WUI (Writing under the influence)

Only 4 days left to the silent war protest that will take place on the campus of Pacific University here in Forest Grove. Two years after the war started, with democracy taking root everywhere in the Middle East, what are they protesting against? Two years ago it might have made sense (it didn't, of course) but today? But these protesters are not alone. They can be found everywhere. But who are they? Rod Thomson of Herald Tribune visited a war protest rally and provides some answers.

Faith Fippinger, the famous human shield in Iraq and all-around professional protester, was one of the speakers. She spoke of the "genocide of people" in Iraq by the United States, of "media lies and warmongering compliance," of "outrageous election fraud" and said it is time to "hold George W. Bush and his cadre of criminals responsible," calling him a "war criminal." The last lines got the biggest applause.

Other protesters I talked to said the war was all about the control of oil, and that the U.S. government practices terrorism on its own people by intimidating free speech. Any shot at Bush was well received.

The signs were telling: "Impeach Bush." "Troops are dying because Bush is lying." "Negotiate, don't bomb." (That having worked so well for Neville Chamberlain.)

There is irony here. These are many of the same people who, while decrying the death of 1,500 U.S. military personnel, fully support the deaths of more than 40 million babies in this country in the past 32 years, tens of thousands in the most gruesome of ways, in the name of "choice."

These are many of the same people who support Terri Schiavo's being starved to death, despite no evidence that the woman would have wanted that and despite the ongoing dispute as to her true medical condition.

But they oppose the U.S. military being used to free a country from a Hitler-like dictator, a military action that has triggered monumental events of hope in the most volatile region of the world.

In other words, while preaching peace, many are willing to err on the side of death consistently [...]"

So they really oppose is freedom and democracy because they know that they also bring prosperity and without misery they are without power.