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(More pics from Calgary.)
And in the left coast hotbed of social activism known as Nanaimo, dozens turned out in lawn chairs to join in the apparent condemnation of Sook-Yin Lee…
(photo credit – reader Randy in Nanaimo)
More – the 30,000 strong Gathering of Eagles in Washington DC.
A pure, grass-roots effort, the Gathering of Eagles’ volunteers matched the massive Soros-funded anti-war machine sign for sign, chant for chant, and marcher for marcher. The contrast was most stark right before the entrance to the Memorial Bridge, where Eagles gathered with a field of American flags–while anti-Bush, 9/11 conspiracy nuts wrapped themselves in a figurative blanket of yellow “Out of Iraq” placards. Several of the vets shouted, “Yellow! How appropriate!” in between spirited chants of “U.S.A! U.S.A!” While the classless Cindy Sheehan ranted profanely, the Eagles raised their voices in polite, but roaring disapproval and raised their American flags in answer to the ANSWER socialists’ Che banners and peace pennants.
Why did the Eagles come? One common refrain: Vietnam veterans, some fighting back tears, told us they came to show the kind of support for the troops that they did not receive when the surrender lobby marched on the Pentagon 40 years ago today.
Mission accomplished.
Tha Gathering of Eagles story brought a tear to my eye. When are we going to do the same in Canada?
Vancouver fellow travelers staged a similar Ides of March parade but it turned violent. http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Canada/2007/03/16/3763333.html
I just read that bit of Sook-Yin Lee and Nanaimo. I read it twice and looked carefully at the picture.
I live in Nanaimo and I am pretty well informed. I saw a Malaspina College student’s union poster and a few dregs out by the Library probably listening to a blues band in the square or perhaps it was a performance by the Malaspina choir. That is what usually goes on in that little library square.
I have news. The entire north end of Nanaimo (the more populous and growing area) votes conservative and the south end has a few druggies some old hippies and hoards of single moms who have had several surnames in their short miserable lives.
With the new and rapid influx of retirees from Alberta and points East plus working people coming to do their home renos, this community will be more and more conservative and prosperous … as it deserves to be.
New fast walk on ferry service “harbour Linx” downtown to down will allow for Nanaimo serve as bedroom community to Vancouver white collar workers. That’s like money in the mail for Nanaimo. Many are buying up the older downtown home and doing a Mike Holmes on them. Very cool!
The hippies and lesbians have all been taking refuge on the smaller islands over the past decade and we with rising ferry costs they are showing up less and less for events on the Vancouver Island.
General rising costs will force most these lefties to cheaper places like the Maritimes or Saskatchewan where they can protest the bad weather which would be as useful as anything else they do.
To the point … I don’t have a feeucking clue what that CBC bit was about.
What language does the the CBC speak? In the distant past I listened to a couple of episodes of DNTO and found the hosting so glib, inside and smart assed that I felt sorry for the kids who are trying to be hip in today’s genre of coolness.
Can anyone shed light on what the hell they are talking about?
John, the link to CBC was a joke on my part.
(It’s actually the front page of WaPo.)
I love the CBC link: it’s an unbeatable example of sub-literate, prattling journalese at its giddy worst- Entertainment Tonight on crack. Are CBC journalists really this awful or are they just convinced we are (a rhetorical question of course, the answers are yes and yes)?
Sorry, John, I can’t help you at all: normal human brains just slough this stuff off in pure self defense. I have no idea what they were trying to say. I just hope no one lets them drive.
VietNam vets have a strange aura in the political process.
World War II vets have respectability. They fought in a war that was vicious, brutal, and absolutely necessary. Even leftists can approve of World War II vets.
Korean vets get an acknowledgement. It’s OK to like Korean vets as long as you do not do so too vigorously.
VietNam vets fought in a tremendously controversial war. We came back to total disrespect from the country as a whole.
Inasmuch as we were never embraced by the political class, we always remained outsiders.
As a consequence we are still seen as rebels. We are outlaw warriors, and as such still appear enigmatic to the country as a whole.
If we were talking about country music, VietNam vets would be Waylon Jennings.
This is probably one of the reasons that you see so many VietNam vet motorcycle clubs. We’re not really the Hell’s Angels, but we have sort of embraced our outlaw persona.
