To Be Announced...

--UPDATED BELOW --

As predicted by yours truly, the Des Moines Register goes ga-ga over the protest against the war in Ames on Tuesday. I was off by a bit, but the attitude of the story is dead on. As I stated in a previous post:

Greg said: "If it's the same or less than last year, there won't be a follow up by the Register. If it's any amount more than the 300 from last year, the headline will change to "Huge Anti-War Rally in Central Iowa"

Surprisingly, there was a follow up. Even though the number of people who protested was the same as last year:

War protest reflects shift at ISU

Ames, Ia. - About 300 people gathered Tuesday at a busy intersection in Ames to protest the Iraq war on its fourth anniversary.

Four years ago, Karin Brandt, 22, never imagined she would be the type of person to attend this kind of event.

But Ames has changed. Now, even Iowa State University students who are Republicans admit that campus support for the war in Iraq has waned. Four years ago, it was taboo to speak out against the war at ISU, a school with a relatively conservative student body compared with those at other colleges across the nation, students said.

Remember, in the previous protest last year, they had the same amount of people. Nothing has changed. I'm sure they can probably come up with a bunch of excuses, but the only mention of previous attendance is from a critic in the story and an exact number isn't given. The story is written in such a way to lead you to already doubt anyone who might be of the opposite view.

In Iowa City, more than 200 critics of the war gathered Tuesday in front of the Old Capitol on the University of Iowa Pentacrest and then marched around the city.

The Ames event attracted ISU students, Ames residents and others. After protesting at the corner of Grand Avenue and Lincoln Way, the demonstrators marched to City Hall downtown, where they attended a public meeting indoors.

Again, the same numbers in Iowa City from the last time they gathered. If there's such growing anti-war sentiment, where are the hoards of joiners?

And another thing. The reason they moved indoors was because some previous protests garnered complaints about having to stand out in the cold. That was in the Register story last week...but it's strangely missing from this one. I wonder why...

From last weeks Register story: "...Organizers have moved the public meeting inside because last year participants complained of the bitter cold, Cyan said..."

Dave Gallaher, 49, an Army veteran from Newton, stood quietly among the protesters.

"I've never been to an event like this," he said, explaining that he backed the war initially but stopped supporting continued occupation there after Saddam Hussein was removed as Iraq's president. "I wish President Bush would listen to the sane advisers around him and get countries involved in diplomacy."

Do terrorists have diplomats?

I imagine the Register writer saying, "Must....find...veteran..." when gathering the information for this story.

So...how can the same number of people attending an anti-war protest year after year be translated to mean that anti-war sentiment is growing?

Easy. The lack of "pro-war" rallies. What?

The most tangible evidence that sentiment in Ames has changed since the war began is the fact that demonstrations in support of the war have ceased, said Basil Mahayni, an ISU graduate student who participated in weekly and yearly war protests as an undergraduate at ISU.

Lack of pro-war rallies = tangible evidence. Hmmm. My dictionary is slightly different on the word tangible. Oh, well...

No. Not quite. Maybe they have jobs and that's why they aren't organizing.

A small cluster of people assembled across the street in response to Tuesday's anti-war protest in Ames. One person held up a sign depicting an obscene gesture, directed at the anti-war group.

Naturally, anyone in favor of the war is just a big ugly meany...no anti-war protester would dare be obscene...(caution! foul language below!)

Yeah...looks like a great group to want to join. On the other hand, you don't have to be obscene to make a point at an Ames protest. I don't have a clue about at least one of the signs at the ISU one...and don't you get the feeling that little boy holding the sign wants to be somewhere else?


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Labels: iraq