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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums'36 million people across the globe took part in almost 3,000 protests against the Iraq war'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_15,_2003_anti-war_protesthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protests_against_the_Iraq_War
These demonstrations against the war were mainly organized by anti-war organizations, many of whom had been formed in opposition to the invasion of Afghanistan. In some Arab countries demonstrations were organized by the state. Europe saw the biggest mobilization of protesters, including a rally of three million people in Rome, which is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest ever anti-war rally.
According to the French academic Dominique Reynié, between January 3 and April 12, 2003, 36 million people across the globe took part in almost 3,000 protests against the Iraq war.
In the United States, even though pro-war demonstrators have been quoted as referring to anti-war protests as a "vocal minority", Gallup Polls updated September 14, 2007 state, "Since the summer of 2005, opponents of the war have tended to outnumber supporters. A majority of Americans believe the war was a mistake."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_coverage_of_the_Iraq_War
FAIR also conducted a similar study in February 2004. According to the study, which took place during October 2003, current or former government or military officials accounted for 76 percent of all 319 sources for news stories about Iraq which aired on network news channels.[22]
After the invasion, the editors of the New York Times apologized for its coverage of Hussein's alleged weapons programs, acknowledging that "we wish we had been more aggressive in re-examining the claims (related to Iraqi weapons programs) as new evidence emerged or failed to emerge."[23]
During the invasion, critics argued that the mainstream media unduly focused on optimistic events, such as the toppling of a Saddam Hussein statue in Firdos Square, which was staged with the help of the U.S. military forces, thus downplaying more negative news developments.[24] In particular, the mainstream media has been criticized for underreporting news about Iraqi civilian casualties, which are estimated to be anywhere between 100,000 and 650,000.
bemildred
(90,061 posts)kelliekat44
(7,759 posts)bemildred
(90,061 posts)MohRokTah
(15,429 posts)femmocrat
(28,394 posts)Hell no.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)Nothing was permitted to stop the handbasket.
(although I'll bet you a nickel the NSA did...)
calimary
(80,693 posts)I remember that time so painfully! NEVER saw any press at any of maybe eight or nine different protests I attended around L.A. Except for the very last one, the candlelight vigil on the very eve of the war. Oh gee, there was a camera crew or two. Well how 'bout that. Where've you been, you lazy negligent wholly-owned assholes???? I remember that. And the noise OUR movement made - THROUGHOUT the bush/cheney years, that was summarily ignored. From the very start. Wholly-owned subsidiaries. We were publicly lambasted as traitors and America-haters. That would actually be the statement put to us, to our faces - "why do you hate America?" (Straight from the toxin-filled yap of that-guy-whose-name-rhymes-with-Vanity.) Some who tried to speak out lost their jobs, incomes, friends, and even families. I guess that's still small potatoes, though, by comparison to all those other Americans who LOST LOVED ONES in that goddamn war based on COMPLETE AND UTTER LIES. They lied. WE told the truth. WE were vilified and condemned and denounced and punished and shunned and mocked. And WE turned out to be (shit, I hate even using the now-thoroughly-perverted and hijacked word) right.
And the same fucking-WRONG assholes who are WRONG AGAIN TODAY - are at it again.
Only difference this time is there are a few people in the media who DO remember what happened. And enough of us who will, once again, not keep silent about this. There's hard, miserable, sorrow-filled experience to inform, this time, and back us up, this time. So we'll see. The difference is, this time we have somebody in the Oval Office who isn't swayed so much, who doesn't have a very large investment in sending us to an ill-advised war for some personal financial or "he-tried-tuh-kill-mah-daddy" hard-on for some ridiculous, trumped-up "I'm-tougher-than-you" vendetta. I hope he holds strong.
gratuitous
(82,849 posts)I remember the account in the Oregonian, which spent about two-thirds of its coverage disputing the number of people demonstrating in the streets, complete with aerial photography and "experts" on crowd-size estimates. The substance of the demonstration was pretty effectively glossed over.
As for the electronic media, their focus was usually on the anarchist kids with their uniforms of black outfits and face mask bandanas, or the guy with the rainbow fright wig. "Ho, ho, look at the hippies!" was the usual tone. Anyone with an articulate, thoughtful point of view was ignored in favor of the spectacle.
