The Little Protest That Couldn't

Anti-war protesters in SLC, elsewhere lament apathy
The Salt Lake Tribune
03/20/2006 11:01 AM MST

"There's just about more policemen here than people," said the Democratic candidate for the Utah House of Representatives in District 40, nodding to the squadron of eight motorcycle officers parked alongside 400 South. "I guess the longer the war goes on, the more people accept it."

I guess the longer the defeatist tantrums go on, the more people accept it. And not just in Utah, but apparently around the world.

Three Years On, Iraq Protests Smaller
By JOSEPH B. FRAZIER Associated Press Writer
March 20, 2006, 9:51AM

Protesters marking the third anniversary of the Iraq war made their voices heard around the world, with the largest marches in London, Portland and Chicago, though in numbers that were often lower than in previous years.

About 10,000 anti-war protesters in Portland took nearly an hour to pass through downtown streets Sunday, some carrying signs that said "Impeach the Evildoer."

Clearly the more unhinged the anti-war rhetoric becomes the more its support erodes.

"We attacked a country who never did anything to us," said Philadelphia resident Al Zappala, whose 30-year-old son was killed in Iraq in 2004. "He was sent to Iraq based on lies."

When it first came into vogue the "Bush lied" line was at best a cynical distortion of reality, repeated mantra-like without any sense of irony by the very same kind of people who ordinarily insist nothing is objectively knowable. But we just know Bush made up everything about Iraq. Iraq never did anything to us. Impeach the criminal terrorist-in-chief already.

Of course to ever feel this way you'd have to ignore the reasons the US Congress cited for going to war in Iraq:

* Iraq's noncompliance with the conditions of the 1991 cease fire
* Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, and programs to develop such weapons, posed a "threat to the national security of the United States and international peace and security in the Persian Gulf region"
* Iraq's "brutal repression of its civilian population"
* Iraq's "capability and willingness to use weapons of mass destruction against other nations and its own people"
* Iraq's hostility towards the United States as demonstrated by the 1993 assassination attempt of former President George H. W. Bush, and firing on coalition aircraft enforcing the no-fly zones following the 1991 Gulf War
* Iraq's alleged connection to terrorist groups including Al Qaeda
* Fear that Iraq would provide weapons of mass destruction to terrorists for use against the United States

And now it seems these reasons, which have been perfectly defendable ever since they were made in 2002, are corroborated by evidence gathered in the wake of the war. Saddam's tapes and translations of even a few captured documents confirm that Bush wasn't lying and that Iraq actually was up to no good. Not exactly a big surprise for those of us who never forgot that Saddam was a brutal, manipulative, scheming tyrant.

Most war protesters will never acknowledge this. They'll just stay home.