Dueling Demonstrations in Washington, D.C.

Open Thread:

The mainstream media reports thousands of opponents and supporters of the U.S. presence in Iraq converged Saturday in the nation's capital for a day of demonstrations.

The anti-war A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition is planning an anti-war rally at Lafayette Square, followed by a march to the Capitol and "die-in," where thousands plan to risk arrest by trespassing onto publicly restricted areas.

Meanwhile, groups that support the military are planning a rally of their own. Gathering of Eagles and Free Republic are set to meet on the Mall and line the protest route.

The rhetoric heats up: While protesters often say they they want to end the war to save troops' lives, there is some irony in the notion that few on the far left can count members of the military as friends. Shaggy anti-war types just don't hang with disciplined G.I.s; the lifestyles are incompatible. Perhaps there is more irony in the fact that the military community, which has been the target of so much anti-war wrath, is the one group who has given so much in order to preserve the right of the anti-war left to protest the war.

Who is the most important to the anti-war left? Is it the military, who they treat with disrespect and disdain? Or is it themselves, because they just want to feel good?

Perhaps the answer is best illustrated in the way liberals and Democrats responded to Gen. Petraeus' Congressional testimony this week. Not once did you hear a liberal or Democrat -- Representative, Senator or presidential candidate -- ask the general what they could do to HELP end the violence and bring peace to the Iraqi people. Instead, what you heard were questions and criticisms that, if not verging on impugning the general's credibility, had the effect of slandering him outright with no less than the whole world watching.

A march from the White House to the Capitol, organized by the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition to protest the war in Iraq, begins at noon today. A rally and counter-demonstration by the Gathering of Eagles begins at 9 a.m.
Related media sources: The Associated Press, The Washington Post, CNN.

Tags: Democrats, liberals, Open Thread, Wire, Headlines, United States, anti-war
Global Tags: Washington DC, News and Politics, News, Politics, Current Events, Current Affairs, Life, Culture, Buzz, Tension

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