So now when we confront the left it is different from when the left confronted pro-war activists in the past. We ourselves still carry the political aura of “outlaws” and so the left is opposing a group that in some ways is seen as more profound rebels than themselves. We are mad, bad, and dangerous to know.
Of course I am talking about political auras here, not the actual fact of individual people who are now perfectly respectable on one-to-one basis.
And I would say that when you get right down to it, our bite is worse than our bark.
When you think about organizations like Swift Boat Vets against Kerry, you’re not seeing some respectable organization.
It is a coterie of primarily VietNam vets with our insular, self-referential counsel that is internal and not sanctioned by some other organization.
Swift Boat vets mobilized privately and waged a “guerilla” campaign from the platform of an outsider status against Kerry, an ultiate insider.
You’ll notice in the article that despite the large number of VietNam vets and their patriotic sentiment, no big-name politicians or show business personalties showed up to add their voices to the VietNam vets’.
So my view is that we are an unusual phenomena as a political force. We are unpredictable, outlaw warriors that represent a different kind of counter-force than the left usually debates.
As Charlie Daniels sang,
“I ain’t livin’ in some New Age plan…
I’m gonna keep my guns,
And have my fun,
And call it just the way I see.
Because it’s a brand new world,
But I’m still the same old me.”
Being retired for the past 18 years [up until recently] I had plenty of time to attend the great rallies of left. I always found them quite entertaining, where else could you go for free and see such a show. They are possessed and driven by god knows what, but entertaining. Two things never changed, 90% were the same people, mostly women, the rest wore beards, protesting whatever was the protest of the day and anyone that I didn’t recognize had that sort of what an I doing here look on their face. The second thing was when it showed up on the evening newscast I always wondered if they were showing the same rally I was at. The one I saw had 10 or 15 idiots yelling and screaming but the one on TV had hundreds tying up traffic and the whole downtown. It teed me off, I never did seem to get to the right one.
No puppets ? What’s wrong withn these people ?
Thanks for the link Kate – we had a lot of fun! WC – same thing here in the papers today – The main speaker at this rally was last seen dancing on the Calgary war memorial draped in a Hezbollah flag – funny how the media forgets to mention that stuff.
Thanks for the great post Greg in Dallas.
Re: “our bite is worse than our bark.” and “Because it’s a brand new world,
But I’m still the same old me.”……
IMHO, good! There is still much to be done. Pres. Rodham-Clinton could name Jon Cary as her Secretary of State (shudder). Viet Nam Vets are not extinct yet. Not by a long shot, as Gathering of Eagles (and the 2004 election!) show.
And here is a good eatting prayer.
Get down on your knees
And put up your paws.
Thank the Good Lord
For the use of your jaws.
Amen.
(h/t,Dinosaur BarBQue.)
“What’s wrong withn these people ?”
I agree, it’s pretty sad when they’re too bone lazy to construct a couple of huge puppets to amuse me.
Just plain shiftless, if you ask me.
Greg in Dalas. There is no reason for Vietnam Vets should not have self respect. In a way they were similar to the “300”.
http://tigerhawk.blogspot.com/2007/01/jim-webb-and-iraqvietnam-analogy.html
Singapore patriarch Lee Kuan Yew has similar thoughts about the Vietnam War. (See Tigerhawk’s post “Revising Vietnam,” 20 Dec 2006). In a speech last October, Lee said: “However there were enormous ‘collateral benefits’ to East Asia from the Vietnam War. It prevented the dominoes of Southeast Asia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia, from falling. It also changed China’s attitude to Vietnam; when the war ended China attacked Vietnam in February 1979 and stopped Hanoi from threatening Thailand, after Hanoi invaded Cambodia in December 1978. Without US intervention there would never have been the four East Asian dragons (S. Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore), followed by the four tigers (Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines).”
Personally, I think the U.S. won the Vietnam War. I have believed that since the mid 1980s.
The Edmonton Sun, reporting on yesterday’s march from Corbett Hall to the Arts Barn, claimed that ‘hundreds’ took part in the march. I was in the vicinity of Corbett Hall half an hour after the scheduled start of the march and took photos of the entire crowd that was still milling around trying to get organized. I’ve counted the people in the photos and there were definitely fewer than a hundred there. The story must have been filed by some eager beaver cub reporter who has trouble with counting, but then, what can one expect from the MSM. The only other explanation that I can think of is that leftist demonstrations are notorious for never starting on time and that several hundred people showed up an hour late, knowing that nothing would be happening at the designated start time.
