Yo! New Yorkers! Where were you on Saturday Feb. 15, 2003

[Lodestar]

when NYC played a critical role as center stage for a massive and worldwide
anti-Iraq war protest? The eyes of the world were on you then and they are on
you again now.

Show up April 19th for the Revolution!

OCCUPY YOUR HOMELAND!

February 15, 2003 - In world-wide demonstrations in hundreds of cities around the world, millions of people protest to try to prevent US plans to attack Iraq. As many as a million people in New York City alone marched. The New York Times reported there were now ”two superpowers on the planet - the United States, and worldwide public opinion."



Cities jammed in worldwide protest of war in Iraq
Sunday, February 16, 2003

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Huge crowds of anti-war demonstrators jammed into midtown New York on Saturday as protesters in dozens of U.S. cities joined large crowds worldwide in voicing opposition to war with Iraq.
Demonstrators converged near the United Nations to protest the possible war in just one of the more than 600 anti-war rallies around the globe. Organizers estimated the crowd at more than 375,000, but Police Commissioner Ray Kelly estimated turnout at 100,000.
Besides protests in large cities such as Chicago, Illinois; and Los Angeles, California; rallies were held across the United States in smaller towns such as Gainesville, Georgia; Macomb, Illinois; and Juneau, Alaska, according to the anti-war group United for Peace and Justice.

http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/02/15/sprj.irq.protests.main/

[stone space]

1. The largest protest in human history.

[closeupready]

2. That was a bitterly cold day - I met up with a friend at a local watering hole

where we'd hang - it closed down a few years ago. I left him there after a few beers and worked my way home.

[Separation]

3. Getting ready to go to Iraq.

I really didn't have time to think about the right or wrong aspect of it. That came later. I was busy making sure my guys were good to go and make sure that they had the best ability to come back home to their families.

The times before hand if there was a political talk it was either a machismo'esc talk of finishing the job from DS or either bitching that we had to go in and finish daddy's job. Mostly though, the focus was the immediate task at hand and reassuring your younger guys to count on their training.

It wasn't until after, when we realized that the people sending us there had no fucking clue and had no fucking business sending us there. Dismantling the Iraqi army, no clue between the difference a Sunni, Shia, or Kurd.....

I can't tell you how fucking pissed that I am getting worked up over this post right now. The people lost and broken souls, over a fucking lie and dishonest intentions.

I love this country to a fault. I however now feel like I've been betrayed. Now that I, and many others like myself gave all. Some of us are broken, some more than others and some show no physical wounds but suffer nonetheless. We now get to deal with the VA and that horror show. It's not just us newer vets either. I've seen WWII vets shuffled into a cold hallway with no heat near a door that does seal being treated like children, or worse. I can't say all the people that work there are evil assholes, but it is a majority.

Sorry for the rant.

[Lodestar]

4. Please don't apologize. It's our leaders whom you entrusted with you life and

Last edited Fri Apr 8, 2016, 02:22 PM - Edit history (1)

love for country that should apologize to you. I hope we are all learning to
trust our 'inner voice' and our own hearts and minds as our primary authority.
We've been blind about so many things. But we're waking up big time.
And choosing leaders who walk their talk and bring out the best in us so that
we can collectively move this country forward to be a better reflection of who
we REALLY are as a nation is absolutely essential at this critical juncture.
This is the real battle ground.