Protesters need to chill

I swear to God, these guys need to chill





I thought we were all more mature than this

This is not very "casual" goamerica. If you want this to be a debate, form a question & I'll move it. Otherwise, I'm closing it, this is not a blogspot.

Don't paint all protesters with the same brush eh? The article mentions in total a couple hundred people. Any mention on how many were actually out there protesting peacefully?

I believe this is the "casual conversation" forum, not the "make stupid generalizations about people who protest the war" forum.

Does any protester actually believe that just because they protest war, that Bush will even think of shipping 200,00+troops home, leaving an animal and his sons still ruling a country?

Sorry Jamie...it's been a long day & i'm worn out

Question: Is it really necessary to be using this type of behavior as an attention getter to the President?

That's hard to say considering that none of the people here have advocated this behaviour.

Then again, it's not like he has responded to anything else.

A sad day to be a Portlander

It should not be necessary at all. However, it draws attention. Though the pro-troops/pro-America get a little news coverage, they don't get nearly the same because they seem more law abiding and more peaceful than the peace protestors. IF you want to draw attention to yourself and your cause, getting on television is certainly one way. How do you do that? Break windows, burn flags, injur officers, and cause havoc. :/

I'm all for peaceful protesting. But there is a line that is drawn...they seem to be crossing it.

--cheers

If there were hundreds of thousands on pro-military protesters they could very well end up getting disobedient as well. It would make my day if just one person here who has railed against these peace-protesters acknowledged the FACT that these indicidents are the work of a small handful of people, not the group at large.

I'd say they get less news coverage because they're much less numerous. There's no need to get out into the streets to push for something the administration and the media are already promoting.

BTW, I find your use of "pro-troops/pro-America" as a contrast to "anti-war" offensive. Those are not contradictory positions, and casting it that way adds nothing but rancor to the debate.

I agree that the "bad apples" spoil the rest. However, once problems arise, mob mentality begins to surface.

There has been quite a bit of "mob" research, where the will of the individual seems to be subjugated to the will of the collective mob. Quite interesting stuff.

I do find it ironic that the protestor's are anti-violence, and some show this by turning violent.

But these are isolated incidents involving at most a handful of people. There are no "mobs" of peace-demonstrators going on rampages of vandalism or violence.

I don't know that all protestors at the moment are "anti-violence" - or even "anti-war" in general. If war is justified, as a last resort, I for one would be a supporter. This war is not justified and other options had not been exhausted. I suspect that many people, like myself, are just opposed - some violently opposed - to this war - not all war.

Do you suggest that violent opposition to this war is justified?

I'd certainly suggest that ardent, vocal, persistent opposition to this war is justified. I personally tend not to condone violence as a rule - except as a very last resort. I was just pointing out that some of the current protests may not be quite as "ironic" as amlord seemed to think.

Sarcasm on...

NEWSFLASH : Protestors treated inhumanely...

Protestors Complain about Treatment in Jail

Back to the issue, from my point of view, I don't see how throwing rocks and bottles at police officers will solve the conflict in Iraq...what was Lenin's term? Useful idiots? If you are going to protest, at least do it in a meaningful, constructive way...

I wonder why there haven't been protests about :

Chechnya
Sierra Leone
Somolia
India
Tibet
Sudan
Congo

On and on and on...

Why focus on this conflict? What makes it "more" than people dying?

George W. Bush

Indeed. There might be a difference of opinion about who the bad apples are, though, and who's in the mob that they've created.

There have been protests and actions for these issues, just on a smaller scale. The difference is that in none of the examples you have provided are American forces killing people.

Because the US isn't involved

Everyone's gotta criticize american action

Warning: this is just my own analysis!

We are making a mistake if we look at the current protests without the context of recent history, as likewise we are making a mistake to view this war against Iraq without context. This war is the overt manifestation of a new way of thinking - about power, about control, and about resources and trade.

We are on the cusp of a new era. On the one hand, the prosecution of this war, the creation of resource rich countries beholden to the neoliberal international market - a situation which is vastly beneficial to western consumers, and to a very few elite in the given country, and a much firmer and explicit American-centered global market control. On the other hand, the continued evolution of the oft-interrupted yet never completely killed-off movement of people-centered rights, government, and economics. Will we take the path of power, or the path of social justice?

The protests today are not just about the war. They are part of an international peoples' movement that began to emerge in the several years before the "Battle of Seattle." I think the reason people are stepping up the level of protest is because they are feeling that this is a crucial decision point in global politics - and if they sit idly by, soon the time for mass populist movements will be obsolete - the power centers will be unassailably consolidated, civil liberties will be abrogated, dissent will be criminal.

I have stronger faith in the human race than that - I tend to take the long view. I see that over the last 150 years concepts about individuality and rights and justice have been evolving, to the point that we take many civil rights absolutely for granted - and forget that they are not the product of the market, but of populist dissent against market forces. Those who talk about "enlightened self interest" and "benevolent capitalism" must remember that every single gain for workers - workplace safety laws, overtime laws, minimum wage laws, equal opportunity laws, compensation laws, environmental safety laws - was fought tooth and nail by the barons of industry.

To conclude - what we are seeing in this escalation is, I believe, a few meta-levels out from the insularity of the "war on Iraq." We are in fact seeing people making a desperate move to change the course of history before, they believe, it is too late.

You asked a direct question, I gave you a direct answer. There was no criticism. Howabout adressing my point. Why were there no Americans protesting those incidents? Because there wasn't American involvement.