Feb. 15, 2003 - Ten Years Ago.

[JackRiddler]

Sad.


Anyone recognize the place?


London


New York

Can you see me?

Berlin


Barcelona


Lahore


Rome


Melbourne


Johannesburg


Hyderabad


Istanbul


Jakarta


Tokyo


Tehran


Seoul


Peshawar


Bilbao


Bagdad.



3 million in Rome, 1 million in Madrid, 1 million in London, and participants in over 150 American cities. Never before have so many humans gathered in coordination

[barracuda]

You don't decider wars of choice based on a focus group, bro.

[justdrew]

[8bitagent]

So weird, it's been almost ten years... a war that maimed/displaced/killed over a million Iraqis and thousands of US soldiers all for nothing. Why werent more saying "WMDS? Ties to 9/11? ARE YOU EFFING KIDDING ME?* *Cue uproarious laughter* With Saturday Night Live, The Daily Show, Onion, Blogs, Forums, alternative media, etc youd think the public would be smarter to allow shit like that to happen and instead laugh their heads off at the White House. Still feels so surreal that shit happened. Seriously though, where was SNL, Daily Show, etc every day hitting hard with hitting home the message of how tragically absurd all this was.
Oh right...9/11, Anthrax, DC Sniper, Freedom Fries...we saw what happened politically to the Dixie Chicks and Michael Moore.

[Seamus OBlimey]

[Seamus OBlimey]

[jcivil]

What I never forget is after the mass movement for peace, Tony Blair said 'it doesn't matter what the people think.' lecturing us with W about the hard responsibilities of Power and Authority.

So if They do not think what we feel matters, logically we can not care about what they think. Which is fine for, um, radicals, yet they got the populace locked down with frivolous jobs leavened with porn, TV shows, sports shows, and a touch of daily shows so folk can feel smug in their collaboration, because they are not for their collaboration, just tongue in cheek about it, y'know.

Conservation and increased GDP are antithetical until nanotech level production takes production off mother earth's back.

And the wars. Meanwhile I get the feeling the mideast wars and 'Darfur' are just distractions to keep eyes off Congo et al.

[82_28]

Yep, those were the "days" as they say. I marched in each and every one and truly thought our outpouring would make a difference. In Seattle the march was miles and miles long, YET, you come home to the MEDIA to see if it had been covered at all, AND IT WASN'T. It was merely a mention. The first march here and around the globe that same day was simply astonishing and the only thing to this day is that shows people still cared. I wish I knew what computer my photos I took were on and where that computer is anymore.

It was fucking huge and it brings me to tears thinking about the size of it. All we were trying to do was do good by god, land, country and Earth and none of it fucking worked.

[82_28]

I remember I got into a huge fight with co-workers the day of the attack and genocide on Iraq started. Not a fist fight or anything. But I became quite vocal and my argument was the psychological damage done to children. I sobbed the whole way home. On the way my dad called and said "you hear the war has started?" And I said "Fuck You." This is no "war". He got pissed at me for saying "fuck you" to him. I was and right now as I still do, felt the souls of people being destroyed by a country I live in and pay into.

My dad didn't think it was a big deal at the time. He didn't take long, but he finally got my point.

Furthermore that morning is when I totally swore off the daily dutiful liberal-person listening to of NPR. The day before it was a "debate" about "should we". And then I turned it on that day and "sorties" were being announced I said fuck this shit and was completely fucking nauseous. I said NPR never again. I'll listen to this or that and read this or that, but fuck them for changing gears when they should have been a domestic outlet for obvious atrocities committed by "us".

[NeonLX]

On the night that the invasion was announced, I was sitting in one of the back pews in a church; one of those modern, non-denominational churches that plays "Christian rock" during the service, rather than the old-timey hymns I much prefer. For family reasons, I had to be at this church, but I wasn't participating--more like observing. Anyhoo, one of the church dudes had been sitting out in his car in the parking lot, listening to the radio. Suddenly, he burst into the church and yelled "WE HAVE INVADED IRAQ!!!!!" At that point, everyone stood up and began cheering. I remained seated and felt a cold nausea growing with each passing second.

I eventually got up and made my way out through the back door. I don't remember anything of the drive home. I didn't turn on the teevee when I arrived; I just crawled into bed.

[JackRiddler]

Neon, where do you live again?

And does anyone know where this is? (The flag is probably a red herring. Looks like a big Iberian or Latin American city to me.)

[DrEvil]

I was a member of the local socialist left party back then, and we tried staging a protest march. It was me, 3 or 4 others from the party, and about 10 non-local students from the ecological farm school up the valley. We did a couple of laps around the village square, just enough time to hear a million excuses for why someone would love to join, if only they had time.
It was especially fun to see our priest's husband (also a priest, but of the doomsday variety) worming his way out of joining. He was practically running to get away from us.

[8bitagent]

Anyhoo, one of the church dudes had been sitting out in his car in the parking lot, listening to the radio. Suddenly, he burst into the church and yelled "WE HAVE INVADED IRAQ!!!!!" At that point, everyone stood up and began cheering. I remained seated and felt a cold nausea growing with each passing second.

I woulda preferred being at a Christian church that would deride the Iraq war as a giant Satanic sacrifice and an "illuminati new world order plot".
I mean, if someone believes in a "God" and "Devil" and some epic struggle in the sky, how could anyone not see the west's wars as anything less than Satanic?
American Christians supporting the government or war always perplexed me.

[8bitagent]

I swear I've seen a few documentaries about Catholic leaders going out of their way to oppose the Vietnam war and stage civil disobedience. Not sure what happened in between that time and 2003.

[Project Willow]

I was somewhere in the massive crowd.