ANOTHER PRESIDENT ; THE SAME INTOLERABLE WAR
During Bush's presidency, there were massive anti war protests...
Guess what happened this week, and particularly today ?
Scenes from Washington or New York
US anti-war Hundreds of war protesters from across the country gathered in Washington on Saturday to mark the sixth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq.
Organizers from the ANSWER Coalition said more than 1,000 groups sponsored the protest to call for an end to the Iraq war. Holding signs that read "We need jobs and schools, not war" and "Stop the war!" they rallied around noon across the street from the Lincoln Memorial and by 1:30 p.m., were beginning to march across the Memorial Bridge to the Pentagon.
Protesters demanded that President Barack Obama immediately withdraw all U.S. troops from Iraq, saying thousands of Iraqis have died and thousands of American troops have been wounded or killed.
Protesters lined up about 100 cardboard coffins on the ground draped with flags, including the American flag, representing countries where the U.S. has taken military action.
Anti-war activists said even though former President George W. Bush is out of power, they are disappointed with what they see as stalled action from Obama. Several of them said they supported Obama during his campaign, but that his administration has let them down by not ending the war sooner.
Among other concerns protesters raised, they criticized continued troop presence in Afghanistan and called for an end to U.S. support of Israel's military.
Taxpayer dollars should be used not for war but for domestic job-creation, health care, housing and education, demonstrators said.
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Protests also were held in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
A protestor (L) is led away by police after being arrested for blocking street car traffic on Market Street during a demonstration on the sixth anniversary of the war in Iraq, in San Francisco, California March 19, 2009.
In the Union Square, where the protesters huddled together under the awning of a subway station, staying out of the rain, some said that (US President Barack) Obama, who had opposed the war as an Illinois state senator, continues some of the Bush administration's most controversial policies.
"He's not stopping anything that's been going on with Bush," said a student who only gave her first name as Putu. "When I went to visit Indonesia which is my mother's home country, people kind of looked down upon me and made fun of our government."
Calling on the US government to remove its permanent military bases and advisers from Iraq, Debra Sweet, national director of the World Can't Wait, the organization which organized the protest, an annual event since the Iraqi war started six year ago, also urged the US government not to extend the occupation in Afghanistan.
"Today, the occupation of Iraq must end," Sweet said.
"They should pull out all the troops out and stop threatening Pakistan even further," she said, while criticizing that the United States is flying unmanned drones killing civilians in Pakistan.
"This is intolerable in the name of the people in the United States," she said.
At about 5:00 p.m. local time (2200 GMT), some of the protesters stood in front of the Armed Forces Career Center, some of them carrying signs that read, "Stop Occupation and Torture for Empire! The World Can't Wait!"
Others wore black garb and white, ghostly-looking masks, solemnly held up signs listing the number of citizens killed in both war-torn countries.
On the eve of the sixth anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq, events aimed at an earlier termination of the wars also took place in other parts of the city.
Also on the afternoon of the day, some anti-war people held a peace vigil at Ground Zero, the site of the World Trade Center in New York City, which was destroyed in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
Members of the Brandywine Peace Community protest against the war in Iraq, at City Hall in Philadelphia, Thursday, March 19, 2009.(AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
“We haven’t closed our eyes to what’s going on,” said Heather LaMastro, 33, a protester. “Change of administration doesn’t mean anything to us, really, because we’re seeing the same policies carried over.” For instance, she said, President Obama has continued enforcement of the Patriot Act, and has altered the time frame he had promised for for removing troops from Iraq.
Time and again on the campaign trail, Obama promised to begin withdrawing troops immediately upon taking office.
Then, it was - a promise to look at the possibility of withdrawing troops within six months, then within 16 months, then within 23 months. Meanwhile, thousands more troops have been assigned to Afghanistan.
It’s important to remember his election was among things, in essence, a mandate on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Obama promised transparency in government, but is now endorsing Bush secrecy on torture, and is allowing prisoners from Gitmo, which is still open despite the media-hyped ceremonial closing, to be taken and tortured in foreign countries, without the benefit of trial and often without having been charged with a crime. Obama has voted to reinstate the Patriot Act, and has not delivered on his promise to end the warrantless wiretaps (which has been illegal since Watergate).
When you see a continuation of policies and practices from one administration to the next without interruption or meaningful modification, it’s a good indication that the president is not the one in charge.
I think Obama is a puppet, as Bush had been.
After eight years of Bush's presidency, America would have deserved a true leader. A real Commander-in-Chief.
It is now clear that Mister O. is not this kind of leader.