Free Republic

Columbia SC. Forget the chocolate bunnies and marshmallow Peeps. For just $9.74, you can buy the "Military Combat" Easter basket, a pretty pastel-colored package loaded with gun-toting toy soldiers, tanks and grenades. The Easter warriors are embedded with the legions of more traditional - Winnie-the-Pooh and Barbie-themed baskets - that line the shelves of local Wal-Marts and Kmarts. The baskets have been eagerly snatched up by some Columbia area shoppers. But not everyone's happy to see G.I. Joe join forces with Peter Cottontail. "I think it's very deplorable to try to sanitize the ugly face of war," said Hal French,...

Group Protests Selling Of War-Related Easter Baskets Baskets Contain Toy Soldiers, Guns, Warplanes POSTED: 8:16 a.m. PST March 13, 2003 GRASS VALLEY, Calif. -- Protesters gathered at a Grass Valley K-mart Wednesday, voicing their displeasure with some Easter baskets that were being sold. The group wanted the store to stop selling Easter baskets that contain toy soldiers, guns and warplanes. The anti-war protesters believe the baskets give children the wrong message about Easter. "How can you equate happy Easter with bombing people and killing people and killing children?" protester Jane Kesselman said. The protesters apparently made their point as the...

<p>Walgreens is retreating from plans to sell packaged Easter baskets in which toy soldiers and other war toys were featured nestled among the Easter candies.</p> <p>Walgreens says intensifying talk of war in Iraq led it to rethink the combat sets that include troops in battle dress, assault rifles, planes, tanks and other toys, along with traditional candies.</p>