Brain Dead Protestors
By aaron on Dhimmis Among Us
Typically clueless was Bryan Martin, 25, a New Yorker carrying a “No Draft, No Way” placard. Following is a verbatim transcript of this columnists’ conversation with Mr. Martin:
Q: “What are you protesting?”
A: “I’m protesting a war we shouldn’t be fighting.”
Q: “Are you protesting the Democrats with that sign?”
A: “No, the Republicans.”
Q: “Are you aware that the Democrats are the only ones proposing a reinstatement of the draft?”
A: “Wasn’t that tongue-in-cheek?”
Q: “No.”
A: “Oh. Well, they just gave me the sign at 14th Street (the demonstration’s starting point). I don’t really know what it means.”
.....
A kid was holding a sign, "Stop the war on youth, from here to Najaf."
"So," I asked, "do you support al Sadr?"
"I do as long as he's resisting U.S. imperialism."
"OK, so you support Islamic fundamentalism?"
"No," he said, walking away.
"Well, he's an Islamic fundamentalist," I said.
He came back up to me, "Just because you support the youth doesn't mean you side with an extremist."
"Sadr is an Islamic extremist, he's very clear about it."
"It's their mosque."
"He seized the mosque by force!"
"You're wrong," he said. "He supports elections."
"No, he doesn't! He opposes elections."
"Well," he said, walking away again, "they are U.S.-supported elections. Of course he opposes U.S.-supported elections."
.....
Next, there were the people holding mock American-flag-draped coffins made out of cardboard. I asked a couple of women "pall-bearers" what they symbolized. They said it was an effort put together by an organization called 1,000coffins.org, and the coffins symbolized American and Iraqi deaths in Iraq and "all the dead people in the world."
"Do any of them symbolize victims of 9/11?" I asked, since they seemed to be casting a pretty wide net.
"I don't know," said one woman.
"You'd have to ask 1,000coffins.org," said another.
Further up the march route was a guy wearing a Yasser Arafat-style headdress and holding a sign reading, "Poland 1939. Iraq 2003."
"So," I asked him, "you think the invasion of Iraq was the same as Hitler's invasion of Poland?"
He went into a spiel about how both invasions were launched under false pretenses. I asked if he saw any differences in the natures of the Polish and Iraqi governments. "With any metaphor," he explained, "there are going to be imprecisions."
.....
Onto the nice Asian lady holding a sign with pictures of Bush and Cheney on it, emblazoned with the word "Traitors!"
I asked whether she thought they should be tried for treason: "Completely. Of course. Its not even a question."
Should they be executed? "No."
"Well, why not? It's typically been a punishment for treason."
She said "no" again, and I left it at that.
Near the end of the march there was a guy standing in the middle of the street doing brisk business in T-shirts with Bush officials' names spelled with Swastikas. "Do you really think Rumsfeld is a Nazi?" I asked, since he was wearing a Rumsfeld shirt with the S as a Swastika. "Oh, yes," he said, "absolutely."
He was briefly distracted by someone asking for a small in one of the shirts — I didn't catch which — and he had to say, "Sorry, that's all out in the baby-T." Then, he was ready to address my question again. He explained that Rumsfeld wasn't taking responsibility for Abu Ghraib, speaking to "a type of arrogance that is fascist."
He had shirts with Condoleezza's name spelled with two Swastikas. "Is Condoleezza a Nazi?" I asked. He thought for a moment: "Condoleezza? Mmmmm. Not so much."
She is, I guess, only partly a Nazi, which is still enough to render her name in double Swastikas. And so it went at the peace march.
— Rich Lowry is author of Legacy: Paying the Price for the Clinton Years.
nationalreview.com |
