01/28/07 11:12 - ID#37897

The Protest

It's been awhile (e:strip), but I'm once again making a new year's resolution I find myself making nearly every year alongside taking off a few pounds and taking the dog for more walks: I'm trying to renew my posting habits on da Strip. Rest assured, I still rock the orange magnet bumper sticker promoting estrip.org in NoVA.

Yesterday was the big DC demonstration in protest of the escalation and to put pressure on the Dems to be hard on the President & Co. I'm not going to get into a political debate here -- the numbers are finally on my side and I'm calling it like this:

If you can't see that Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld & various of their peers are guilty of nefarious, dangerous and idiotic activities then you are a complete moron.

These activities are illegal for a number of reasons, but primarily because they involved clear mis-representations to a variety of groups and have resulted in the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives (American and foreign).

Thus, these people need to be investigated and charged accordingly. Impeach Bush, then Cheney, and continue down the line. Anything less is an injustice to the American people.

The rally began well before I got there around 11am, and there were thousands and thousands of people. The Metro trains were packed coming in from every direction. Sarah and I went with our friend, Kevin, not affiliated with any group, but sympathetic to many of the folks at the demonstration. There were plenty of people on he train talking about protesting the Vietnam war, as well as the 2004 winter protest just before the Iraq war began.

There were a lot of children all over the protest. It was clear that many of the parents in the crowd were motivated by a desire to save their children from dying in the desert. And many of those children seemed to have an idea of why they were there: Killing is wrong. Stop killing people.

There were thousands and thousands of people. The march was moving so slow that we got out of liine and walked across the capitol to see the front of the march, with Jesse Jackson, Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon, Jane Fonda, and Sean Penn. There were plenty of non-Hollywood important people there, but I don't remember all of their names... I am an American, after all. By the time those people returned to the starting point of the parade there were still thousands of people waiting to march. There was a ring of people at least 100 deep surrounding the entire capitol. It was pretty damn awe-inspiring.

The sheer diversity of groups: Military people, unions, parents, anarchists, feminists, quakers, and tons more. There was some great protest baroque including giant paper-mache Bush Regime figureheads, lots of people on stilts, and even a marching band and a few drum cores. It was like the Macy's day parade, except everyone was chanting about impeaching the president.

It proved a few things to me. First of all, fuck all those right-wing dickwads who call the protestors dour and weak. These people were energetic, hopeful and strong. There is certainly a vibe of outrage fatigue in my day to day life, but at this demonstration people were vibrant. They were psyched to be exercising their rights and fulfilling their duties as Americans. They were having FUN making their voices heard. It was NOT a "sorry retreat" kind of vibe. This is about re-taking control of our government and steering us away from ignorance and greed, towards peaceful prosperity.

That's not to say there weren't somber moments. Speaches from soldiers and war widows choke me up right away. The display of shoes representing the number of Iraqi dead was pretty heavy. The protestors took up the estimation of 600 thousand Iraqi dead from Johns Hopkins University's study. Bush says 30 thousand -- but he also said there were weapons of mass destruction.

The whole thing was really moving in a lot of ways, mundane and sublime. Early reports indicate it will get some decent news coverage -- I hope it does. I hope the protest is remembered as being a part of the impetus for the tide to finally turn on ruthless George W and his cohort. I'm proud to have been there, and it was a sight to behold.

I've been there a dozen times since I've moved to DC, but I don't think I ever felt so proud to be an American as I did yesterday afternoon in front of the Capitol watching all those people for as far as the eye could see.

shawnr writes at 09:57:26 01/31/07 - Comment #15196: Just to set the story straight:

It's become clear that Joshua's war-martyr example turns out to be something of a professional shill for the right-wing media. Why did NYT and WaPo interview him for the story when they undoubtedly knew of his history of crying wolf, provoking protestors, and appearing on shows like Hannity and Colmes (not supporting Colmes...)? Who knows. Such is the state of journalism, I suppose, but that's a different debate.

Here's a good article summarizing Private Joshua Sparling's history of playing to the camera:

:::link:::

Of course all of this is moot because in crowds of tens and tens of thousands there are bound to be a few morons. Heck even in a crowd of just 200-something there's a few morons here at the 'strip! Right Josh?

joshua writes at 03:50:14 01/29/07 - Comment #15115: Lol... I knew that soldiers name sounded familiar. This soldier was the same soldier that some idiot sent a "die" Christmas card to a year and a half ago.

Between those types of actions and the spitting, it shouldn't be a surprise that people are constantly impuning and turning the anti-war movement into a massive caricature.