John:
Your absolutely correct.
They headed East to Edmonton & Calgary. Hoping that the worst winter in 30 years moves em even farther. That & our repulsion of such ingrates when we don’t have enough workers of our own while they lift not a finger in labor . Living like vultures on the monies of those who do , yet still abide as hobo’s.
That will end soon, when some new Provincial welfare laws kick in. Subsidized housing for only working poor as well.
How do I know? I am a parks & rec guy from Edmonton. Every Wino & bum say’s their from Vancouver Island or East Vancouver the City. Except the few who where natives or born here.
Now we have an epidemic of the scum who do nothing but defecate, kill, vandalize, & disfigure the whole town. With a crime rate to match their addictions.
I figure enough disincentives will herd them towards welfare heaven. Toronto. That great sewer of the Nation. There the winters are not so cold nor the people as smart from years of propaganda on the “homeless”. A city ripe for even more picking by the poverty industry.
Just my opinion
I know the link to the CBC was a joke but I followed it anyway. Read the intro to Sook-Yin Lee’s program and ask yourself if it’s worth catching:
“Will the real Sook-Yin Lee please stand up? Please stand up? Yes, we’re talking about “faking it” this week on DNTO. From Cyrano to Borat to Bridezilla, we’ll look at the long-standing tradition of fabrication in pop culture.
To begin, pop culture professor Nick Purdon pulls back the curtain for a peek at faking it in the workplace.
We’ll stop for the latest round of What’s On Sook-Yin’s iPod. ”
Watching. Paint. Dry.
What is with the left protestors? every protest Ive seen is accompanied by a large contingent of polyester mascots. Is any one convinced of being leftist by some overly large vinyl and velcro vermin that looks like a cartoon squirrel, a burlap and buttwipe tree or an orlon baby seal with eyes made out of painted hupcaps? Dancing around in birkenstocks and woolsocks held up by backcombing the hair on their legs?
I mean whats the friggin’ point
Do you see us all dressed up like Rummy, Ronny, GW,Maggie and Stephen Harper pretending with guns and bombs wearing jackboots and blue suits dancing line dances and pretending to bomb Iraq?
NO , cause then they would think we were lefties too.
by the way does anyone know where I can by a Dr. Suzuki mask for halloween. Al Gores are easy, the wife and I want to go as the Global Warming Ghouls for Giai day.
” Dancing around in birkenstocks and woolsocks held up by backcombing the hair on their legs? ”
Heh .
Thanks, concrete.
Much appreciation, Gunney.
I didn’t mean to imply that VietNam vets do not have self-respect. We do have self-respect. But it is self-respect grown out of a certain martyrdom.
In the States for a long time, every time there was a shooting, the responsibility was laid at the feet of a “disgruntled VietNam vet”. Often this proved to be untrue, but this is the reputation that we have had.
I always hoped that the Post Office would lift this title from us, but they don’t seem to have gone postal enough here lately for that.
One writer I read said that VietNam vets seemed like prefectly nice people, then the next day it was up on the roof with a rifle.
We were never embraced by our culture, because by the time we got back the country was too divided to offer universal acceptance and appreciation for our efforts. We have never been accepted.
With Korean vets, you have popular characterizations like Hawkeye Pierce and other fictionalized personifications. People who vocally dislike war and who may gripe about the strategy and the brass, but never really question the fundamental premises for actually being in Korea.
The VietNam war was disputed in its most fundamental premise. Massive organized activity with politicians at the highest level and celebrities protested our very existence.
So now you spit in our eye, we’ll spit in yours.
But because we weren’t popular enough to be embraced by any major political movement, we also have never been co-opted.
We’re probably the largest and most independent body that has never been co-opted by some larger political endeavor.
You’ll notice that in the Washington rally the main reason for being there was that VietNam vets didn’t want vets of Iraq and Afghanistan to suffer the disapproval that we did. Approval of the war was always implicit, but not the main articulated reason.
So it will be interesting to see how well the left can stand up under the pressure that all we VietNam outlaws can bring to bear on them.
