Common sense creeping into American consciences

The anti-peace crowd is an odd lot. Their thought processes are strained and easily shown to be utterly distorted and false. They're almost to be pitied, so shallow and easily led are they. And to add insult to injury, their planned 20,000 people "hate anti-war protestors, support the Chimp" rally, which they called a "Rally to Honor Military Families", only drew a couple hundred lost souls.

As I've spent a lot of time pointing out just how flawed these people's reasoning and morality are, I instead invite you to read the report here and see if you can spot the places where those quoted have skippped a few steps in logical thought. It can be sort of a quiz to see how well you've learned to spot the illogic.

For starters, what's utterly wrong about whining that Cindy Sheehan shouldn't be speaking her mind about the war because "the troops" are dying to defend her right to free speech and that if she was in another country, she wouldn't be able to do so?
It seems to make sense, if you don't think about it. But it crumbles under even a bit of thought and examination.

There's a wealth of faulty thinking in the piece. Have at it.

I watched a bit of the anti-peace, anti-protest rally on C-Span and you've never heard such simple-minded confusion and interchangability between "our troops", Bush, "freedom", "democracy", "liberty", and all the other code words they fall back on so relexively.

First, in order to understand anything about these folks, you must understand that their entire rally was based on something that DOESN'T EXIST! They've made it up!

The entire anti-peace protest was based entirely on the warped and false idea that if someone doesn't support the invasion of Iraq or Bush, that they don't support the troops, hate the troops, want the troops to fail or die or whatever, and somehow hate the U.S.

This is utter, total, absolutely 100% crap. And their entire effort is based entirely on that completely false premise.
And speaker after speaker, years after it's been thoroughly debunked, and after George W. Bush himself admitted there was no connection, one after another after another, these speakers recited in detail all those lost on 9-11 and how our brave troops are "avenging" that loss, that "we didn't ask for this war, we didn't start this war, but WE'RE DAMN SURE GONNA FINISH IT!" to roars of applause. It's like these people were attacked and the attacker escaped in a plane. Then they shot down a couple planes, but not the one with the ringleader of the attack, but then Bush told them that one of the attackers had hid out underground, and if we didn't dig him up, we'd all be slaughtered in our beds, so they all started digging a big hole. While doing this, thousands died or were crippled for life, and then it was revealed that there weren't any attackers underground after all, but these people, having had loved ones die digging the whole and egged on by the President and his friends (who hope to find gold down there somewhere) stand there years later and scream about how they're going to keep digging and dying, by God, because they're AMERICANS!! Not like those unGodly people who stand by and ask question why we're still digging and dying and suggesting we stop.

And of course, every single speaker mouths the flip side of that idiocy, that the Cindy Sheehans of the world would just let "the terrorists" rape our wives and daughters and slaughter us all. And it keeps getting worse. A guy is now saying the troops are fighting "them" over in Iraq so our brave firefighters and policeman don't have to fight them "over here". Wow. Our sons and daughters are being sent over to Iraq with a target on their backs so the terrorists don't have to bother travelling over here? I guess all we need to do is keep sending a stream of Americans over there to be slaughtered and we'll all remain safe? It's simply ridiculous and almost child-like.

And there's the truly sad spectacle of parents emersed in grief and grasping and clinging to some rationale for their tragic loss, and at some point deciding that swallowing the lies of the Bush administration whole is easiest and less painful, advocating that MORE parents suffer their grief and sorrow, just so in their minds, their loss won't be "in vain." It's so sad, and so utterly illogical, based entirely on emotion and ignoring logic.

And every mention of "fighting for freedom", "staying the course", or even more outrageously "defending this country", gets big applause. One ass is even now saying that the protesters "Like where they live at but they don't want to defend where they live." !! Utter insanity. He's talking about a buddy that died believing that this war is "world war III, the war of good against evil". And of course, now he's saying that the protesters have "forgotten the lives lost on 9-11, and forgotten that "these terrorists would kill them all down to their infant sons and daughters", and that when they attack us, "who are you going to call? Cindy Sheehan and the Pink Ladies?" Idiots. And he ends this insane bullshit by shouting "I believe these things because I AM AN AMERICAN!"

And every one of these deluded souls end their speeches with some sort of insult or slam directed to Cindy Sheehan, including one old guy who went on and on about the duty and honor of the military and then concluded by telling Ms. Sheehan, "Cindy lied, Casey cries." The crowd cheered. Bravo guy... what a tough ass you are. Your fallen son would be so proud.

