LOS ANGELES, MARCH 18, 2004 - Anti-war activists lined up over 550 pairs of black boots to represent the US military personnel killed as a result of the war against Iraq in front of the federal building in Westwood today. They also piled up thousands of shoes to represent the Iraqi civilians who have lost their lives as a result of the war and occupation. The names of the dead were read aloud throughout the day.

www.icujp.org

www.afsc.org

Those men and women died to liberate 25 million people from an evil demented dictator. What has the Left done? Tried to exploit their sacrifices to their own twisted political ends of supporting dictators and oppressors worldwide! The Left feigns concern over American dead in a blatant effort to undermine efforts to liberate the people of the middle east. If they had their way, Saddam would be plowing under a fresh mass grave even now.

"Those men and women died to liberate 25 million people from an evil demented dictator."

...some idiots will believe just about anything...

Iraq has the world’s second largest proven oil reserves. According to oil industry experts, new exploration will probably raise Iraq’s reserves to 2-300 billion barrels of high-grade crude, extraordinarily cheap to produce, leading to a gold-rush of profits for international oil firms in a post-Saddam setting. The four giant firms located in the US and the UK have been keen to get back into Iraq, from which they were excluded with the nationalization of 1972. They face companies from France, Russia, China, Japan and elsewhere, who already have major concessions. But in a post-war military governments, imposed by Washington, the US-UK companies expect to overcome their rivals and gain the most lucrative oil deals that will be worth hundreds of billions, even trillions of dollars in profits in the coming decades.

"...some idiots will believe just about anything..."

Perhaps, but idiots like you won't believe anything unless if it's true. You deal in fantasies.

Face it loser, you're beat. Stay down.

You're out of your league and embarrassing yourself.

Thank you. So at WORST, the situation will result in US and UK companies pushing out French, Russian and German oil companies and getting the contracts themselves. PAYING Iraq handsomely for the oil mind you.

Hardly a theft.

Kinda makes you wonder why those three "anti-war" countries were so against the war to begin with. I guess they were fine trading thousands of murders and tortures a year by Sadam for oil.

No Torture for Oil.

Thanks again for disproving this inane notion of some massive US oil theft.

shitpile: "...but idiots like you won't believe anything unless if it's true."

...well, given the choice of that or being Republican swallowing every lying load stroked over to 'em, I guess I stand with the truth-believing idiots.

...geez, shitpile, you don't need me here to point out what a schmuck you are...you're doing fine on your own!

So whwen are you going to give us your thoughts on terrorism.

Have any?

Are do you actually deny the existence of Islamic terrorism?

...right after you blow me...

Is that really all you could come up with?

Look, you're running out of steam here.

Why don't we just go to a dodger game (I have great seats), I'll buy you a beer (I don't drink but perhaps you do) and we'll settle all this.

What, you're backin' out of the deal now? You wanna hear my thoughts, then you gotta ante up, you fucking steaming loaf. Blow me and I will pour out my soul on the topic..

don't be afraid...I promise I won't come in your mouth....

...and fuck the Dodgers....

"...and fuck the Dodgers...."

I'm not much of a Dodger fan myself. More of an American league guy.

But they're the only game in town.

So, now about this terrorism stuff.

You actually, don't believe in it do you?

You think all those filthy swarthy camel fuckers draped in ak-47's and rocket launchers are just figments of Republicans' imaginations huh?

Hmmmmm. Curious.

....dude, the world does not always fit your neat little classifications...as a matter of fact, it rarely does...

...if you wanna use death, destruction and the misery of others to further your little game and make you feel better about yourself...well, you can play, but play with yourself.

"....dude, the world does not always fit your neat little classifications...as a matter of fact, it rarely does... "

You couldn't be more correct.

But in the case of the heinous crimes of Islamism and it's systematic and coldblooded attacks on the entire non-muslim world over the last thirty years or so, my characterization of these people as savages is dead on.

A complex problem this ain't.

...fuck off...

Actually it's no more complex than the characterization of any hate group as barbaric. Whether it's Islamism, white supremecy, nazism...you name it.

