Posted on 03/22/2003 4:37:41 PM PST by ex-Texan
U.S. Marines Enter Basra to Cheering Crowds -- While U.S. Peace Protestors Engage in a "Gross Out"
This is the crazy state of affairs in the world today. It looks to this independent reporter as though the world has been turned upside down. Iraqis cheer U.S. marines in Basra . . . . . While thousands march against the war and their peace demonstrations turn violent in Los Angeles and elsewhere across America.
According to a BBC Report this morning the marines entered Basra and were applauded by Iraqis. (March 22, 2003). Similar scenes of open Iraqi support were replayed repeatedly on television.
I quote briefly from that report filed by a BBC reporter "embedded" with our troops:
* * * Coming into Basra as part of a massive military convoy, I encountered a stream of young men, dressed in what appeared to be Iraqi army uniforms, applauding the US marines as they swept past in tanks.
US predictions that many here would choose to surrender rather than fight appear to have come true * * * Leaflets had been dropped on the city, urging members of the 51st Iraqi Division to surrender, and I saw hundreds doing so. * * *
Peace protests around the United States are supported by hundreds of churches. Some of the major Christian denominations have high ranking leaders applauding and supporting peace demonstrations. Yet the American public is growing weary of protests that support Iraq's brutal terrorist-dictator Saddam Hussein. Polls conducted from Portland, Oregon to San Francisco to the east coast found people strongly support President George W. Bush and the war on Iraq.
The major media networks and local television continued to broadcast protests and demonstrations. But even the talking heads seemed to lack conviction in their voices while talking about these strange peace marchers. Local news commentators appeared to learn the painful truth about these "peace" demonstrations first-hand: They were not peaceful demonstrations and the intention of the leaders was to disrupt city commerce. In San Francisco reporters were visibly upset by the sight of demonstrators defecating and vomiting in the streets.
The demonstrators looked to me like a very odd mix: Old hippy types, "Workers of the World" and Green Party loyalists, violent rabble rousers, curiosity seekers, college students, strident professional protestors, and disenchanted youths in "Goths" costumes partying the night away.
They were not legitimate peace demonstrations by an American public outraged by a very unpopular the war. Rather, they were simply a major public "Gross Out."
(Excerpt) Read more at newspundit.net ...
Just a minute ago I was telling my wife that I heard some kid seriously refer to our fighting soldiers in Iraq as "Baby Burners." I haven't heard that crap (except as a way of describing how nutty things were back then) in almost thirty years.
I was almost physically sick from it.
(Side note: I once heard my brother yell the term during an argument with our father. A year later, he graduated high school and joined the Army. Served in Special Forces in Columbia (I'm not supposed to know that) and Grenada, among others. So I guess there's hope for young people who say that. But I still hate it.)
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