I think that some of you are sincere individuals, anyway, and its unfortunate that your movement is always being undermined by itself.

joshua writes at 02:27:14 01/29/07 - Comment #15108: P.S. - I wonder if you caught the NYT article that documented anti-war yokels spitting at a disabled veteran at the protest. :::link:::

I bet such stuff makes you beam with pride to be an American, doesn't it?

jason writes at 02:20:47 01/29/07 - Comment #15107: Yes Ajay, I admit I was a bit gratuitous with my mentioning of the Hebrews. The rest of it is still good though. ;-D

joshua writes at 01:35:11 01/29/07 - Comment #15104: Yawn. What a fucking stupid thing to say - "If you don't agree with me and all my protesters YOO R STOOPID!!11111" Sorry, but you are severely misinformed if you believe that any poll you've read essentially confirms that 65- 70% of the USA are wingnut lib job protesters in the vein of Cindy Sheehan and Medea Benjamin. The country is growing weary of the war, but most of the country does NOT see the world (or the war) the way your frazzled ilk does, and I could use (and have used) the same polls that liberals are trumpeting to prove that. To convince yourself otherwise is a complete and utter fallacy.

You are concentrating on the President but I would recommend concentrating on Democrat politicians - they aren't going to pull out of Iraq any sooner than their Republican counterparts because to do so would be political suicide. How can this be true if the country is supposedly 70% full of rabid anti-war weekend protest warriors such as yourself? The answer - its not, and the same polls that liberals like to quote are actually the same polls that suggest that 65% of Americans either want a small decrease in troops or no decrease at all.

The only interesting and outrageous thing that occurred at the protest was that the police were commanded by their leaders to not only NOT arrest clear lawbreakers, but actually pull the police line as far back as the Capitol building. I'm all for nonviolent protesting and while I do not have a problem whatsoever with the protest, when you actually spray paint external sections of the Capitol you should be in jail.

(e:ajay) - I'm not terribly concerned about the Jews being attacked, because if someone attempted another holocaust (which is only a matter of time, if you ask Mr. Ahmews098wehfs9hegfijad in Iran) their capitol would get nuked. The Jews aren't in trouble in Iraq, its the Sunnis, who some believe will be subject to ethnic cleansing if we do what you would like to do... which is perpetrate what I like to call "premature evacuation."

ajay writes at 10:35:07 01/29/07 - Comment #15099: (e:jason) writes "I certainly don't subscribe to the idea that if we left the ME alone, and allowed another extermination of the Hebrews ... "

So is the Iraq war now about Israel, (e:jason) ?

Nobody is talking about not supporting Israel. You're comparing apples and sushi.

jason writes at 10:29:57 01/29/07 - Comment #15098: Oh, one last thing - I agree that there should be investigations, and oversight...but

"These activities are illegal for a number of reasons, but primarily because they involved clear mis-representations to a variety of groups and have resulted in the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives (American and foreign)."

All I can say is that with a legal argument like that (well, he has done illegal things because we say so) impeachment proceedings will go absolutely nowhere. I would actually go a step further and say that to legally prove that "Bush Lied, People Died" is a near impossibility, without some kind of HARD evidence (Bush on Tape).

jason writes at 10:21:20 01/29/07 - Comment #15097: I definitely agree that the protest, and the people behind it certainly aren't dull or weak personalities. I would go even further than you and say that people who are committed ideologues of all stripes are morons, and thoughtless robots, who let other people make their opinions for them. There are ideas and principles on both sides that I think have some merit, and are actually compatible.

I certainly don't subscribe to the idea that if we left the ME alone, and allowed another extermination of the Hebrews that our problems would end. Even the so-called "experts" who know how shitty we've handled the occupation know and understand the implications of simply packing our shit and leaving.

That said it is definitely time to acknowledge that we've failed to restore order, and that we can't do it militarily. It would be responsible to come at it from a bipartisan point of view, which has been to set goals and timelines for us to get out sooner than later, and to give Iraq the best chance to make it on their own. At some point we have to stop babysitting, and it will have to be up to them.

Peace protests by themselves don't make peace, not for us domestically and certainly not for the people getting shot up in Iraq. It will take massive social change everywhere, most of which cannot possibly be enforced by anyone.

metalpeter writes at 12:36:44 01/28/07 - Comment #15080: Nice pictures of the protest. I just wish that you had more pictures of the bands and things you described. I don't really want to get into a political Debate here. But that being said we never should have invaded Iraq. The reason isn't because it was Bush's Personal Agenda or cause there warn't weapons of mass distruction.

It is because supposidly Iraq Harbored Terrorists who had something to do with crashing those planes into the towers. If you follow this logic we will attack Canada Next because there are terror cells there to. Was Saddam Preaty evil Yeah he was. Did he commit mass murders yeah. Where the people affraid of him yeah. But you know what there wasn't a civil war for that same reason. I belive that if you want to Liberate a People it is ok to help them but they have to want it bad enough to try and rebel on there own. Then you help them.

Don't get me started on the fact that Bush's and Bin Ladens family where partners in the oil business. But what I don't get is Saudi Arbai is the country that may have the most amout of money in the middle east and most likely funds all the terrorism but we don't say anything to them. Oh yeah they are our buddies. The USA needs to get the fuck out of the middle east and just let them all fight eachother. Those countries have been tourbulent before we where a country and if we didn't have our nose in there business they would have no reason to attack us.