Dozens of protesters arrested at Port of Tacoma, WA (military vehicles to Iraq)

[Mrs. Overall]

TACOMA, Wash. - Dozens of anti-war activists were arrested on Sunday at the Port of Tacoma, where they gathered to protest against the shipment of military vehicles to Iraq.

A deployment ceremony for the 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry unit is scheduled for Monday. The brigade will be the first to deploy with all ten versions of the Stryker, including one armed with a cannon that can blast through walls.

Equipment for that deployment is already being shipped out through the Port of Tacoma. Anti-war activists have been gathering at the port since last Saturday to protest, at times violently, the use of the port for a military purpose. But on Sunday, the activists promised a peaceful protest, and the result was an assembly line-like display. Protesters who agreed to commit an act of civil disobedience simply climbed over a barrier against police wishes in an orderly fashion as an expression of their disapproval.

The 4th Brigade was was originally scheduled to deploy in May but is leaving ahead of schedule in accordance with the president's troop surge plan.

http://www.komotv.com/news/6431427.html

[Monkeyman]

1. They are not trained in Desert or Urban Combat

[seriousstan]

6. That is not true. They didn't train in Fort Irwin, Calif. Thay trained at Fort Lewis.

FORT LEWIS, Wash. (Army News Service, Feb. 27, 2007) - There might never have been a brigade training event on the scale of the 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division (SBCT), rehearsal for Iraq that ended Feb. 14. Certainly, one so big never came together so fast.

The keystone of the effort was the Joint Readiness Training Center, the Army's premier combat training facility for light infantry and special forces units.

"We provide training specifically geared toward BCTs (brigade combat teams) that are deploying to Iraq and Afghanistan," said Lt. Col. Shawn Klawunder, chief of the JRTC Plans/Exercise Maneuver Control Group. "For the past two-plus years, all we've been providing is mission rehearsals for what they're going to encounter in theater.

"I don't think it's been on this scale before, in an expansive training area like this one," he said. "We had to look at every inch of the footprint to get everything in here."


http://www.army.mil/-news/2007/02/27/1991-gearing-up-jrtc-trains-4th-bde-2nd-inf-div-for-accelerated-deployment/

[Lint Head]

2. Activism

Activism. America needs activists now! More people need to get off of their lazy butts, out from in front of the television watching American Idiot and march. I know this is wishful thinking but this is what needs to be done.
:dem:

[Earth_First]

3. I don't buy that the activists were violent...

There may have been violence provoked by law enforcement, however I do not believe that it was the bottom line of these activists to incite violence as a means to protest the deployment of military equipment.

The article does a very good job making it sound as though the activists were solely responsible for the violence:

"Anti-war activists have been gathering at the port since last Saturday to protest, at times violently, the use of the port for a military purpose."

[Javaman]

4. Was this the same protest that was video taped?

and the police started using tear gas and rubber bullets for no reason?

[gratuitous]

5. Did you like how the reporter sneaked that in?

Yep, them dirty fucking hippies won't just leave us alone to wage our imperial wars! It's an outrage that they turn to (no context) violence at (unspecified) times to stop the greater atrocity being carried out with our citizens and our tax dollars.

[bigluckyfeet]

8. Change of subject a Little

Locally my port is also a major shipping port that the government uses to ship military hardware.I pay taxes to support the port,it has been in business for years and it still has a hand in tax payers pockets.I resent paying taxes to the port to subsidize commercial and government interest.

[Acadia Blue]

7. I was in Seattle when they had the WTO protests. Got to hand it

to them up there. They are more activist that the rest of the nation.