The thing that sets Islamism apart from these other subhumans is the fact that they routinely murder hundreds and thousands of people.

1) (after weak argument is demolished by facts) "Uh, well you're ignorant...all the masses are ignorant."

2) "Well it just so happens you Republicans believe everything you are told to by master FOX."

Bonus track: "You're a fascist while I am full of compassion. Therefore, my views are correct."

a ha ha ha. what a shame these moldy oldies keep coming back. With or without 'blood for oil,' the left is out of gas, and has been empty of reason going on SIX decades.



I have only made but one prayer in my life: 'O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous.' And God granted it.

--Voltaire

Why did these Left Wingers try to protect Saddam's regime?

If Saddam had been left in power until now there would be lot more than 8,000 more dead Iraqis by now.

It's this cynical exploitation of the ordianry Iraqi people for the sake of some cheap political shot at Bush that really angers me.

The cynicism of these people is disgusting. I notice there was no big hullabaloo when Tanzania invaded Uganda to kick Idi Amin out of power. There was no political capital to be made from that though.

Lousy hypocritical lefty clagnuts.

So only 550 casualties and a regime change in Iraq. One of the bloodiest dictators of all time in jail and a new democratic government being born.

Even fewer fatalities in Afghanistan where another obnoxious regime has been eliminated.

Compare with casualties in all other wars the USA has ever been involved in and these figures are miniscule.

The ration of gain to pain is by far better for these two wars than any ever fought.

Here is a chart showing the dramatic difference between these wars and prior wars. We've gotten a lot accomplished at relatively very low cost.

The rationalization of the killing of any person for any reason is immoral. It's not a numbers game when you are talking about human life. There are no degrees to evil.

There is no lesser of two evils, only evils. BA is no Christian or Jew or member of any of the great faiths of this world.

Thou shall not kill. There are no footnotes or exceptions to this.

THOU SHALL NOT KILL

It was not a game to the people suffering under Saddam, yet the anti-war Left treated the whole thing as a political footbal, just a way to score points against President Bush.

The US had an opportunity to help more than 20m people in an operation that coincided with our foreign policy (reducing the threat of rogue states and terrorists). Our troops have achieved a wonderful thing with an extremely low loss of life. The Left however, would have been quite happy to leave over 20m people languishing for decades in a living hell.

And YOU preach about playing games....



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It's not the point that Sadaam was a heinous dictator, but the point that we were given other reasons for going into Iraq. They tried to link him to these weapons of mass destruction, which were unfounded. They tried to link him to 9-11, which was also unfounded. In other words, the American public was purposefully deceived and misled for oil and American imperialism.

What's good for one country is not always good for another country. How much liberating have we done? We constantly say that Iraq was liberated, and yes, from Sadaam, but do women have rights now? Is terrorism actually dead? Are the Iraqi people happy? Answers to these questions are ALL BLATANTLY NO.

They are liberated from American eyes, and no one elses.

And this is killing us in terms of foreign policies. We have weakened our alliance with the UN and not to mention the destruction in Madrid, Spain (which resulted in them retracting US support)

Open your eyes, this was the absolute wrong thing to do and it was done for the wrong reasons. We are less safe than we were before in terms of terrorism. Let's face it, Bush is a liar, an idiot, and must GO.

Thank You X.

I'll take that as a complement. This guy looks much better than most of the weird looking people in the parade. Check out Kevin with the pigtails, or Lee, or the trailer park trash guy with all the tattoos.

The man in this photo is very neat, has clean clothes, a nice pair of shorts, and more importantly, he's on the right side of the issues.

"The rationalization of the killing of any person for any reason is immoral. It's not a numbers game when you are talking about human life. There are no degrees to evil."

>>>> Obviously, there ARE degrees to evil. In your warped world, the guy who stuffs millions of people in a shredder deserves no worse penalty than a kid who swipes a pack of gum from 7-11.

"There is no lesser of two evils, only evils. BA is no Christian or Jew or member of any of the great faiths of this world. "

Ben Franklin's maxim: "Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God." And old Ben was as kindly and diplomatic as they come.



