Rice shrugs off anti-war protests during tour of northwest England

AFP ^ | March 31, 2006

[cloud8]

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice braved anti-war protestors and hecklers during a friendly visit to the heart of Britain, Washington's staunch ally.

Some 200 opponents of the US-led war in Iraq protested her visit Friday to Blackburn in northwest England, after two dozen anti-war protestors greeted her upon arrival in nearby Liverpool from Paris on Thursday night.

"Condoleezza Rice, Go home!" many chanted when Rice, using a side door, entered a high school in Blackburn, the home town of her host, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, who visited her home state of Alabama last year.

"Hey, hey Condi Rice, how many kids have you killed today?" they also shouted outside Pleckgate High School.

The refrain echoed the one shouted at "LBJ, how many kids have you killed today?" when US President Lyndon Baines Johnson was leading the United States in its war in Vietnam in the 1960s.

The protestors, who included women wearing Muslim headscarves, also carried placards saying: "Stop the war" and "How many lives per gallon?"

Jabbar Khan, 16, a student at the school, was among those on the other side who supported Rice. "We should be proud to have such a high-profile visitor to our school," he told reporters.

During her tour, a teenage member of the school council asked how she felt about the protest.

"Oh, it's okay. People have a right to protest and the right to make their views known," Rice replied. "I'm not just going to visit places where people agree with me, that would be really unfortunate."

[cloud8]

I was hoping they'd given her jersey #44.

[GnL]

A whole 224 people protested and that ended up being the focus of the story. No bias here!

[ClaireSolt]

And how many people do you think were involved in making her trip a success? 2,000?

[Prysson]

I was just thinking pretty much the same thing.

How pathtic is the media. This story could just as easily read. 12 million people decline to protest. Or.. An Anti war rally drew only 200 people.

Or how about this....since its clearlky a NONSTORY...maybe they might decide to not make it a "news" story.

[Prysson]

I was just thinking pretty much the same thing.

How pathtic is the media. This story could just as easily read. 12 million people decline to protest. Or.. An Anti war rally drew only 200 people.

Or how about this....since its clearlky a NONSTORY...maybe they might decide to not make it a "news" story.

[Milligan]

At least she's not called a war criminal like Madeleine Albright.


http://www.zpub.com/un/un-ma.html

[MadJack]

"Hey, hey Condi Rice, how many kids have you killed today?"

You'd think that by the time they get into high school, they could at least make up something that rhymes. Guess the Brit educational system is just as much a failure as ours.

[TNCMAXQ]

"Condoleeza Rice, go home." Wow, such a sharp and original phrase!

200 people? What a mob.

[cartan]

“Hey, hey Condi Rice, how many kids have you killed today?” they also shouted outside Pleckgate High School.

The refrain echoed the one shouted at “LBJ, how many kids have you killed today?” when US President Lyndon Baines Johnson was leading the United States in its war in Vietnam in the 1960s.

These highschool kids remember those days pretty well, eh?

[NZerFromHK]

I suspect that American liberals would rather want people to forget that this group of people exists.

And second, I suspect these people must be thinking now "Surely Clinton and Albright were bad enough, but I didn't know BushitlerTM would be infinitely worse! It is like comparing a farying pan to a naked fire!"