Silver Spring MD Armed Forces Recruiting Station FReep - February 15, 2008

February 16, 2008 | Tom the Redhunter

[Tom the Redhunter]

Yesterday, February 15, about a dozen or so hard-core leftists gathered outside of the Armed Forces Recruiting Station at 8202 Georgia Avenue in Silver Spring MD, from 4-6pm. There to counter them and support the troops was Free Republic.

World Can't Wait staged a series of protests at 6 military recruitment centers across the US.

Here's the background on this group from David Horowitz' Discover The Networks website

Founded in June 2005 by Charles Clark Kissinger, a longtime leader of the Revolutionary Communist Party, World Can't Wait (WCW) is a direct action movement seeking to organize "people living in the United States to take responsibility to stop the whole disastrous course led by the Bush administration." The organization asserts that removing President Bush from office "will be like removing a forty-pound tumor from your gut." WCW vows "to send Bush, Cheney and the rest of those fascists packing. ... After that, there are people in 'World Can't Wait' who are working for everything from reforming the Democratic party, to building a 3rd party, to revolution."

Also present were a few members of Code Pink, including Desiree Anita Ali-Fairooz, the woman who attacked Secretary of State Rice last October 24 as she prepared to testify before Congress. Here she is on that day

And here she was yesterday, trying to explain to an Army recruiter (just out of the picture) why the war in Iraq was evil etc. Needless to say, he wasn't buying.

The protesters gathered at the corner of the parking lot maybe a 100 feet away from the recruiting center. In this photo, Georgia Avenue is to the left, and the parking center and recruiting center are to the right. On the opposite end of the parking lot was Free Republic, which you can see in the background. One of our members had a large Amercan and US Marine Corps flag, which you can see waving proudly in the breeze.

One leftist had on a Palestinian kuffiyeh "support" scarf. You might recognize that his sign is recycled from previous protests. I saw it last Sept 15 at GOE III and GOE I, at the International ANSWER protests in Washington DC.

Here's another view of the leftists as taken from the parking lot

This is the flyer that they were handing out to passers by

And here's a close-up of one of their signs

Here's the view from behind the FReepers. At the end of the sidewalk are the leftists

And here we are. As the cars would slow for a traffic light, motorists could observe the scene. We got many honks, friendly waves, and thumbs up from them. FReepers present were Mr & Mrs Trooprally, Leo, Olney-Keith, TrueBlackMan, Cindy_True_Supporter, and your reporter, Tom the Redhunter. Not a whole lot of us but it's not a numbers game and we only got notice of this at the last minute, so not many of us could make it. A big THANK YOU to Mrs Trooprally for helping me with the photographs!

Here's Desiree Anita Ali-Fairooz with a typical Code Pink sign

Throughout most of this the military recruiters stayed in their office, windows shuttered and door locked. In good military fashion they prepared for the worst, fearing a repeat of the seige of the US Marine Corps Recruiting Station in Berkeley, California. No doubt they were monitoring the situation from inside. After some time, though, one of the recruiters came outside and stood in the parking lot where he could observe the protesters better. There was a Montgomery County police officer in the parking lot, but he left after awhile and we were never sure if he was there to monitor the protest or if he was just there by accident.

The Leftists Ratchet Up their Protest

Eventually growing bored with standing at the street corner, shortly after 5:00 some of the Pinkos decided to head over to entrance of the recruiting station and entertain themselves by chanting slogans. By this point two of the recruiters were out front, engaged in debate with the leftists

Here's the scene

One of our number decided that he wasn't going to let the leftists have it all to themselves. The big orange sign says "Hey! Recruiter Leave our Kids Alone!

The leftists started chanting and unfortunately I didn't have a recorder or notepad, so I didn't get their exact words, but it was something to the effect of "No More Rape, No More Torture, No More War"; standard leftist fare. Yawn. This group was a pale imitation of their brethren in Berkeley and elsewhere. They didn't attempt any vandalism or try to force their way inside the recruiting center. They drew some slogans on the parking lot with chalk but that's it.

After chanting for maybe 10 or 15 minutes they grew bored, and some returned to their street corner. Others stayed to try and debate the recruiters and a few of us. We heard all of the usual stuff; that we are "bombing Iraq" (apparently at random), doing nothing but "killing women and children" (no terrorists ever die in their world), that 1.2 million Iraqis had died since the invasion (no doubt referencing the hightly questionable Lancet Study, and when the terrorist kill people it's still our fault), and the "how would you like it if the Chinese invaded the United States and imposed their system here" (the logical fallacy of moral equivalence). As debating them is pointless, I mostly just stood and observed. Here's the scene

The two recruiters handled the situation with grace. They patiently explained to the leftists why the war was justified, what we were trying to do, and that in fact the surge was succeeding. They were quite knowledgeable and overcame the leftist's objections one by one. Each had served in Iraq.

Around 6:00 the leftists decided they'd made their point and stared to pack up. We thanked the recruiters for their service and were sorry that they had to put up with a bunch of idiot protesters. They in turn expressed their appreciation that we were there to show support.

You can see all of my photos on my Photobucket site.

Here are additional photographs taken by fellow FReeper Mrs Trooprally.

[Tom the Redhunter]

DC Chapter Ping

[NonValueAdded]

God Bless You all for standing in support of our magnificent military.

[trooprally]

OutStanding report !!! You get the Award if the Month!!
[Mrs T]

[jan in Colorado]

God Bless ALL of you for being there!

Tom, your report was fantastic. Thanks so much for the detailed report and all the great pictures.

I know it meant a lot to the recruiters that you all were there.

God Bless our troops and all those that fight to keep this great Country free!

[zoomie81]

To all of you... Thank you and God Bless you for doing so much. Great photos and report.
Look forward to joining you all soon.

[Angelwood]

Great after-action report and photos. Thanks to all who were there.

FReep On!

[vietvet67]

Thanks to all. **==

[ALOHA RONNIE]

.

NEVER FORGET

.

And to think, this all started with:

The Lies of TET

http://www.ArmchairGeneral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=60610

.

NEVER FORGET

.

[bmwcyle]

bttt

[exit82]

Wonderful report!

Thanks to all who stood on short notice against these Commies.

The Minutemen of 1775 would have been proud.

[concretebob]

BUMP

[trooprally]

Thanks for the AAR and being there.

Leo is also a Minuteman. He had some real good stories from Maryland and Virginia events. He’s heading down to the border this spring.

Ahhh, spring, warm FReeps. Can’t wait.

[Mr] T

PS: IMHO, the Chinese place in the pic isn't so great.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[BufordP]

At least there was a modicum of honesty in Desiree's banner: Keep It Stupid, Simple. Don't enlist.

[\/\/ayne]

All we are saying...is give soap a chance! (Dr. Raoul)