Posted on 03/20/2004 4:54:27 PM PST by Mark Felton
As the turnover date for the governance of Iraq nears -- and an independent poll shows that overwhelming numbers of ordinary Iraqis want Coalition forces to stay on, at least until a stable government is established -- anti-war protests around the world yesterday drew smaller crowds than anticipated.
The global protests were organised for the one-year anniversary of the day the Coalition began the attacks on an Iraq then under the thumb of Baathist dictator Saddam Hussein.
In New Zealand, a few hundred activists gathered in Wellington and Auckland, with smaller numbers in other locations.
The messages sent by organisers rang curiously hollow since many emphasised the importance of self rule for Iraq, a goal that is already part of the core Coalition agenda.
"It is hoped that this march will send a clear message to the government that New Zealanders do not want to be a part of these unjust occupations. Instead we call for self determination for the peoples of Afghanistan and Iraq," said one New Zealand organiser in a pre-march press release.
Where hundreds of thousands marched in protests a year ago, only thousands showed up yesterday, but the demonstrations in some cities made for impressive television nonetheless.
A few big centres of activity, like Rome, took in bus and train loads of protesters from all over Europe, but still fell well short of the numbers that filled the streets there last February, before the war actually commenced.
Rome officials put the turnout at 250,000 but organisers inflated those figures to upwards of 2 million.
Last year, anti-war demonstrations in Rome were the largest of the many seen in Europe, with more than 2 million involved.
Paris managed a turnout of 2,500. Amsterdam saw 3,000 in the streets according to one source (and "a few hundred" according to another), while Paris managed to gather 25,000. Germany reported 1,600 in Berlin.
The low turnouts in countries that have been loudest in their opposition to the war may indicate that the issue is losing steam in the popular imagination as Iraq moves toward political autonomy.
In Spain, where one journalist discounted the much lower than anticipated turnout as the result of demonstration fatigue, 150,000 people demonstrated in Barcelona.
Spanish Prime Minister-elect Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, a staunch opponent of the war, has called it a "disaster" and said he will withdraw Spain's 1,300 troops from Iraq by June, the date already tentatively set for the proposed turnover of Iraq's administration, unless the occupation receives a mandate from the United Nations.
MSNBC said that "thousands" marched in Madrid and noted that while "no crowd estimate was immediately available" the numbers "paled" in comparison to the mass demonstrations that had taken place all over the country following the bombings of Madrid's trains.
That story also put the numbers of demonstrators in Middle Eastern capitals at "hundreds" and said "tens of thousands" took to the streets in London.
The left-leaning, "alternative voice" Inter Press Service News Agency noted that organisers were "clearly disappointed with the turnout estimated by the police at no more than 25,000" in London. An organiser told media representatives that one reason for the low turnout was that "the weather isn't great." More than a million demonstrated in London last before the war last year. 21-Mar-2004
The root of anti-Americanism doesn't have to be religious hatred. Most of these "peace" protestors are low-life ananrchists who want to see this country do as Spain- - -relinquish individual initiative and free enterprise and move to socialism. It's the same thinking that fueled the anti-war movement in the Viet Nam era....with some of the same participants..
Your long drive and overnight stay in the Orlando area to see Dubya at that fabulous rally sure sounds worth it to me! :-)
My previous response was to someone who had said that anti-Americanism was a response to our being a Christian nation. I was just pointing out that there are a lot of Christian nations (Canada, Mexico, Belgium, New Zealand) that aren't hated by anyone. I don't think our Christianity has anything to do with their not liking us. The whole non-Arab world sympathized with our loss on 9-11. The question is, why has world opinion shifted so much in the last three years? I don't think it's because Europe is socialistic. They've been socialistic for as long as I can remember. This isn't something that just happened in the last three years.
How do you figure that? Would you say the root of anti-Mexicanism is hatred of Catholics?The root of anti-Germanism is hatred of Lutherans? The root of anti-Turkism is hatred of Muslems?
No to the latter, yes to the former. Actually I don't know what motivates their hatred. But, they don't like Jews and they don't like Americans. So does it matter what anybody thinks about Lutherans or Turks? Shall we just ponder while others kill?
And what happens when Iraqis vote for a new government that does not get any where near 100% of the vote????
And what happens when that government asks for the continued presence of coalition troops to help keep the Islamofacists and non-Iraqi murderers at bay???
I don't think so, either. The countries that dislike us the most (Germany, France, etc) have been becoming more Socialist for years. Their economies are in the tank. There is a growing gap between our prosperity and their lack of it. They blame us for it.
I hate to say it, but "it's the economy, stupid" is the answer to more than one question.
You miss my point. Which is that there are lots of Christian countries that aren't hated. So the fact that America is a Christian country could hardly be the reason that America is so hated now. America has always been a Christian country but people didn't always hate us.
Well, be my guest. Grab your weapon and fly to whatever country offends you most and do your duty. As for your resenting people who "pomder" here. I just responded to the person who raised the issue, same as you did.
Roll your eyes till the cows come home. I would too if I had no good answer to the assertion that, except for the Arab countries, the U.S. experienced a worldwide wave of sympathy for our loss on 9-11. The notion that Europe always hated us absurd. I hitchhiked around Europe when I was a college student. People gave me rides, took me home so their wives could cook me dinner, took me drinking at their favorite beer garden, introduced me to all their friends, simply because I was an American.
Could be. Though there was a far greater gap between their prosperity and ours in the decades following WWII than there is now. And it seems to me that that was a golden age for Americans to travel around the globe. Actually I'm not comfortable with using the word "hate" to describe how the rest of the world feels about us. If people hate us so much why would they move here in a second if they had a chance? Is there any American embassy in the entire world where there isn't a long waiting list of people trying to emigrate here? If people hate us, why do they love our music, our movies, our culture and our blue jeans?
The people. The majority of them are Christian. Nothing else comes close.
Europe has a very low rate of church attendance. If your read the European's comments regarding Bush's ourspoken Christian faith, it scares them.
Europe was Christian in the past.
That was then, this is now.
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