And then it was time for shock and awe! Oh yeah baby, look at the pretty explosions. Don't think about the people underneath them. I also remember, as I type that, that there was a documentary film-maker who went and recorded streets scenes and ordinary family life as it existed in Iraq in the weeks leading up to the U.S.-led invasion. Nobody wanted to see the footage of kids flying kites or families in public parks. We were on a crusade.
noiretextatique
(27,275 posts)At each and every protest. MSM routinely underestimated the crowd size.
The mantra "Fighting them over there, so we will not have to fight them over here" was BS. Now we have all the gun freaks putting us in more danger than Al Quaida!! If the gop wants more war, send all of them over there, including 5 deferrment Dickless Cheney.
femmocrat
(28,394 posts)Sounds good to me.
abelenkpe
(9,933 posts)Lies that have gone unpunished. We should never have gone to Iraq and we should not get sucked back in now.
Shemp Howard
(889 posts)Both the anti-Iraqi War protesters and the Occupy Wall Street protesters were right, entirely right! Someday, history will verify that. But that doesn't help alleviate the misery now.
I'm so disappointed in Obama, on so many levels. One of which is that he didn't set in motion a commission to investigate what really caused the Iraqi war. It could have been something measured, along the lines of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Sure, an Iraqi War investigation would have been unpleasant, and would have opened old wounds. It's so much easier to just ignore things.
Then of course, history will repeat itself. In five or ten years, the US will start yet another illegal war.
LiberalLovinLug
(14,153 posts)Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)The USA was the country that needed liberating.
Cha
(295,899 posts)little did I know how much the papers and tv wanted the damn thing.
DCBob
(24,689 posts)There must have been close to million people but the media chose to ignore it. I remember one lone protestor with a sign that read..
"If you liked Vietnam you will love Iraq."
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)Cha
(295,899 posts)the number of Protestors who Filled the City for 7 hours in 20 degree weather on Feb 15, 2003.
Thanks GJ
malaise
(267,784 posts)We were also right
madfloridian
(88,117 posts)The media deliberately hushed up the protests here.
https://www.google.com/search?q=2003+iraq+war+protests&hl=en&gl=us&authuser=0&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=lZ6dU-bVCcXL8wH6r4CoDg&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ&biw=1024&bih=608
KoKo
(84,711 posts)Katashi_itto
(10,175 posts)noiretextatique
(27,275 posts)And claimed I was exaggerating. Thanks for proving him wrong.
sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)online, which many were not back then.
I don't believe CNN was sorry, they did the job they were supposed to do.
Sick to death of people who say they're sorry AFTER it's way, way too late.
If they want to show how sorry they are, they can start hiring real investigative journalists and begin the questioning of how this was allowed to happen.
Show Rumsfeld declaring it would 'take months, weeks maybe' and the smearing of Levitt for contracting him on what it would cost.
But they won't.
WhiteTara
(29,676 posts)But *co was determined and there was no stopping the madness that hasn't ended today.
When asked why we were moving on to Iraq, Rummy stated that there weren't any good "target rich" areas left in Afghanistan.
KoKo
(84,711 posts)But...I WILL NEVER BE SORRY for all of our Actions which turned out to be CORRECT...
Someday the History will acknowledge....
WhiteTara
(29,676 posts)and as I walked down the streets, I was crying and as I looked around, there were many people my age and they were all crying too. Somehow we thought we had fought this demon and we were free from these ill fated wars.
Too bad there was Nadir and his infamous "They deserve it" so that he didn't have to negotiate with the Democratic Party. I will never forget his perfidy and treasonous actions toward our republic.
Uncle Joe
(58,107 posts)They're not the peoples' media nor the "mainstream media."
The mainstream flows briskly with information and is a sign of health, the corporate media is stagnation doing its' best to dam toxins and waste for all who want to swim in or drink from it.
Thanks for the thread, G_j.
G_j
(40,366 posts)Last edited Mon Jun 16, 2014, 12:19 AM - Edit history (1)
as they muddy the waters and perpetuate confusion and divisiveness,. Oh, and add apathy to that.
Thanks Uncle Joe!