Middle East Times
Posted on 09/16/2007 7:29:39 PM PDT by Doctor Raoul
What ought to have been the most massive protest ever in Washington, DC Saturday turned into a 1960s love fest, with leftover agendas and slogans from an earlier war. The long-planned march in Washington by the Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER) antiwar coalition, petered out with a skimpy crowd of 25,000 protesters.
Organizers of the protest claim nearly 100,000 people marcheda from the White House to the Capitol to demand an immediate end to the occupation of Iraq. The march concluded with a dramatic "die-in" of 5,000 people surrounding the Capitol. Protesters surged onto the Capitol's south lawn and up the steps, where they were met by a police line. There, Iraq veterans conducted a solemn ceremony to memorialize the US soldiers and Iraqis killed in the war.
One-hundred-and-ninety-seven people, including dozens of veterans and activists, were arrested when they tried to deliver their anti-war message to Congress and were stopped by the police.
Among the arrested were Adam Kokesh, Liam Madden, Jeff Millard, and Garrett Reppenhagen of Iraq Veterans Against the War, ANSWER coalition national coordinator Brian Becker, former US Army colonel Ann Wright, and Michael Prysner, Iraq war veteran and ANSWER activist in Florida.
Nearly 4,000 US soldiers and, possibly, up-to-1-million Iraqis have died since the US invasion in March 2003.
The protest began in Lafayette Park, directly across from the White House, ironically the site of a war memorial, with military monuments from the past. One monument celebrates military instruction, hardly the right venue for a protest against President George W. Bush's attempt to reshape the Middle East.
By noon, the crowd was minimal, perhaps a few thousand people in the center of the park, listening to a variety of antiwar activists, including young Autumn Ashanti, a child who read her antiwar poems. Though half the protesters appeared to be university students attending the first march, the motley crowd of 1960s peaceniks was definitely gray.
Typical of earlier protests were the hangers-on: the animal rights people, labor activists, the Hare Krishnas, and others, too many of them hawking tee-shirts, pamphlets for their causes, and stickers and lapel buttons - the usual entrepreneurs who want to make a quick buck, no matter what the event or what side of the issue is being protested.
Somewhat more impressive were the placards and the attire of hundreds of protesters who took the time and effort to create a unique poster or statement about the war. "Who Would Jesus Torture?" read one sign.
Other signs included: "Iran Is My Next Victim," "Death Thanks George Bush for All the Overtime," "Troops Home Before Christmas," and one decorated with a picture of Osama Bin Laden, accompanied by the words "He's Free, Are We?" Hundreds of machine-printed posters proclaimed the need to impeach George Bush and end the war.
The march from Lafayette Park to the US Capitol led by "Veterans against the War" was colorful, though marked by minor disturbances and pro-war activists standing on the sidelines. Musicians, bikers, and Rolling Thunder veterans accompanied the movement through the streets.
Why so few people?
Many of the demonstrators said they were disillusioned with much of what has been going on in America during the past six-and-a-half years of George Bush's term in the White House.
The left, in particular, points not simply to the war, but environmental degradation, a collapsing infrastructure, economic stagnation that has reduced purchasing power (except for the very rich), an irrational foreign policy, and a government that appears to be unwilling to implement significant change on any major issue.
MODEST TURNOUT: US anti-war protestors demonstrate the ongoing Iraq
conflict in Washington, DC September 15, 2007. Despite being anticipated as
the largest anti-war protest to take place in the federal capital, numbers of
demonstrators dwindled to about 25,000 by the end of Saturday's event.
(Charles R. Larson)
Doc. Fox News was saying 5K in attendance.
It was like blah this time.
Friday evenings, when lots of folks stop by the Giant or Safeway to pick up meat for berbequeing, was really dead. We had no trouble finding top quality, very fresh $1.99 per pound ground sirloin, and NO TOURISTS AT ALL.
Even IKEA was quiet.
I saw an earlier thread here this evening saying that some college students where given extra credit for attending the protest, and some homeless people were given 20 dollars to march in the protest.
No attempt to levitate the Pentagon?
What a travesty.
” What ought to have been the most massive protest ever....”
the writer makes no bones about his agenda, so why believe his propaganda re attendance......anyone with a teevee and cable who saw it on C-Span knows that 8k is a generous estimate and that 25k is outlandish.
This looks like where Harry Reid got his 1 million dead Iraqi figure.
I didnt see any free mumia posters, did they forget about the brother
Sinners? In hell, maybe?
Well Freepers, if you think we Eagles were outnumbered today. You could not be more wrong and here is some information, you need to know.
It seems that our friends on the left had to resort to bribes to inflate their numbers today. I spoke to several students from Hollins College, who claimed they would receive extra credit and even credit for attending today's rally. I did observe what would be college professors leading their students along the route to the Capitol.
After the event of the day I observed several signs in the trash near the homeless shelter several blocks from the Capitol and I asked one of the residents about it. He claimed that they were promised $20, if they would walk along with the rally, they did not have to take part in the die-in, but walk with the others. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>The march from Lafayette Park to the US Capitol led by “Veterans against the War” was colorful, though marked by minor disturbances and pro-war activists standing on the sidelines.
Musicians, bikers, and Rolling Thunder veterans accompanied the movement through the streets.<<
,,,including young Autumn Ashanti, a child who read her antiwar poems.
((((((
We know the numbers of attendees are way wrong, but couldn’t the reporter even get it right that little Autumn Ashanti recited her “poem”, she certainly did not read it. She looked and sounded like she had been indoctrinated at a combination blackpower/wahhabi school, and was auditioning for miss teen terrorist rapstar.
He forgot to mention the 9/11 conspiracy pinheads who seemed outnumber the peacenics.
Take away all the AFSCME and SEIU members who were paid to be there and you probably end up with a number in the low dozens.
This means they’ll once again return to defacing military monuments.
Whoever wrote this article seemed to be trying very hard not to be utterly sarcastic. I could tell that he or his editor had to rewrite a bunch of it to downplay the blindingly obvious.
You could almost imagine him wincing as he suggested the number of Iraqis killed might be as high as Harry Reid says.
“Yes, and I once had a camel with 1 million fleas as well.”
Many of the demonstrators said they were disillusioned with much of what has been going on in America during the past six-and-a-half years of George Bush’s term in the White House”
Is this guy brain dead?
So, his reasoning (If you can call it reasoning) is that the people who are angry at George Bush and are there presumably to protest his policies decide NOT to show up because of... His policies!
Ya gotta love the complex, powerful reasoning abilities of the Leftists. Once again they prove themselves the smartest people in the room!
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