They're Marching, But for What?

[proud2BlibKansan]

by William M. Arkin

Four thousand marched against the Iraq war in Kennebunkport Saturday, an event that I surely would have missed except for being in Maine, where the Portland Press-Herald had multiple days of respectful page one coverage.

The Kennebunkport march isn't the kind of event that makes national news -- and indeed it didn't -- but it got me thinking: How many other similar protests and marches are going on out there? With public opinion so overwhelmingly against the Iraq war, even with crystal clear results in last November's elections, surely these protesters must see by now that the war isn't going to end before the 2008 elections. Talk of impeachment is folly and even unjustified. And yet, it got me thinking: Here is a case where the "will" of the people will indeed eventually end the Iraq war, and yet it is for a very wrong reason.

Saturday witnessed what the Portland Press Herald calls a "high-spirited but peaceful" anti-war rally, the largest in the town's history with a crowd of about 4,000 protesters.

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The organized counter demonstrators were there too: "Terrorists love Democrats" and "Warning: Leftists trying to demoralize our troops" some placards read. Supporters of the war -- numbering about a hundred, according to police counts -- mostly focused on continuing to support the troops. Support for the war, though, was almost tepid, if not apologetic. Byron Grant, organizer of Gathering of Eagles, spoke of not 'evacuating' before the war was 'finished,' but also said his group wanted the war over as well.

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That reality was on display last week with a $15 million ad campaign launched by a new group, Freedom's Watch, to fight "cut and run" opponents. The "independent" group is headed by one Ari Fleischer, the former White House spokesman, who even marveled that the President had achieved the impossible failing to explain why we are at war.

The opponents of the war shouldn't be too smug. There are those who have lost loved ones in Iraq, or who have suffered because of injuries or personal hardships. Some, like the Arredondos, seek to distract themselves from their pain and continue to live their lives, uninterested in celebrity. Mr. Arredondo busily makes small crosses, which he has arranged along pathways and campsites, placing American flags at their base and adorning them with the names of the killed.

Whatever dignity the Arredondo's hope to maintain in their plea for peace and understanding, the strident seek to destroy. They liberally throw around the most unpeaceful of condemnations of anyone that they didn't agree with. Cindy Sheehan wore a black T-shirt on Saturday that read "Arrest Cheney First." Her son Casey's death and her antics -- she's now running for the Senate against Nancy Pelosi in California -- have turned her into a 15 minute celebrity.

more . . . http://blogs.washingtonpost.com/earlywarning/

He lost me way before he goofed on Pelosi - she's in the House, not the Senate. Anyway, who is this moran?