Another guy said that he'd agree to support Sheehan if she could promise him that if we withdraw from Iraq that the U.S. will never be attacked by terrorists and that there will be peace in this country. (Of course, thinking we're never going to be attacked by terrorists while we're still in Iraq is sheer stupidity). But then to explain his odd remark about peace in our country, he said that he believed that if we withdrew from Iraq, that there would be war right here in the U.S. What can you say about someone who actually thinks that way? That believes that we're somehow holding every single person who hates the US policies at bay just by sending our people to die in Iraq? That ignores the fact that our being in Iraq is INCREASING the liklihood that we'll be attacked, not preventing it? And I wish someone could explain to me how our presense in Iraq is "defending freedom and liberty." It's all mass hypnosis and ignorance.

All you can do is shake your head and pity their loss and their delusion. These are the people who have borne the heaviest burden, sacrificed the ultimate sacrifice, and who will carry the pain and loss for the rest of their days. And they're simply incapable of placing their blame and frustration where it properly lies, but instead choose an easier and more comforting target, another mother who has lost her precious son, to direct all their venom and anger against. It's just sad.

And meanwhile, smirking George and his billionaire pals and the Saudis and all the rest are riding this war to enormous profits and to expand their power. And these poor souls stand there and praise him as a hero for sending their flesh and blood to a horrible death half way around the world. And for what? What "noble cause" did they die? These folks seem to think it was to protect us all from being overrun by "terrorists" and for the abstract notions of "freedom" and "liberty". If they need to believe that, fine. But they shouldn't denigrate and vilify a woman who sees clearly enough and has the strength of character to be able to see the truth, that her son died for nothing, and to have the further strength to stand up for her convicitions despite the efforts of these people to smear, insult, and mock her.

All these anti-peace speakers have to do is bellow "freedom" and the crowd goes wild. It resembled nothing as much as some cheesy Texas football rally, (the organizer ended the rally by saying, I kid you not, "Go troops, beat the terrorists.") not a serious rally in support of anything, other than "the troops" and "our president", without realizing that those opposed to the war support "the troops" just as much if not more, and without realizing that "the troops" and "the president" are NOT the same thing. Far from it. George W. Bush doesn't have the courage, strength, devotion, or guts that one of our service men and women have in their little finger.

These people are literally worshiping Bush, heaping praises on him and talking about how wonderful he is, one guy even broke into sobs just telling what a wonderful guy he was for asking "How're you doin' Mom?" to his wife.

But they didn't give a shit that this same guy didn't even fulfill his duty obligation for the freaking Texas Air National Guard? These folks, bless 'em, are absolutely deluded.

And here comes G. Gordon Liddy, famous felon and nut-case who the crowd hails as a rock star hero.

It's truly touching how these macho gung-ho armchair general types have suddenly become so intensely concerned with the "freedom" of the people they've been referring to as "sand niggers" and "towel heads" for the past two decades. Hell, it wasn't long ago these same ignorant and misguided people were loudly advocating just nuking Iraq and turning it into glass. Now they're saying the lives of their sons and daughters and thousands of others were all worth it because it "freed" the Iraqi people (yeah, freed about a half million of them from their life on earth) and somehow "defended" our country. They're VERY confused.

The next lady speaker said that she thanks God for the soldiers looking for bombs in Iraq before they fall on our fields. What bombs? And how in the HELL does this woman think they're going to be launched to Ottumwa, IA? They're stone cold ignorant.

But I think in the case of those who have lost loved ones, often very young and promising lives snuffed out, that they are simply in deep denial. The thought that their loved ones died for no good reason is simply too hard, impossible to face. And Cindy Sheehan pointing it out to them in a simple, yet powerful way, angers them beyond all reason. She's shattering their illusions which are intensely personal and cherished. And they hate her with a passion. To them, it's as if Sheehan and others are personally denigrating their sons and daughters, though nothing could be further from the truth. She's just raising the fact that they're lives were lost for no "noble cause", as Bush has them believing.


Meanwhile, at least 150,000 and likely more staged the largest anti-war rally in decades in front of the White House along with thousand more across the country. It was a huge event, even if the speakers were often annoying and ranting about issues with not even a tangential relationship to Iraq. But of course the protests got little if any play in the media. As a matter of fact, on Google news, there's as many news items on the counter protest as on the actual protest march itself.

As an observation.. I've never seen so much flag desecration in one spot in my life, including a guy wearing the flag as a cape and dragging it in the mud, and some nit-wit with an American flag electric guitar singing a song called "Bush was right!" which was a blatant rip-off of a Billy Joel tune.