Posted on 09/29/2003 8:59:47 PM PDT by DCBurgess58
Iraq marchers demand anti-war nuts get out of S.F. Protest was part of a global anti-anti-war effort.
By Diammhad Al Walsh and Simoma Bin Sebastian, Baghdad Chronicle Staff Writers Monday, September 29, 2003
After a quiet six months, the streets of Baghdad once again swelled with anti-anti-war activists Sunday as thousands demonstrated against the anti-war occupation of San Francisco.
The group -- estimated by organizers at 5,000 people -- was decidedly smaller than the tens of thousands that turned out for anti-anti war protests immediately after the U.S. liberated Iraq in March. The Baghdad Police Department no longer provides crowd estimates.
Organizers, however, hailed the march as signifying a resurgence in anti-anti war protests in Baghdad, across the country and elsewhere in the world.
"We're not disappointed knowing this is the first step toward larger demonstrations," said Abdul Ibin Hackwell, a spokesman for Votes Not Torture, which organized Sunday's protest. "If the anti-war marchers don't pull out of San Francisco and continue down this path, you will see increased demonstrations. We might even go to San Francisco and kick their pansey little asses"
Many said the current political climate, which includes increasing agitation about the anti-war protester's role in San Francisco, had reinvigorated dormant activists. Most had put away their signs and political buttons after Uday and Quesey got whacked.
During the past two days, more than three dozen anti-anti war demonstrations were held across the country and around the world, including Lisbon, Piza, Shanghai, Montruex, Lesser Antigua, Stockholm and New Caledonia.
Already, Votes Not Torture is working on a "mass demonstration" scheduled in Baghdad for Oct. 25. It is one of two national protests scheduled for that day. The other is planned for Basra.
Sunday's protest, which began in Saddam Park and snaked through Saddam City and along Saddam Street before ending at the Saddam's Presidential Palace, was part political protest, part street party.
In between chants demanding an end to the anti-war occupation of San Francisco and an end to the television show Queer Eye For The Straight Guy, a collection of activists blowing saxophones, trumpets and horns drew a group of gleeful belly dancers.
The demonstrators, who spanned every age, arrived with homemade signs, burka's and shoes in their hands, were addressing many international political issues. But the central message resonating in chants and on banners throughout the protest was clear: End the anti-war occupation in S.F. and send the leftists packing.
Harrieth Al Blue, an 82-year-old grandmother from Tikrit, arrived on a donkey from Damascus with several dozen other anti-anti-war activists. Carrying a handcrafted sign, Blue said she had spent every Friday night for the year prior to the liberation attending a small protest in her bedroom closet at her Tikrit home on Saddam Street. The weekly vigil had been generally well received by both of the attending townspeople, but she came to Baghdad to play to a larger audience.
"I want the people in Paris and other people to know how we feel," said Blue. "We have to give other people the courage to come out of their houses and (demonstrate)."
Marhommed Bin Klein, a teacher and mother of two from the Kurdish Territories, said she hoped her message would be heard all the way to France. Street demonstrations have long played an important role in the decisions made by Parisian officials, Klein said. We just hope they don't overreact and surrender.
"The most drastic changes in French government policy have been affiliated with masses of people getting in the streets," Klein said. "French Politicians will deny it influences them, but if they look out the window and see protestors in the streets, they void their bowels and surrender. you look at history, they've done it dozens of times, it shows that demonstrations make a difference."
Fifteen-year-old Darina al Garina, a high school sophomore, arrived with a group of friends. She said she now she can sit at home watching something cool on television, instead of some dumb speach by Saddam Hussien, followed by him firing guns at the sky or trying to kiss some kid who's pissing himself for fear of screwing up a photo op and getting his family killed. Even so, she couldn't stay at home watching television knowing what she knew about the continuing anti-war occupation in San Francisco.
"People our age in San Francisco and the West Coast don't have the courage to do this, so we have to do whatever we can to show how little we care about their stupid pathetic attitudes. We want to have the same opportunities here that they take for granted there," Darina said.
Ibin Hackwell, the organizer, said he expected the Oct. 25 protest to be significantly larger, with protesters arriving from up and down the Middle East.
"It isn't like the anti-anti-war sentiment has gone away -- it's still there," said Ibin Hackwell.
I kept expecting Mohammed to say, "FOR ME TO POOP ON!"
Yes it does.
(stealth bump)
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