Protestors

How do you feel about Protestors?

  • They are ok, just voicing their opinion.

    Votes: 12 46.2%
  • They need to go home they are turning this into another 'Nam.

    Votes: 7 26.9%
  • Dont care.

    Votes: 7 26.9%

  • Total voters
    26
Quite frankly, if the protest is considered to be legal, then therefore they have the right to do so. As long as it does not become malicious, violent, or hateful.

The Anti-Iraq War protests have prooven to become useless in the US. Most of the decisions made is being made by the power elite seated in the Senate and the White House.

I must stress on this once again that the protestors do not have tremendous power and influence they once had during the Vietnam War.

In a country where its leaders often talk about democracy is quite mistaken. America is not the largest Democracy in the world and it is not the most democratic system in the world. It is a Republic where the people are represented by their politicians. Remember this saying? "No Taxation without representation."
 
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they just want to let the world know what they want when there no too much options left for them.
 
Technically, they are just exercising their rights, and there's nothing wrong with that.

At least, that's what you'd assume from the glazed over coverage of protests by the media.

In reality, many "peace protests" easily turn violent and the "protesters" themselves are more there to have a good time than to voice their political opinion.

You can see some videos of these protests here:
http://protestwarrior.com/

This is an organization that sends "anti-protesters" to crash peace protests. It's very interesting to see a protest in its real colors (rather ugly).


Around the end of the Viet Nam War, protests turned ugly, with once peaceful civil rights demonstrators turning into militant anti-war protesters, using terrorist tactics (bombings) and demanding a revolution to overthrow the government.

Let's hope it doesn't escalate into that again.
 
I don't think the average person cares enough to escalate it to that level again. There is a certain level of apathy and complacency that accompanies success.

And Cabal you are correct that we are a Republic, I blame the ignorance of this fact among the younger generation on the ACLU generated removal of the pledge of allegiance from schools. It is a democratically elected republic though we can split hairs over the existance of the electoral college and its effective removal of the decision from the people per the intent of the founding fathers as they considered the common man not responsible enough to be given full power over the choice of their leaders. True elitists they were.
 
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CABAL said:
The Anti-Iraq War protests have prooven to become useless in the US. Most of the decisions made is being made by the power elite seated in the Senate and the White House.

I must stress on this once again that the protestors do not have tremendous power and influence they once had during the Vietnam War.

I have to disagree here. The protests against the Iraqi war are not (yet) quite on par with the protests against the Vietnam war, but they are no less effective. If I were to compare, I would say the Vietnam protests were less effective than the Iraq protests. Look how quickly the media has taken up the call to support their cause? Look at the changes in Iraq that have been brought about by pundits and the media by putting pressure on the politicians. Many of them for worse for the US military, even (stricter ROEs, static and conventional tactics, micromanaging like you wouldn't believe).

To say they don't have influence is to ignore all of the changes, for better or worse, that they've caused.

We may not be packing up and getting read to head home from Iraq tomorrow, but we didn't do that when the protests started during Vietnam, either.

The protests and protesters have a very strong impact on how we deal with Iraq, and unfortunately, many do not care to realize this. With the right to protest comes the responsibility of being informed and knowledgeable. Many jump on any bandwagon that shows negativity towards the war, and this has caused us a lot of problems in Iraq.

So, these protests today are, in my opinion, more effecitve than they used to be. They certainly are influencing how we look at and deal with Iraq, I know that first hand, and I don't know of any guy that's served there that would disagree.


In a country where its leaders often talk about democracy is quite mistaken. America is not the largest Democracy in the world and it is not the most democratic system in the world. It is a Republic where the people are represented by their politicians. Remember this saying? "No Taxation without representation."

Not to nitpick or anything, but we're a republic. Little "r." :mrgreen:
 
Every time I see a loud, nonsensical demonstration, I think back to a cartoon strip by the late Al Capp,"Li`l Abner." He depicted the `60s radicals who came to Dogpatch, USA as "S.W.I.N.E. meaning Students Wildly Indignant about Nearly Everything. And then there were the S.O B.s or Save Our Buzzards Society.:horsie:
 
Living in the city the originated the "Phuk Phred" bumper stickers, I have a somewhat evolved view of protesters.

1. If the protesters control themselves and keep things in relative good taste, I don't have a problem. Of course, those are exactly the kind of protesters that nobody notices or cares about, so, what's the point?

2. If the protesters can't explain to me what, why, or even where they are protesting, they should be reduced to a pile of ashes on the spot. (my $0.02)

3. If the protesters are using the 1st admendment to preach hatred toward others for any reason, especially during times of personal tragedy, they should be kindly escorted to the center of an active volcano where they may continue to protest as they see fit.

Beyond, that, I'm pretty cool with the whole protest thing.
 
The 1st Amendment certainly does grant freedom of speech. The other edge of that sword is the freedom to make yourself look like a complete jackass. Most of the war protestors (Sheehan and her ilk) don't exercise option one nearly as much as they do option two. If they want to rant and rave in the public eye, more power to them. It's legal. My opinion? They should do something more productive...like stay home and watch Days of Our Lives.
 
Having the right to protest and publish your own personal opinion is one of the most important human rights most of us are bound to protcet. (Most of the western countries included this in their constitution)

That beeing said: I wish everybody soon understand that it is not military forces that goes to war. It is politicians that goes to war it is them who have enemies, military forces have honoarbly adversaries!
Military forces to the job, politicians decides which team we are fighting with and against.

Support the troops, doing the job YOU decided needed to be done when you voted as you did!
 
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