FR and others need to really show their colors and support our troops. A Virginia senator claims that this particular march shows that the Vietnam era protests and probable results because of them are going to repeat themselves. Now that is scary.

I disagree with your comment, that FR has "committed people and the vehicle to organize rallies all over the country and you and your friends helped kill it". From the comments on this thread, Kristinn seems to have lit a fire under a lot of FReepers. If they can't make it to D.C., they will heed calls in their areas.

And we have started planning differently for the March 17 Troop Support Rally to get better results.

[Mr] T

[baubau]

Hey, Grandma, first my respect to you as I do highly esteem elderly people.

I'm poor and unemployd due to the current and past invasion of third world illegal aliens stealing our jobs. Hence, I neither can attend these far-away protests nor am I wealthy enough to protect myself from the bad guys, and when it gets from worse to worst, to run back to the cradle of civilization with the tail between my legs like a good elitist. As an American citizen, had I a job, perhaps I would have had the wherewithal to attend. But, elitist I ain't.

[baubau]

"I'm in TX but if I had transportation and housing out there I'd be there in a New York minute! You guys are my all time heroes.

Same here.

When are we going to have a march or something near my house. If we do I'm willing to go, if somebody can provide transportation. I'm in New Jesey.

[Bob J]

I understand and agree with most of what you wrote. The bottom line is the DCC has had many, many rallies in DC and none of them have been attended well, so why expect differently this time?. Instead of taking a step back and asking "why" they beat people over the head on FR not meeting their expectations. This is not the first time a post of this sort has gone up after a DCC rally...it's the third or fourth.

We had good turnout for the March for Justice (3500)in '98 and more moderate success with the Judgment day Rally (800) and the House Managers Rally (500) in '99. The declining attendance told many of us that expecting large turnouts in DC in the future may not be possible so we switched to a strategy of holding smaller rallies in multiple locations. Seemed smart at the time and most agreed with it.

In 2003 during the "Rally for America" the FRN was able to help encourage about 250 rallies across the country with a few having several thousand people, in particular Dallas and Chicago. This made a much larger impact because we were able to better control the media in those cities. A positive article and/or pics in 250 newspapers/television stations has a lot more impact than one negative article in the WP.

Anyway, if the purpose of this most recent rally was to get out and take a stand against the lefties, that was accomplished, they should be proud and happy and be done with it. Numbers shouldn't be a driving factor because you're not going to get them anyway and you'll just be disappointed, as evidently is the case.

In any rallies we've ever organized or helped out in, not once did we ever criticize people for not attending. Smacking people upside the head or working a guilt trip on them is not only unprofessional but childish.

As you know, I have a history with the DCC and I doubt these comments will be viewed as anything other than one more (last?) attack on them from Bob J, and sadly nothing will be learned. They have always had a problem distinguishing between positive criticism and bleacher carping.

Good luck with your March rally!

[Bob J]

I am going to make one last observation and then leave. When I was reading the original post from Kristinn, one thought kept nagging at me. K and TGSL are ragging on people who live in the area or are a short driving distance away for not showing up. They noted there were 40 people there, 10-15 were soldiers and I would assume 5-10 newbies and maybe 10 more stragglers or people walking by and stopping. The DCC has been in existence for like seven years and they were only able to get 10-15 of their own people there? And they're ragging on people for not driving a couple hundred miles or getting on a plane?

Physician heal thyself.

[Bob J]

I reread your comments and want to address them specifically, aside from what else I've posted on this thread.

"But now that the President is standing alone, the anti-American groups are emboldened. Now more than before, FR and others need to really show their colors and support our troops."

You're mixing up support for the war and support for the troops and that is why using a "support our troops" theme won't work. I would say a majority if not most of Americans support the troops but are losing their confidence in our ability to win the war. Equating non support for the war with non support of the troops is another guilt trip and you lose them. Better yet to use a "Support a Free and Democratic Iraq" theme. People will understand that to achieve this means supporting the troops mission.

"A Virginia senator claims that this particular march shows that the Vietnam era protests and probable results because of them are going to repeat themselves. Now that is scary."

Very scary and they are on their way to achieving it. However, holding one small rally on a snowy day in DC with a backdrop of 10k screaming lefties isn't going to turn the tide. The spot on Fox was nice though.

"I disagree with your comment, that FR has "committed people and the vehicle to organize rallies all over the country and you and your friends helped kill it"."

Well, I am speaking old news. The FRN has been disbanded and shut down. It was a great idea (we envisioned ourselves a conservative effort to what Dailykos did) and would have made a tremendous impact but fell for many reasons, one of them being the infighting and backstabbing on FR.

"From the comments on this thread, Kristinn seems to have lit a fire under a lot of FReepers. If they can't make it to D.C., they will heed calls in their areas."

