Saturday, March 17, 2007

Gathering With the Eagles

There was another big anti-war rally today in Washington DC, and an anarchist website tipped its hand by announcing that they intended to vandalize the Vietnam War Memorial as part of the action, as they did earlier with the Capitol building.

Free Republic responded by organizing a massive counter-protest of Vietnam vets and other patriotic volunteers in order to protect the memorial. I made the long drive up early this morning to report on “A Gathering of Eagles” for Gates of Vienna.

Note: each of the following photos is a thumbnail. Click the small image to see a larger version of the same thing.

Panorama

After a long walk down from the Metro station at Farragut West, I expected the area on the Mall around the Vietnam Memorial to be crowded with lefty demonstrators. But it wasn’t — apparently the moonbats like to sleep in. But the veterans were out in force; I saw a heartwarming combination of Rolling Thunder people, Patriot Guard Riders, and VFW representatives of various ages crowding their counter-demonstration area next to the memorial.

It was very cold and blustery with occasional snow showers, and the veterans’ area soon became a sea of icy mud. But that didn’t dampen the spirits of those who came to protect the memorial. I talked to people who had come in from California, New York, Florida, Texas, and many other places across the country.

The first veteran I talked to was a man named Kevin Gray, who was carrying a sign dissing Jane Fonda. Ms. Fonda is a frequent target of gibes and insults among vets — I heard one of the organizers announce over the PA system that the porta-johns were available along Constitution Avenue “for anyone who wants to take a Fonda or a Sheehan.” Kevin Gray
The veterans were industriously putting up flags all over the area when I arrived. Flags
One of the Rolling Thunder vets kindly agreed to hold still for me to take a photo of his back. Notice Jane Fonda’s upside-down appearance here. Vet’s jacket
Major Eric Egland, a reservist who returned recently from Iraq, had set up a table to sell his book, The Troops Need You, America! He found a publisher for it, but it would would have taken until June for the book to come out. As a result, he decided to self-publish it, and I bought a copy, but haven’t had time to read it yet. It’s available for sale on his website, in case you’re interested. Major Egland

Those who wanted to visit the memorial wall had to wait in one of two very long lines in order to be X-rayed and wanded for dangerous contraband. I spent an hour in the cold with a lot of veterans, and directly in front of me was a disabled veteran in a wheelchair, accompanied by his wife.
- - - - - - - - - -
Even though he was bundled up with a hat, coat, gloves, and a lap blanket, the poor guy was obviously very cold — you could see his arms shivering.

Next to him was a family, a husband with his wife and teenage son. The wife took off her coat to drape over the disabled vet’s shoulders.

“I’ve got my long underwear on, so I’m fine,” she told him. “And you can keep it. I’ve got four more just like it at home.”

The family continued to chat with the vet and his wife, and I noticed the woman was very well-informed about the Great Jihad, and also the enemy within. At one point she said, “You know, we had to throw Islam back once before at the gates of Vienna.”

I said, “Excuse me — did you say ‘Gates of Vienna’”?

She agreed that she had, so I told her, “I’m half of the blog Gates of Vienna.”

“You’re Baron Bodissey? I love your blog! I read it every day.”

It turns out that she has commented here occasionally, under the nickname “Right Mom”. So, ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the Right family: Right Dad, Right Mom, and Right Junior.
 The Right Family
There were volunteer veterans at the wall to help visitors find any specific names they were looking for. At the Wall
Some of the vets stood there a long time finding the name of someone they remembered who never made it home. At the Wall
This is a group of vets who agreed to pose for a photo. I specifically asked one of them to pose so that the back of his jacket could be seen. Vets
When I came out of the memorial area, the moonbats had arrived in force up on Constitution Avenue. Demo

I was in deep cover — I had no flag or other insignia identifying me as a member of the VRWC — so I headed up to the Lincoln Memorial to investigate the demonstration.

Signs for ANSWER and the Socialist Workers were everywhere, as were Cuban and Palestinian flags. There were plenty of Latin Americans and Muslims present, judging by appearances. The music over the loudspeakers seemed to alternate between anti-war standards (“War! HUH! What is it good for?”) and salsa numbers.

My favorite sign was one that read “The Only Way To Win The Hearts And Minds Of The Iraqi People Is To Apologize And Leave.” Second prize went to “Workers’ Rights Have No Borders”. Demo
A squadron of vets had set up a fortified position inside the snow fence around the Lincoln Memorial coffee shop, and some of them argued with any of the demonstrators who came close enough. Demo3
I was very surprised to find that Holger Danske was there helping to protect the memorial. He said he had ridden in on his Harley-Davidson from North Carolina, but I wasn’t fooled — you could tell he was really Holger.

He even had both eyes open, so the moonbats never had a chance.
 Vet
A number of veterans got up on the platform and spoke to the crowd. In this photo Kevin Martin is making a passionate and inspiring speech, but, unfortunately, he’s mostly obscured. The vet in the foreground on the stage is signing the speech for the audience. Speakers


CheckpointThe Rolling Thunder guys stood shoulder to shoulder across the walkway that leads to the memorial, and refused entry to any of the demonstrators who tried to get in. I was standing next to one of the vets when a woman carrying a peace sign and pulling a suitcase on wheels wanted to get past us.

“Excuse me,” she said, with a thick European accent.

