WaPo: 4 Years After Start of War, Anger Reigns

[babylonsister]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/17/AR2007031700539.html

4 Years After Start of War, Anger Reigns
Demonstrators Brave Cold to Carry Message to Pentagon, as Counter-Protesters Battle Back

By Steve Vogel and Michael Alison Chandler
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, March 18, 2007; Page A01

Thousands of demonstrators protesting the fourth anniversary of the war in Iraq marched on the Pentagon yesterday, jeered along the way by large numbers of angry counter-protesters.

Organizers billed the antiwar rally as marking the 40th anniversary of the 1967 march on the Pentagon. At times, verbal clashes during the cold and blustery day demonstrated that the bitter divisions of four decades ago sparked by Vietnam are very much alive in the debate over Iraq.

The march, part of a weekend of protests that included smaller demonstrations in other U.S. cities and abroad, comes as the Bush administration sends more troops to Iraq in an attempt to regain control of Baghdad and Congress considers measures to bring U.S. troops home.

Paul Miller, 72, a Korean War-era Marine Corps veteran who flew from California for the march with his brother, was making his first appearance at an antiwar rally. "I was like everybody else. I trusted the people who ran the country, and I'm tired of being lied to," Miller said, standing on a hill overlooking the Pentagon, a beret with a Marine Corps pin on his head. "I feel so bad for the young Marines who are getting their legs blown off and losing their lives."

Organizers said yesterday's march on the Pentagon reflected the public's sense of betrayal over the escalation of the war. As some speakers called for the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney, others denounced Congress in equally bitter terms for not cutting off funding for the war. Yet attendance at yesterday's march was noticeably smaller than one held in Washington in January, police said.

more...

[magellan]

1. Lost me at "Thousands of demonstrators" and "large numbers of angry counter-protesters"

It's well-established that the CM habitually describes protests of any size from a few thousand up to 500,000 as "thousands", which in turn renders "large numbers" a meaningless comparison.

[nicknameless]

4. It gets worse.

Further down in the column, the writers described the counter-protesters' numbers as "thousands" also.

Much of the passion yesterday was supplied by thousands of counter-demonstrators, many of them veterans who mobilized from across the country to gather around the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Some said they came in response to appeals on the Internet to protect the Wall against what they feared would be acts of vandalism; no such acts were reported.

I'm guessing the number of pro-war jerks was much smaller than that, and most of them were probably shills.

And a rumor that anti-war protesters were going to vandalize The Wall???
What a freaking joke.

[rfranklin]

2. Those counter demonstrators were paid to show up...

There has never been a significant counter protest at these marches. Logic tell us that they were paid by the RNC to show up. I wouldn't be surprised if they were employees of Blackwater (Bush's private death squad.)

[melody]

3. Rove pays for a bigger counter protest

It shows how desperate the shits are becoming.

[B Calm]

5. but the surge is supposedly working....