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Home Front: Culture Wars
General Thread About Protests In Washington
2007-03-17
Thousands of anti-war demonstrators plan to march to the Pentagon from the Mall today to mark the fourth year of U.S. occupation in Iraq...
...Counterprotesters with the group Gathering of Eagles will hold a 10 a.m. rally at Constitution Gardens before demonstrating along the march route...
Posted by:Anonymoose

#3  heh Thanks Bobby for the update and for putting up with protesting Krappy Krowd! ;-)
Posted by: RD   2007-03-17 17:56  

#2  Rantburg News Service – WASHINGTON, D.C. March 17, 2007

Your reporter arrived at the Vietnam War Memorial at 1:15 pm, having seen scores of departing vets, and a few protesters, on the way down from the Foggy Bottom Metro Station. Most of the protesters were under the age of 25, but two older gentlemen were carrying “Impeach Him” signs. Perhaps they naively expected everyone else to know who they wanted impeached.

War protestors left a mess of broken sign pickets and trampled signs as they pushed down a snow fence on their way to the Pentagon. Veterans and American flags were everywhere around the Memorial, and the Park Service had set up metal detectors to insure no one brought cans of any deleterious substance into the Memorial. Crowds at the Memorial proper were typical for a March day, but thousands of vets milled around outside the screening station.

Your intrepid reporter continued to thank vets for their service, including one distinguished-looking older gentleman at the Lincoln Memorial, who replied, “It was my privilege. It was my responsibility.” Most vets offered a simple, yet heartfelt, “Thank you.”

Shunning the large crowds headed toward Foggy Bottom, your reporter left the scene and traipsed up the Mall to the Smithsonian Metro Station, where a seat was easy to find. But the crowds seemed to have dissipated by 2:45, and few got on the Metro train at Foggy Bottom.

One young man got on the train at Foggy Bottom, on the way to Pentagon City, dressed in desert camouflage pants, and smiled when your reporter’s companion remarked about the numbers of protestors on the platform at Arlington Cemetery. They all seemed to be going back into the Capitol. The young man said, “They bussed in a bunch of kids and just dropped them off.”

“Where there many at the Pentagon”, we inquired? He shook his head, with an impish grin.

“More vets than protestors?”

“Oh, yeah! I drove 13 hours from Massachusetts last night. I heard they were going to desecrate the Vietnam Memorial. I wasn’t going to let them do that.”

“Did you serve?”

“Yes. I was with the 3rd Infantry Division on the initial push.” We thanked him for his service, and he said he was going back to hotel to sleep, having been up all night to continue his service by honoring and protecting his Country’s memorials.

When he got off the train, a young women and her father got on, and sat in his seat, the father carrying an “Impeach Bush” sign. A women across the aisle asked the two how it went.

“Oh, not too many,” said the father, “Probably less than a hundred thousand.”

Quite possibly a lot less.
Posted by: Bobby   2007-03-17 17:38  

#1  Guess which side is displaying which flag! :-)



Posted by: gorb   2007-03-17 14:44  

00:00