Here is an initial first-hand report of the long-planned anti-terror demonstrations in Baghdad, held by the various political parties marching together for peace and democracy in Iraq - The Iraqi people spoke today. I will post more links as they become available. I think this is a good thing that the long-oppressed seem to have found a voice of their own and are for the first time marching for themselves and not Saddam.
Update: The Iranian reformers are trying to jump on the democracy bandwagon - here is news of huge demonstrations asking for an end to the brutal mullahcracy in Iran.
Iraq update: Zeyad’s perspective on the demonstrations is here - here are some pictures he took with his new digital camera of the demonstrations. I love these guys’ spunk and courage and the eternally optimistic outlook they project.
Another update: Here is a the Yahoo (AFP) story on the demonstrations - note the “sneer” quotes around the word “terrorism” - Bleh! Did I mention AFP is French?
(begin rant) Another thing to keep in mind - if even Al-Jazeera admits (per the Iraqi bloggers) there were 10,000 people marching in these demonstrations, why is this not a big media event? Why is the big media in general silent about it? Doesn’t fit with their storyline of a “quagmire”? Why is it that when “NON-IRAQIS” hold anti-war rallies it is a big thing but when the free IRAQI people hold them to make their views known, people just ignore them?(end rant)
It is also really interesting to see the difference between the so-called anti-war protesters and the Iraqis marching against terrorism in Zeyad’s photos (he has three sets of pictures up on his site). Where as there is nothing but blood, hate and a freaky carnival atmosphere in the “peace” protests, the Iraqis as you can see are well-dressed and almost every face shines with hope and happiness. The people look repectable and they seem to be proud in whatever they are doing.
Last update: Here is a hilarious comparison in pictures between the “peace” protesters and the Iraqi demonstrators.
Posted by shanti at December 10, 2003 10:11 AMTrackBack URL for this entry:
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