Thou shall not kill. There are no footnotes or exceptions to this.

THOU SHALL NOT KILL

If you're trying to quote the Bible, the original Commandment is "Thou shalt not murder" NOT 'Thou shalt not kill.'

Jesus defended the weak and preached forgiveness, but he didn't ask the poor to let themselves be slaughtered for the sake of their enemies.

You should take your hypocritical preaching to North Korea now, or China. Explain to them how there is no lesser of two evils.

Somehow I don't think you will.

So you don't wonder about it: YOU GOT SERVED.

Why color photos of black boots? What is needed are feet to go into those boots, preferably those of the disposessed of the U.S. oil mercenaries.

More boots!

Blarney: "I notice there was no big hullabaloo when Tanzania invaded Uganda to kick Idi Amin out of power. "

Umm...maybe that's 'cause we live here and not in Tanzania....

...idiot.

Thank you for the war statistics.

Even though Viet Nam was called

a small war by the news media the

recent Internet statistics show that even

very large World War 2 only killed four

times as many people as the no longer

small Viet Nam War.

My other point is that the greatest threat to

peace today is the proposed U.S. military draft.

Congresspeople similar to Charles Rangle

already require all young men to register to

be drafted into combat to get college financial

aid.

To make matters worse, U.S. Representative

Charles Rangle is introducing legislation

into the Congress called H.R. 163 of Congress 108

that will fully reinstate the U.S. military draft without

exemptions.

The draft will pass through congress by a

landslide if almost nobody protests against it.

It is the duty of all protesters who claim to really

oppose war to include expressing opposition

to the reinstatement of the U.S. military draft

in their protests. Failure to oppose Rangles

proposed draft can be interpreted as total

lack of opposition to war because the draft is

forced war.

Do not forget to protest against the military draft

that Charles Rangle already is pushing through

congress.

As far as I know, nobody is running against

Charles Rangle (D NY) in November and

almost all democratic presidential Candidates

fully support a return to the military draft.

A radio talk show host proposed holding

his nose and voting for Bush. Even though Bush

is far from perfect he will be re-elected because

the alternative is a Lyndon Johnson style

Democrat who will draft Americas youth by the

millions.

Eric Matteson

I also have a link to my earlier hidden article

about changing Star Trek to be fairer to the

Zindy.

Down a ways Malcolm in the Middle is discussing an actual

link to H.R. 163 the draft bill that started the

controversy.

http://la.indymedia.org/news/2004/01/100947_comment.php#ARCH20

Is anybody going to be running against Representative

Charles Rangle (D NY)in November 2004 ??

Eric.

684 coalition forces have been killed, counting 583 Americans, but you only count Americans, right? Tens of thousands of Iraq civilians were killed; they stopped the counting because the appointed Iraqi council said that the numbers would be demoralizing (they started to get the count from hospital records). 100s of thousands of Iraqi troops were apparently killed, but they were just thrown in mass graves. “We don’t do body counts;” and fighting to defend your country is the work of Satan, unless you’re an American.

What did we get. A victory against terror? Hardly. But then again you see all “Arabs” as the same. A “free” Iraq? Democracy doesn’t mean the same thing there as it does here. Sure living under Saddam stunk if you were a Kurd. But under a democracy they now have to deal with majority rule in a country that should never have been a single entity to begin with. The woman’s rights that were impressive under Saddam, have all been removed (this happened in January), and criminals roam the city streets. Bush got his war, eliminated his enemy, and the world is not safer for this “charity”

bush admirer: "(...) Afghanistan where another obnoxious regime has been eliminated" ??? Maybe you should go to Afghanistan to see how people live there in the middle of misery and destruction. If under the talibans' regime women had no rights, now they've got even less rights. Not to mention all the violence that people have to suffer daily.

Keep up the good work, you LA Peace activists. You came up with a very creative display to remind the public of this vicious Imperialist War/Occupation. Perhpas next time you could pile up the 10,000+ shoes at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue lawn?