**
No.
The only reason that the protest became was:
a) to feel good about one’s self as a participant.
b) to be fashionable.
Both were accomplished.
Congratulations, morons.
No, you got that about totally wrong, Luci . There is not a single instance of “the protestors” in my post. I said, “protests “failed” to demonstrate…”, kind of like “sunny weather failed to demonstrate the accuracy of rain forecast”. To make it real simple, the fact that many thousand people assembled lawfully in London and freely expressed their opinions, fails to demonstrate that Blair and Bush are morally equivalent to any vile human monster, as some people here like to insist.
Stop making up stuff.
Stunning.
Roumania protesters successfully ousted their prime minister, with little military help.
And Lech Walesa got his teeth braving the water cannons in Gdansk.
Cory Aquino
Some people need to learn the difference between ‘protests’ and ‘insurrections’.
While I think protests in general can have some good effect, the problem with *these protests is that they are so heavily populated by idiots who make the rest look bad. A calm, dignified protest can be effective, but when you show up waving giant puppets holding signs that say “Bush is Hitler”, serious people don’t listen. And the antics of the crazy few cause many people to just write off the entire protest.
In the end, you wind up with a giant-scale version of the Iraq threads on this board - two sides treating each other with contempt, with minds shut on either side. And in the meantime, the independents and fence sitters who you are really trying to convince are really, really turned off by the notion of taking sides with the “radical cheerleaders” and the guys in fuzzy fright-wigs shouting that America is the most evil nation on the planet.
The message was Bush = Saddam. Hence the statue toppling event. Sheesh, Sam, you conservatives are always twisting the truth.
I didn’t see if there was a shoe slapping ceremony once the statue was down. If not, the protestors missed another golden opportunity to turn people off to their cause.
Nah, at least one moron had a “Bush = Hitler” sign. Saw it on the news.
And that other guy, dressed up like Jimmy Carter in lesbo/Nazi drag…
I thought the framing hammer was a nice touch… And the granola.
Misunderstanding - or wilfully misrepresenting - the opinions of people with whom you disagree is hardly a forward step of the fight against ignorance now, is it?
The protests didn’t “suceed” or for that matter “fail” as it would be impossible for any outcome whatsoever to have achieved what all the protesters want.
Some are banging on about israel/palestine
others about Iraq
Others about green stuff
others want a free tibet
others just like a chance of a pagga with the old bill.
And so on.
If there was an identifiable common goal then it would be possible to quantify the sucess or otherwise of the demo.
It did suceed in making my journey home hellish though.
I thought the point of the protests was to voice an opinion which the participants felt was being ignored when expressed by other means.
Sure, the usual gang of idiots were there, the ones who would protest pretty much anything as an excuse to make noise. But those groups hardly constitute the sort of numbers that turned up on a weekday to make their displeasure known, in the same way that the million-strong march last spring included an enormous number of people who would normally, say, spend their Saturday afternoon out shopping with the kids but who felt strongly enough about the government’s actions regarding the war on Iraq to come out and march.
So they protested, they got a fair amount of press coverage, and they went home again. I doubt anyone really expected Bush or Blair to say “Gosh, all these people are unhappy; maybe we should reconsider what we’re doing.” Let’s not forget, though, that it’s not just the government that keeps an eye on these things; protests can also influence fencesitters in the public (one way or the other).
There was one? Well, that invalidates the protest of the rest of the 100,000 then.
Where, of course, “idiot” is defined as “anyone I don’t agree with,” right? :rolleyes:
(I’m sure if there was one guy among the protesters holding up a “Bush = God” sign, you’d be singling him out as a “voice of reason among madmen”)
No, I don’t agree with ANY of them, but only a small percentage were idiots.
Say, the ones carrying “Bush is Hitler” or “Bush = Saddam” signs, or the ones who put up a giant statue of Bush and tore it down, thus trivializing a real moment of joy and liberation for the Iraqi people.
Or these clowns.
Or these people..
Although I must admit I have a soft spot for the radical cheerleaders, because of their immense comedy potential.
After all, who can forget such lilting poetry as:
Kind of brings a tear to your eye, doesn’t it?
And who can forget this dramatic ode:
Man, that’s beautiful.