And I wish them all luck. I can tell you this, a lot people who are guilted into making a commitment today will have second thoughts when it's time to pull the trigger.

[Bryan]

I have a better idea. If I do say so myself, I think it is a much, much better idea.

How do the left-wing fanatics get so many people to DC? It happens to be in an Ultraviolet District (DC) that makes every Blue State look red by comparison.

Right up the road, just a few hours' drive away, are Baltimore and Philadelphia. Just a little farther and there's New York City, Boston and Cleveland. All five of these cities are somewhere between indigo and midnight blue.

DC is so close to about a million left-wing fanatics and 60 million garden variety liberals that they don't even have to get motel rooms, people. They can drive down, screech their hatred, become the lead story on every network news broadcast, and drive home -- all in 16 hours flat.

What is the Freeper equivalent?

Oklahoma City.

[Bob J]

Not only is there no FReeper equivalent, there is no conservative equivalent.

The moonbats are better organized, better financed and most are willing to make partnerships with groups they don't like or get along with because they know they will get some juice out of it in terms of exposure, donations and face time. Too many conservative groups are too concerned with turf and protecting their standard of living, i.e. email lists and donor lines, to do anything more than nod at each other once in a while.

The other sad fact is you just can't get conservatives out in the streets in force unless the situation is dire. It's not a character flaw, as one of my mentors says "conservatives just want to be left alone". Libs on the other hand want to control the world. Guess who is going to win?

The next fact, and it may be the most important, the left has almost the entire media in their pockets. The propaganda juggernaut...to tell the stories as they want them to appear and to highlight the ones they want people to see, is far to much an advantage to consistently overcome.

Sometimes I wonder how we ever get anybody elected. I guess it's because most Americans over 30 are basically conservative and if given the chance to make a decision unencumbered by the avalanche of mind control put out by the left, they go our way.

Want to change the way things are? Start with the media. It is the lifeblood of liberalism and mothers milk of every left wing whacko.

[Bryan]

Oklahoma City is within a six-hour drive from hordes of Freepers in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Arkansas. It's within a 12-14 hour drive from even more, including me. My wife and I could leave here before dawn on Saturday, attend a late Saturday afternoon rally in OKC, get a motel room and drive back Sunday. Tens of thousands of other Freepers and conservatives would be able to do the same.

Take a page from the left-wing moonbats' playbook and ally ourselves with other groups such as VFW, American Legion and ... oh duh ... the Republican Party and other allied organizations like Young Republicans.

It would be difficult for the left-wing moonbats to organize an effective counter-protest for exactly the same reason that it's difficult for us to organize an effective counter-protest in DC: OKC is close to a lot of Freepers, but too far away from too many left-wing moonbats.

OKC has the added advantage of milder winter weather than some other venues I could suggest. There's a memorial there to the victims of the Murrah Building bomber. I'm sure that we could rally there; the speakers could weave that thread into "the need to fight terrorism wherever we find it."

One thing I know for sure: we could get one helluva lot more than 40 people there, and you know it.

[Bob J]

We sponsored and assisted with nationwide rallies in 2001 and in 2003 that had venues in over 250 cities each. We wrote off national coverage and instead concentrated on local. It was effective and achieved the goals we set for ourselves.

So what if there was one large rally in the middle of the country? The local press would cover but with possible the exception of Fox, national media will ignore it. So you get coverage in one or two newspapers and maybe a tv station.

That's why calling for a national conservative rally in one city is a disaster. It relies on national coverage for success and that's unlikely to materialize. Every year the Pro Life movement has a rally in DC that has had up to one million people attend. They get zero media coverage.

That's why I don't understand the position Kristinn and TGSL took on this thread. They got a mention on Fox and that was worth everything whether 5 people or 5000 showed up. I would be ecstatic. This is my opinion, and I'm going to be brutal. I think some people's reasons for putting on rallies is screwed up. It seems the rallies are more about self validation than being politically effective.

[Bryan]

How do you define "politically effective"? There are many ways to be politically effective, Bob, but they all boil down to two:

1. Mobilize your base; and

2. Convince the undecided (and by that, I include less-than-fully-committed opponents).

Participating in such an event, or at least seeing it on Fox (and that's what the base is watching) will mobilize the base. And we can see what we can do about getting it on the mainstream evening news broadcasts like NBC and CNN, which would start to convince the undecided. They claim to be balanced. In order to maintain that facade, they may be vulnerable to getting shamed into it.

Much of the opposition to the war is based on factors that have nothing to do with how the war is going. And about half of the people who now say they oppose the war have previously supported it. They can be convinced to do so again.

Remember right after 9/11, when Bush's job approval rating was 90% or so? There was still a 7% moonbat sliver that said they disapproved of the job that Bush was doing. We will never reach them.

But the other 93% are either already ours, or within reach.