OUR LITTLE ANTIWAR MOVEMENT….IS PRETTY DAMN EFFECTIVE!
So, another antiwar statement by Peace Kingston and Queen’s Against War–focusing once again on the miscreance that describes Sir George W. Bush’s policies since 9/11. The problems with the U.S. role in the Middle East are legion, and well known. Yesterday in Kingston, gathering power in front of Stauffer Library as the alumni from this august university celebrated in various ways, the antiwar contingent headed off to City Hall, via its usual route up Barrie and down Princess. Probably a couple of hundred people showed up during various parts of the march, which culminated on a gorgeous day in front of the site at which — days earlier — an aroused Kingston populace succeeded in forcing the mayor and council to back off the LVEC site at Anglin Bay.
But that’s another story, well worth discussion, and probably related to the war in Iraq if one scratches the taxonomy of that conflict deeply enough.
On a gorgeous Saturday however, homecoming weekend, the raging grannies and their friends let Kingstonians hear that the Iraq war is an evil and problematic thing, that Canadians must work to protect their civil liberties and prevent increasing complicity with the Bush administration conflict, as well as standing up for Americans who wish to leave the war, the military, and their country and come to Canada.
We must do all that we can to preserve Canada as a peaceable kingdom and focus on those spots in Canadian-American relations that need illumination.
The Bush foreign policy is less and less palatable to more and more Americans. Where 100,000 citizens turned out in Washington D.C. to protest the confllict, organizers of a counter-protest (see below) hoped that 20,000 would turn out to support America and the president.
Less than four hundred showed up to do so.
Keep the heat on–Peace Now!!
(09-25) 12:38 PDT WASHINGTON, (AP) –
Support for U.S. troops fighting abroad mixed with anger toward anti-war demonstrators at home as hundreds of people, far fewer than organizers had expected, rallied Sunday on the National Mall just a day after a massive protest against the war in Iraq.
“No matter what your ideals are, our sons and daughters are fighting for our freedom,” said Marilyn Faatz, who drove from New Jersey to attend the rally. “We are making a mockery out of this. And we need to stand united, but we are not.”
About 400 people gathered near a stage on an eastern segment of the mall, a large patchwork American flag serving as a backdrop. Amid banners and signs proclaiming support for U.S. troops, several speakers hailed the effort to bring democracy to Iraq and Afghanistan and denounced those who protest it.
Many demonstrators focused their ire at Cindy Sheehan, the California woman whose protest near President Bush’s Texas home last summer galvanized the anti-war movement. Sheehan was among the speakers at Saturday’s rally near the Washington Monument on the western part of the mall, an event that attracted an estimated 100,000 people.
“The group who spoke here the other day did not represent the American ideals of freedom, liberty and spreading that around the world,” Sen. Jeff Sessions, an Alabama Republican, told the crowd. “I frankly don’t know what they represent, other than to blame America first.”
One sign on the mall read “Cindy Sheehan doesn’t speak for me” and another “Arrest the traitors”; it listed Sheehan’s name first among several people who have spoken against the war.
Melody Vigna, 44, of Linden, Calif., said she wants nothing to do with Sheehan and others at nearby Camp Casey, an anti-war site set up to honor her son, Casey, who was killed in Iraq.
“Our troops are over there fighting for our rights, and if she was in one of those countries she would not be able to do that,” Vigna said.
The husband of Sherri Francescon, 24, of Camp Lejeune, N.C., serves in the Marine Corps in Iraq. One of the many military wives who spoke during the rally, Francescon said that the anti-war demonstration had left her frustrated.
“I know how much my husband does and how hard he works, and I feel like they don’t even recognize that and give him the respect he deserves,” Francescon said. “I want him to know and I want his unit to know that America is behind them, Cindy doesn’t speak for us, and that we believe in what they are doing.”
Organizers of Sunday’s demonstration acknowledged that their rally would be much smaller than the anti-war protest but had hoped that as many as 20,000 people would turn out.
On Saturday, demonstrators opposed to the war in Iraq surged past the White House in the largest anti-war protest in the nation’s capital since the U.S. invasion. The rally stretched through the night, a marathon of music, speechmaking and dissent on the mall.
National polls have found steadily declining support for the war in Iraq, with a majority of Americans now believing the war was a mistake.
In an AP-Ipsos poll this month, only 37 percent approved or leaned toward approval of how Bush has handled the situation in Iraq; strong disapproval outweighed strong approval by 2-1, 46 percent to 22 percent.
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