| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"JP" |
| Date: |
19 Mar 2006 02:55:14 PM |
| Object: |
Anti-War Protests Fizzle in the US |
http://www.sltrib.com/portlet/article/html/fragments/print_article.jsp?article=3618103
Anti-war protesters in SLC, elsewhere lament apathy
Staff and combined news service
Salt Lake TribuneBy the time the war protesters began their march Saturday
morning in Salt Lake City, only about 50 people had gathered. Their numbers
had swelled to about 200 by noon - and that was with a little high-tech help
from a marcher who text-messaged friends to join him.
The early low turnout was discouraging to some, such as Susan Westergard
of Holladay.
"There's just about more policemen here than people," said the
Democratic candidate for the Utah House of Representatives in District 40,
nodding to the squadron of eight motorcycle officers parked alongside 400
South. "I guess the longer the war goes on, the more people accept it."
The protesters, organized by the People for Peace and Justice of Utah,
marched from Pioneer Park to a rally on the steps of the City-County
Building, where they listened to songs, speeches and chants condemning the
war.
It was a scene repeated across the United States and the world Saturday
as thousands of demonstrators took to the streets to mark today's third
anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
The protests, like those held to mark each of the two previous
anniversaries of the March 2003 invasion, were vigorous and peaceful but far
smaller than the large-scale marches that preceded the war, despite polls
showing lower public support for the war than in years past and anemic
approval ratings for President Bush, himself a focus of many of the
protesters.
In Times Square, about 1,000 anti-war protesters rallied outside a
military recruiting station, demanding that troops be withdrawn from Iraq.
Police in London said 15,000 people joined a march from Parliament and
Big Ben to a rally in Trafalgar Square. The anniversary last year attracted
45,000 protesters in the city.
In Turkey, where opposition to the war cuts across all political
stripes, about 3,000 protesters gathered in Istanbul, police said.
''Murderer USA,'' read a sign in Taksim Square.
One of the biggest protests was in San Francisco, for decades a hub of
anti-war sentiment. Police there estimated the crowd gathered outside City
Hall at about 6,000 people. Many chanted slogans opposing Bush, and most
appeared to hail from a distinctly grayer demographic than that of other
protest events.
''There are not enough young people here,'' said Paul Perchonock, 61, a
physician. ''They don't see themselves as having a stake.''
In his weekly radio broadcast, Bush defended the administration's record
in Iraq, saying the decision to depose the regime of Saddam Hussein was ''a
difficult decision - and it was the right decision.'' He pledged to ''finish
the mission'' despite calls for withdrawal.
In Washington, a relatively small crowd of about 300 gathered at the
Naval Observatory, where Vice President ***** Cheney lives, and marched to
Dupont Circle. Debbie Boch, 52, a restaurant manager from Denver, said she
and two friends bought plane tickets to Washington two months ago, before
the demonstration had been planned. It was the fifth protest march she had
attended since the war began, she said, and among the smallest.
''It's very disappointing, especially in Washington, D.C.,'' she said.
''You think this is the place where people come to make things happen. I'm
just not sure why there aren't more people here today.''
At the Salt Lake City march and rally, protesters read and commented on
each other's signs, like the large image of Bush carried by Gail Davis.
Under the slogan "War dead on your head," the president's face was created
out of a mosaic of photographs of dead U.S. soldiers.
Davis said she joins a peace vigil every Thursday night at the Bennett
Federal Building at 125 S. State St. "We're not getting too many death
threats anymore," said Davis, who works at as a manager at a law office.
"Nobody's tried to run over us or anything for a while."
Darian Richards, 9, marched from Pioneer Park with a sign that read:
"Bring my dad home." Richard Evans' said "Welcome to 1984," a reference to
George Orwell's book. Others drew upon the messages of an earlier generation
of activists: "I have a dream," one sign announced over a picture of jail
bars printed over the faces of Bush and Vice President ***** Cheney.
Jacob Floyd, a 22-year-old Brigham Young University student, said he was
thinking of the future when he decided to attend.