As the fellow who sent the Nanaimo photo, I’d concur with John’s analysis. Sometimes one can be driven to despair by the champagne socialists of the left coast, especially Van. Island. They are like Taliban Lite. It’s not that they want to take you back to the 12th century, but they’d sure like to keep you in mid 20th.
But money votes with it’s feet and it ain’t the latte sipping chattering classes that are moving here, but rather the entreprenurial types who see opportunity and a fantastic lifestyle.
Good news, conservatives – we are slowing winning the bigger war, even here in La La Land!
protest warrior.com certainly has some catchy signs. Nice pics by the way folks.
Pat
Where’s the picture of “Save The Burka: Afghani girls don’t mind being oppressed”?
http://no-libs.com/protest/signs.jpg
Haha!
Keep bringin’ it Rich…
It must have been hidden by the “Stone the queers to death–it’s Allah’s will” signs, Iron Man.
BTW, the “Torture/Radios” story is from the Glib and Pale about the U.S. and the Arar case etc. It was on the very bottom of the page at National Newswatch earlier. I don’t know about now.
All this talk about patriotism and service to country is making me feel all kerplunked out. I wanna join up and fight… yeah! let’s go bloggingtories.. let’s kick some butt!
Greg in Dallas, Vets, Soldiers
Respect.
In response to Gunney99:
I also think that the US is winning the war in Veitnam. Trade is being opened up with favoured trading status – diplomatic relations are improving – and I think that democracy is around the corner – this is when America wins.
As an outsider, I am impressed that the Viet Vets are sticking together and refuse to be beaten by our current understanding of the Viet history. They are supporting the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan – they know only too well what it is like to be disenfranchised from you own country – the pain that it causes. I hope the troops see this side of these protests.
Just saw some shots of this lefty nerd how-down at Darcy’s site…My God!…fear for the gene pool!
The shot of the Napoleon-dynamite-come-Urban-revolutionary-warrior was a side-splitter. He seemed to want to impress all the dumpy Bolshy girls with his revolutionary bad boy plaids and hoodie …and THE fashon accessory for today’s proweling moonbat bachelor-boy: the farmer’s hankie face mask.
ROTFLMAO 🙂
I felt like going up to this poor deluded moonbat sot and asking if he remembered being born and that he should treasure that memory because it was the first and last time he would ever get near female plumbing.
The eagles gathered but the vultures from the liberal left-wing news media prefered to ignore the gathering and concentrate on covering the turkeys and the silly protests but im not at all surpised
“Personally, I think the U.S. won the Vietnam War. I have believed that since the mid 1980s.”
Gunney99, Agree somewhat,strategically, and historically, they may have won the war, but at too high a price. The Vietnam War demonstrated the futility of fighting with less than utter resolve, and allowing the media to oversee the action, while begging for approval of the fatcat audience back home. My uncle, now deceased,WW2 veteran, used to say cynically, that we’d have never won WW2 under the same kind of scrutiny the Vietnam era soldiers were subjected to.
The war also demonstrated the boomers decadence and lack of character. Our generation was simply unfit to fight. The US regular army, led by their best commanders, and without the oversight of the civilian population of the US,could probably have won the war decisively in five years or less.
Having known many Vietnam veterans,and discussed the war with them, I was left with the impression that they would have been better off with an all volunteer army. A lot of those drafted guys were more trouble than they were worth.
American morale was seriously weakened by that war, and they found out who their true friends really were. Not many countries backed the US position at the time, and the same ones still don’t today, although they love to benefit from trade with America, (as in most of Europe).
We are fortunate America had leaders like Ronald Reagan, and Margaret Thatcher in Britain in the 80’s, or strategically, the map might look a lot different today.
The usual twisted headlines in the San Francisco Chronicle and the San Jose Mercury (a far more reasonable newspaper) today, along the lines of “Anti-War Protestors Demonstrate for Peace.” Right – people like me aren’t for peace. What these folks don’t realize is that it isn’t a choice between war and peace; it’s a choice between war in the Middle East and war in the United States, and Canada, and Australia, and Europe, and . . .
I’m all for peace; the Islamofascists aren’t.
More on the Gathering of Eagles from Hot Air
http://hotair.com/archives/2007/03/19/the-gathering-of-eagles/#comments
America could have won in vietnam but its becuase of traitors like WALTER KRONKITE