As war protesters marched toward Arlington Memorial Bridge en route to the Pentagon yesterday, they were flanked by long lines of military veterans and others who stood in solidarity with U.S. troops and the Bush administration's cause in Iraq. Many booed loudly as the protesters passed, turned their backs to them or yelled, "If you don't like America, get out!"

Several thousand vets, some of whom came by bus from New Jersey, car caravans from California or flights from Seattle or Michigan, lined the route from the bridge and down 23rd Street, waving signs such as "War There Or War Here." Their lines snaked around the corner and down several blocks of Constitution Avenue in what organizers called the largest gathering of pro-administration counter-demonstrators since the war began four years ago.

The vets turned both sides of Constitution into a bitter, charged gantlet for the war protesters. "Jihadists!" some vets screamed. "You're brain-dead!" Others chanted, "Workers World traitors must hang!" -- a reference to the Communist newspaper. Some broke into "The Star-Spangled Banner" as war protesters sought to hand out pamphlets.

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ORIGINAL: FirmhandKY

Although, perhaps not as you had anticipated.  

Veterans, Others Denounce Marchers
Counter-Demonstrators Number in Thousands

By Brigid Schulte
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 18, 2007; Page A12

Extract:

As war protesters marched toward Arlington Memorial Bridge en route to the Pentagon yesterday, they were flanked by long lines of military veterans and others who stood in solidarity with U.S. troops and the Bush administration's cause in Iraq. Many booed loudly as the protesters passed, turned their backs to them or yelled, "If you don't like America, get out!"

Several thousand vets, some of whom came by bus from New Jersey, car caravans from California or flights from Seattle or Michigan, lined the route from the bridge and down 23rd Street, waving signs such as "War There Or War Here." Their lines snaked around the corner and down several blocks of Constitution Avenue in what organizers called the largest gathering of pro-administration counter-demonstrators since the war began four years ago.

The vets turned both sides of Constitution into a bitter, charged gantlet for the war protesters. "Jihadists!" some vets screamed. "You're brain-dead!" Others chanted, "Workers World traitors must hang!" -- a reference to the Communist newspaper. Some broke into "The Star-Spangled Banner" as war protesters sought to hand out pamphlets.

Read the whole thing.

FirmKY

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ORIGINAL: luckydog1
... will you (lefties in general ... ) give them the respect that is demanded for Cindy Sheehan?

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ORIGINAL: meatcleaver

As for chants of  "If you don't like America, get out!", that sums up the pro-war lobby, anti-democratic and fascistic. Reminds one of the McCarthy wirch hunts. Free speach and 'god bless America' and all that.

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ORIGINAL: meatcleaver
The idea that veterans are against peace protests is hardly surprising because to accept anti-war protesters are right is to accept they were probably wrong and they were in Vietnam. The article says 'Vietnam veterans' as though the veterans present spoke for all veterans, something of an exaggeration is my bet.

As for chants of  "If you don't like America, get out!", that sums up the pro-war lobby, anti-democratic and fascistic. Reminds one of the McCarthy wirch hunts. Free speach and 'god bless America' and all that.

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ORIGINAL: FirmhandKY

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ORIGINAL: meatcleaver

As for chants of  "If you don't like America, get out!", that sums up the pro-war lobby, anti-democratic and fascistic. Reminds one of the McCarthy wirch hunts. Free speach and 'god bless America' and all that.

So, by your definition, if you aren't an anti-war, you are by definition "anti-democratic and fascist"?

Not much room there for a reasonable difference of opinion, now, is there?

FirmKY

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ORIGINAL: FirmhandKY

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ORIGINAL: luckydog1
... will you (lefties in general ... ) give them the respect that is demanded for Cindy Sheehan?

No.  Never.  Quit expecting it.

FirmKY

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ORIGINAL: meatcleaver
Why wouldn't someone respect her?

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"But war protester Susanne Shine of Boone, N.C., found herself in a crowd of counterdemonstrators, and came out in tears, with her sign in shreds. "They ripped up my peace sign," she said, after police escorted her, her husband and two adult daughters from the group. "It was really pretty scary for me."

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ORIGINAL: subrob1967

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ORIGINAL: meatcleaver
Why wouldn't someone respect her?

Because she's as fake as a three dollar bill, and a pawn for groups like Moveon & DemocracyNow.

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ORIGINAL: Sanity



I'll bet you that had it been the other way around, had they been war supporters caught in a crowd of militant Leftists, they would have been killed or badly injured, children and all. What I've seen is that "Peace Protesters" (or as I call them, "Peace Rioters") are extremely violent and hateful.


Nope as with any big group of demonstrators there will be some thugs in amongst them and some people who in a group act stupidly and then regret it later. Once you have a big group if the tension rises they will go into pack animal mode what ever they are proptesting about.  

(in reply to Sanity)

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Protesters met at the starting point of the Oct. 21, 1967, march on the Pentagon, which began peacefully but turned ugly in clashes between authorities and more radical elements of the estimated crowd of 50,000 on the plaza in front of the Defense Department's headquarters. More than 600 were arrested that day.

That protest has lived on in the popular imagination because of the crowd's attempts to lift the Pentagon off the ground with their chants; they fell short of their fanciful goal.

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ORIGINAL: Dtesmoac

Nope as with any big group of demonstrators there will be some thugs in amongst them and some people who in a group act stupidly and then regret it later. Once you have a big group if the tension rises they will go into pack animal mode what ever they are proptesting about.  

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ORIGINAL: Sanity

Right - peace rioters are no better than anyone else, and in fact they're like animals when you have a group of them together. They're not at all "peaceful" in my opinion, and that isn't really their bottom line anyway. What they want is POWER, and how they're going about getting it is through casting aspersions on anything that George Bush does, no matter how good or noble.

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Peace protesters (name the riots)