Anti-War Protest — God Forgive Them!

These are pictures I took at an Aug. 12, 2003 anti-war protest. Here’s a basic
crowd shot. There are a few more people off to the left of the frame:

These are all pretty generic statements,

“Work for peace” – “A veteran for peace” – “They lied
to us” – “No more wars”

One of the things these folks could use is the font police. If I can’t make
out clearly what this guy on the end is saying while standing stationery across
the street, it’s not likely many of the cars whizzing buy were able to read
it either.

This guy chose to go for the odd, cryptic statement: “War is the escape
from the problems of peace.” In relationship to Iraq, I’m not sure how
anyone could possibly consider life under a military dictatorship to constitute
a condition of peace (unless you endorse the CounterProtest.Org folks’ satirical
view that Hussein wasn’t a problem because he only killed Iraqi civilians).

From left, “May God forgive us.” Really, I don’t agree with you about
the war, but I don’t think you need to ask God’s forgiveness for protesting.
That’s going a bit too far.

A generic “Peace/Love” followed with “Impeach Pres. Bush”
and the ubiquitous “End the Israeli Occupation of Palestine” (apparently
suicide bombing is not an escape from the problems of peace, as you won’t
find any signs condemning that sort of violence among all of the pro-Palestinian
signs).

And, of course, the $64,000 question — “Where are the weapons of mass
destruction?”

Okay, I have to admit I thought this slogna was clever. “Think outside
the bomb”

Woman next to him is holding an extremely small sign with something about “Christ’s
message.” Whatever it was, I can guarantee you no one else who saw this
protest was able to read it either.

The guy next to her wants everyone to know that, “War hurts us all”
(but, of course, it really hurt Uday and Qusay. I suppose life wasn’t really
worth living if you can’t feed people to wild animals anyway).

In case you missed the first sign, the next guy wants to know “Where are
the WMDs?”

And next to him a picture of the Arab women with the caption, “Are you
willing to kill her?” Well, Saddam & Sons certainly were willing to
if it would further their hold on power. But then granting those folks moral
consideration would have been trying to escape from the problems of peace.

The big banner says “Violence is no solution”, which of course is
obviously wrong. Violence is often the only viable solution available.

“Drop Bush not bombs” — well, you’ll get a shot at that in a bit
over a year.

“What have you done for peace?” — well, I supported a war that got
rid of a brutal dictator. I know that doesn’t quite beat hanging on a street
corner with a sign, but I’m getting there.

“Patriot Act attacks freedom” — yep. Both it and Ashcroft need to
go.

“Ban U-238 USA Toxic Weapon” — this woman’s repeating the Left’s
nonsense about depleted uranium.

From left to right, “Peace is patriotic.” God, I always hate all
that flag waving and appeals to patriotism. 🙂

Next to her is the crowd favorite “they lied to us” which also shows
up at the end.

The guy next to her tells us “There is something you can do – Stand for
peace.”

The woman next to him has some takeof on “Mother Against . . .” but
the handwritten letters are hard to decipher.

Next we have “support our troops, impeach Bush,” followed by my favorite
of the bunch, “Peace is the church’s business.” Whoa. Hold up there,
pardner. You might want to better familiarize yourself with the history of organized
religion before making that sort of claim.

And finally the all-important, “End the military occupation of Palestine.”
Hmmm . . . would you kill this
woman?