Posted on 09/25/2005 2:01:02 AM PDT by lunarbicep
Supporters of Iraq War Counter Anti-War Rally With Demonstrations of Their Own By The Associated The Associated Press Sep. 25, 2005 - Military families and other defenders of the war in Iraq were claiming their turn to demonstrate, responding to a huge war protest with a rally of their own on the National Mall.
Organizers hoped to draw several thousand people to their noontime event near the National Air and Space Museum. They acknowledged the rally would be much smaller than Saturday's anti-war protest in Washington but said their message would not be overshadowed.
"People have been fired up over the past month, especially military family members, and they want to be heard," said Kristinn Taylor, a leader of FreeRepublic.com, one of the sponsors of Sunday's event.
The pro-military rally was billed by organizers as a time to honor the troops fighting "the war on terrorism in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere around the world."
On Saturday, crowds opposed to the war in Iraq surged past the White House in the largest anti-war protest in the nation's capital since the U.S. invasion. The rally stretched through the day and night, a marathon of music, speechmaking and dissent on the National Mall.
Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey, noting that organizers had hoped to draw 100,000 people, said, "I think they probably hit that."
In the crowd were young activists, nuns whose anti-war activism dates to Vietnam, parents mourning their children in uniform lost in Iraq, and uncountable families motivated for the first time to protest.
From the stage, speakers attacked President Bush's policies head on, but he was not at the White House to hear it he was in Colorado and Texas, monitoring hurricane recovery.
A few hundred people in a counter demonstration in support of Bush's Iraq policy lined the protest route near the FBI building. The two groups shouted, separated by a police line.
War supporters said the scale of the anti-war march didn't take away from their cause.
"It's the silent majority," said 22-year-old Stephanie Grgurich of Leesburg, Va., who has a brother serving in Iraq.
The war protest in the capital showcased a series of demonstrations in foreign and other U.S. cities from Vermont to California.
A crowd in London, estimated by police at 10,000, marched in support of withdrawing British troops from Iraq. In Rome, dozens of protesters held up banners and peace flags outside the U.S. Embassy and covered a sidewalk with messages and flowers in honor of those killed in Iraq.
I guess the official method of estimating crowds is whatever the organizers expected, that's how many were there.
BTTT
Really... how did you swing a promotion. Seriously...Thanks for being a voice out there for alot of us... I appricate it.
I have yet to be interviewed on the war protests by the media, however I am ready with an observation, that being- the complete lack of an American flag anywhere in the march or for that matter in most Democrat rallies.
I wish that those of us that get interviewed would continue to press that obvious unreported fact.
That's exactly what I thought when I read Ramsey's comments. He was probably thinking, their estimate is not that great a number to begin with so I'll give it to them.
Not exactly a ringing endorsement.
She said of President Bush
"I now know he's sincere about wanting freedom for the Iraqis...I know he's sorry and feels some pain for our loss. And I know he's a man of faith."
Cindy Sheenan
Why not...I'd follow Kristinn over a cliff. :)
.....and I'll your last name is Hitler or is it just Troll?
nclady, that sign you mention, I've seen it before. They mean GW had a personal exit strategy for Vietnam by going into the guard. As if those hippies ever served in the Guard!
I don't doubt the Left cheated and lied about their numbers. But they still outnumbered the good guys by many to one.
Why are we the 'silent' majority? We should be making more effort to be heard. IF the Left is giving comfort to the enemy when they show up in big numbers (even if they are unwashed), then aren't we giving comfort to the enemy when we show up in small numbers?
If the papers are saying the police chief counted 150,000 of them, and then next day's paper reports 400 of us, we have a problem. America's enemies are watching to judge our strength and determination. We have to do better next time. THe troops need our support.
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