"I came today because I want to tell my kids I did everything I could to
stand up for what's wrong in our country right now," he said.
Floyd announced his politics on his chest, thanks to a homemade white
T-shirt with the headline "They lied" over the faces of administration
officials, including Bush and Cheney, and the words "They died" over a list
of names of dead U.S. soldiers.
Throughout the morning, a group of eight women dressed in pink-and-black
outfits occasionally broke out in chants. "Resist, resist, raise up your
fist," shouted Raphael Cordray of Salt Lake, one of the "Pom Poms Not Bomb
Bombs" cheerleaders. "Show 'em that you're pissed. Resist, resist, fight the
capitalists."
Cordray said the group of friends, who range in age from 22 to 55, were
inspired by radical cheerleading groups in other states, and used chants as
a way to express their political views in a lighthearted way. ''Some of the
cheers we tone down for Salt Lake City,'' she said.
---
Tribune staff writer Ellen Fagg, The Associated Press and The New York
Times contributed to this report.
Public forum
* 2 p.m. "Bring Them All Home Alive Now" Public Forum, Salt Lake City
Library Auditorium, 210 E., 400 South, Salt Lake City.
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| User: "mellstrrr" |
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| Title: Re: Anti-War Protests Fizzle in the US |
19 Mar 2006 04:51:14 PM |
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<snip desperate prattle and lies>
you wish, don't you?
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| User: "" |
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| Title: Re: Anti-War Protests Fizzle in the US |
19 Mar 2006 05:21:42 PM |
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JP wrote:
Anti-war protesters in SLC, elsewhere lament apathy
Staff and combined news service
People are too scared top participate.
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| User: "MANFRED the heat seeking OBOE" |
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| Title: Re: Anti-War Protests Fizzle in the US |
19 Mar 2006 06:01:57 PM |
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In article lorad474 wrote:
JP wrote:
Anti-war protesters in SLC, elsewhere lament apathy
Staff and combined news service
People are too scared top participate.
http://www.strangecosmos.com/images/content/102272.jpg
LIBs too ST00PID to understand
why they keep missing the Target!
For all their shrieking about the Rights of the Guilty,
the Nobility of Evil and the Sensibilities of the Insane,
the fact remains only a small minority actually share the
same sentiments as John Murtha, let alone the rest of the LIBs.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=47546
Murtha removes unfavorable troop poll
Online voters overwhelmingly opposed his call for withdrawal
The fact remains, it was John Murtha and his LIB cadre of strategic insanity
that convinced Bill Clinton to pull out of Somalia after he'd promised that just
such a pull out would declare open season on All Americans.
http://www.geeskaafrika.com/somalia_22nov05.htm
Rep. John Murtha Urged Somalia Pullout in '93
This is Clinton's Bridge to the 21st Century.
http://www.strangecosmos.com/images/content/114328.jpg
If Elephant dung is Art, why not this?
Q: Will he smoke 'that one' later?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/459846.stm
Hillary steps into dung art row
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| User: "Vandar" |
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| Title: Re: Anti-War Protests Fizzle in the US |
19 Mar 2006 09:10:53 PM |
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JP wrote:
http://www.sltrib.com/portlet/article/html/fragments/print_article.jsp?article=3618103
Anti-war protesters in SLC, elsewhere lament apathy
Staff and combined news service
Salt Lake TribuneBy the time the war protesters began their march Saturday
morning in Salt Lake City, only about 50 people had gathered. Their numbers
had swelled to about 200 by noon - and that was with a little high-tech
help
from a marcher who text-messaged friends to join him.
The early low turnout was discouraging to some, such as Susan Westergard
of Holladay.
"There's just about more policemen here than people," said the
Democratic candidate for the Utah House of Representatives in District 40,
nodding to the squadron of eight motorcycle officers parked alongside 400
South. "I guess the longer the war goes on, the more people accept it."
It's probably because people have realized that the success rate of
political protests is roughly zero and their time would be better spent
elsewhere.
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