After Action Report - Utah Appeasenick counter protest

self | 18 March, 2003 | self

[batter]

I turned up and found myself amongst 12 high-school students verses a fairly sizeable crowd of folks mostly ignorant of the news and history (go figure).

The High-schoolers were great. The kids impressed me in terms of how well read/informed they were. The appeasenick protesters kept trying to argue with us about how we couldn't go to war because Saddam hadn't done anything specific to us. We attempted to explain the WMD, how Sept. 11 changed things and brought history into play re: if people wouldn't have had let Hitler get away with treaty violations in 1933...as well as the fact that Germany hadn't attacked us (Japan did). The high schoolers and I brought up several more points including a list of Saddams current, known, violation of the terms of surrender etc. but were met with black stares and ummming and aaahing (which pretty much says it all).

We were met with the "its for oil" talking point and countered it with how little Iraqi oil we use coupled with the fact that it would be cheaper just to let Saddam go and buy his oil....again, we were met with blank stares etc.

Next came the "there are no links to terrorism" line. We countered with the 737 used (by al-Qaida?? or group w/ links to al-Qaida?) plus al-Qaida's recent statement of meeting US forces in Iraq and preventing a second North Korea. (I would like more info on the 737 use if someone could provide me with that I would appreciate it!)

Finally, the innocent civilians will be killed line came up. This is the best part! We had a middle aged French lady with us; she came up (she was steamed when they came up with the civilian line) and just nailed the anti-war nuts telling them how her family and other french would rejoice when allied "liberty bombs" would hit. She said that any oppressed people are happy to shed some blood for freedom. No one likes to die, but I guess "Liberty or death" still lives in some people. Protesters came back with 130,000 Iraqi's were killed in the first war (supposedly as State Dept. figure - any freepers with info on this one?). We told of Saddam's oppressive reign...more blank stares.

Anyway, I had a lot of fun - too bad no other Utah Freepers turned up!

[batter]

Oh, one more thing - a drunk protester kept comming up asking questions near the end of the protest he stated that we were maybe making some sense - all I could think is after a few more beers anything could make sense to him...I wonder which one of the protest leaders got him drunk in the first place!!! ;) LOL

[batter]

UG and TM4 - the last comment on the post doesn't include you (you had valid excuses). If any other freepers were there, let me know but to my knowledge Utah freepers were AWOL on this one.

One last thing these fruitcakes are planning 'civil diobedience' classes somewhere next week...I wonder how Hill etc. would react if they try something (I've heard several military bases have informed protest groups of their right to "shoot to kill" sabboteurs (sp?) during a war situation).

[What Is Ain't]

Good job! Interesting to hear a number of high-schoolers joined you.

There is hope.

[Rad_J]

sorry, I found out about the protest too late to rearrange my schedule. Plus my wife doesn't care for politics so it makes it hard to join in.

Let me know of any other events.

[Vets_Husband_and_Wife]

BUMP!!! Way to go!!

[Madame Dufarge]

Giant thumbs up to you!

[DeathfromBelow]

[From the Marines at MATCA]

With all of this talk of impending war, many of us will encounter "Peace Activists" who will try and convince us that we must refrain from retaliating against the ones who terrorized us all on September 11, 2001, and those who support terror.

These activists may be alone or in a gathering . . . . . most of us don't know how to react to them. When you come upon one of these people, or one of their rallies, here are the proper rules of etiquette:

1. Listen politely while this person explains their views. Strike up a conversation if necessary and look very interested in their ideas. They will tell you how revenge is immoral, and that by attacking the people who did
this to us, we will only bring on more violence. They will probably use many arguments, ranging from political to religious to humanitarian.

2. In the middle of their remarks, without any warning, punch them in the nose.

3. When the person gets up off of the ground, they will be very angry and they may try to hit you, so be careful.

4. Very quickly and calmly remind the person that violence only brings about more violence and remind them of their stand on this matter. Tell them if they are really committed to a non-violent approach to undeserved attacks, they will turn the other cheek and negotiate a solution. Tell them they must lead by example if they really believe what they are saying..

5. Most of them will think for a moment and then agree that you are correct.

6. As soon as they do that, hit them again. Only this time hit them much harder. Square in the nose.

7. Repeat steps 2-5 until the desired results are obtained and the idiot realizes how stupid of an argument he/she is making.

8. There is no difference in an individual attacking an unsuspecting victim or a group of terrorists attacking a nation of people. It is unacceptable and must be dealt with. Perhaps at a high cost.

We owe our military a huge debt for what they are about to do for us and our children. We must support them and our leaders at times like these. We have no choice. We either strike back, VERY HARD, or we will keep getting hit in the nose.

Lesson over, class dismissed

[xm177e2]

To find out more about the 737, look up "Salman Pak"

[xm177e2]

Protesters came back with 130,000 Iraqi's were killed in the first war

This sounds like good numbers. The estimates I've seen are that we killed 100,000 soldiers, so that figure might be a little high, but it sounds reasonable. The first Gulf War was a bloodbath. After we liberated Kuwait, we just slaughtered fleeing Iraqi soldiers. There's only one way to describe the Highway of Death, and that's "cold-blooded murder."

If we were going on to stop Saddam, that sort of killing could have been justified. But not just to chase him out. The innocent Iraqi shlubs drafted into the army died, whereas the Ba'athist Republican Guard escaped mostly unharmed. We're going to do things very differently this time. Bush's father will be forever shamed by comparisons to his son.

[dila813]

One good point to make,

Without war over 1million Iraq civilians will die, half of them under the age of 14.

With war, even with the most absurd highest estimates only 300k will die.

Bottom line, war is better than this false peace.

[batter]

Thanks!

[Utah Girl]

Good job! My question is: Were there really 2000 anti-war protestors there?

[spookycc]

Great job! We hafta work a little harder when we're so outnumbered. ;-)

[batter]

I'm not the greatest at estimating, but I would say half that number or less (I think 2000 is quite a bit too high).

That reminds me - it really drove the protesters crazy when they would say "Look how many people turned up" and we would come back with "yeah, look how many didn't bother to turn up because they know you're wrong". LOL! They just couldn't counter that one, it was a hoot.

[BlueOneGolf]

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com has a great "Saddam stack of stuff" including links to all the info about the Salman Pak terrorist training camp 15 miles south of Baghdad. Awesome photos from spaceimaging.com of the airliner fuselage included as well. you can't see the pics on spaceimaging.com's website but they have offered it to Rush Limbaugh to post on his site free of charge. Hope this helps.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Saddam and Sons Countdown to Judgment Day: 21 hours,49 minutes, 18 seconds

[Zachary1985]

I was one of those High Schoolers! I was so happy to see at least a couple others that were there on our side.

I just posted a message in hopes of organizing a honk and wave to take place in the event of war.

Please be sure to write me an e-mail about whether you can attend at zhowell1861@yahoo.com

If your there, I will give you a copy of a tape we made of the morons. We interviewed two of them, and I can assure you, it is very entertaining to watch.