“You can’t come in here,” he told her. “You’re not wanted.”

“What do you mean?” she exclaimed in outrage. “This is America! You can’t stop me going in there.”

“Oh, yes I can. Go back down there —” he pointed towards the Lincoln Memorial — “that’s where you’re wanted. And we’ll stay down here.”

He never did let her get by.

There were several DC cops opposite the vets, watching impassively from across the sidewalk next to Constitution Avenue. I asked one of them if the checkpoint was OK with him. He shrugged. “They’re not blocking the sidewalk. That’s all I care about.”

The demonstrators were now arriving by the busload and massing on the lawn by the Lincoln Memorial. Their plan was to cross Memorial Bridge and march a mile and half to the Pentagon. There was no way I was going out over the Potomac in those temperatures and with a stiff wind blowing, so I decided to head back towards the Metro.

DevilThe last thing I saw before turning to walk up the hill was this very peculiar icon or totem. It was being wheeled up the sidewalk by one woman while two others held ropes and struggled to keep the wind from blowing it away. It seemed unlikely that the monstrosity would ever make it across Memorial Bridge intact.

I never did figure out exactly what the thing represented. It sported an eye-and-pyramid on its forehead, and had something to do with Bush, and something to do with Oil, but beyond that it was inscrutable.

After I left DC, some of my TV-owning sources told me that CNN had lavish coverage of the anti-war protesters, but no footage of the veterans. CNN reported that there were “about two thousand counter-demonstrators”, but don’t believe them — early in the morning, when the vets met at their staging area, I saw considerably more than that. I heard that they fanned out across the city later on to place a protective cordon around all the major monuments.

God bless those veterans! They renewed my spirit.

I’ll have more to report on these events later, when I have more time.

24 comments:

Gateway Pundit said...

Great job!
Good for you guys.

Profitsbeard said...

Wish I could have been there ...had to work... (at least that's what my creditors keep insisting)

What I cannot understand about the "anti-war" crowd is: if one sides gives up and "brings the troops home", what if the other side doesn't stop fighting?

It takes two to end a war.

One, by being defeated, the other by being victorious.

Leaving the field of battle decides the the issue in favor of those who stay.

And, in the case of the global jihadist movement of expansionistic Islamic imperialism (somewhat overlooked by all "anti-war" protesters), giving in to them anywhere encourages them everywhere.

Why do these historically vacuous "activists" want to invigorate a movement that is homophobic, misogynistic, theocratically terroristic, despotic, tyrannical and anti-art, anti-music, and wholesale anti-intellectual?

Do they just hate themselves and their own country enough to want true medieval barbarian hordes to destroy them?

Or are they stuck in the "Every War is Viet Nam" Paradigm forever?

Either way, they add nothing to our security or the general intellectual level of the (studiously-uninformed, wilfully-unfocused and media-muddled) Question that should be strongly debated- as central to our Civilization's survival:

"What Should We Do In Response to The 'Holy' War Declared Upon All Free Peoples By Militant Murderous Mohammedans?"

Do we run away because three soldiers a day are dying in the battle aginst them?

And what if they attack us again, in our dithering weakness?

Could that be blamed on our own country's failure to capitulate fast enough?

(As the 9/11 'truthers' -AKA paranoid, self-loathing nihilists- try to deny the source and actors for the original terrorist attacks?)

Of course, it's hard to compress all of this onto a placard or yell it fast enough at the passing stream of anarchists, pacifists and somnambulists for them to grasp.

(But I suspect they just want to destroy America -in order to feel morally superior- by allowing jihadist moral imbeciles to over-run it. Irrational, but fulfilling. Until you are disembowelled...)

Unknown said...

Did you happen to see any unclothed moonbats I can add to my collection?

www.nakedmoonbats.com

X said...

Do they just hate themselves and their own country enough to want true medieval barbarian hordes to destroy them?

In short, yes. In longer terms, what they hate is that they are better off than other people. They want "equality" more than they want to avoid evil, and since it's impossible to use their favoured methods to bring everyong else up to their level, they do their damndest to bring themselves and those around them down. Oh, but mostly those around them rather than themselves cos they're speshul*.

It goes like this: Western culture provides a system whereby the most people get the most chance of a good shot at life whereas their own system of choice tends to cause poverty over the long term. The culture they arte then born in is a constant reminder of their own failure. People don't like to be reminded of their failures, and tend to get quite angry at them, so the left gets angry at capicalism because it consistently outperforms socialism not only economically, but in providing the very things that they claim socialism will provide. However it doesn't do it in an "equal" way. They say equality and mean equality of outcome - everyone gets the same no matter what. Unfortunately for them, real equality isn't an equal outcome but an equal chance. As I already pointed out, it is impossible for their system to bring everyone up to the same level as the west simply because it relies on redistributing existing wealth rather than creating new wealth - and there isn't enough wealth in the west to bring the entire planet up to the same level as the west, no matter how hard they bleat. So, the only option left is to bring the west down to the same level as everyone else. Since they're a part of the west this would mean bringing themselves down to the level of, say, the guarani in south america (who are suffering real poverty). At some level they have realise what this will do to them and their families, but the hatred of "inequality" overrides this and quite probably creates one of those cognitive dissonance things - attempting to hold two or more entirely contradictory thoughts and believing both, or all of them to be real. It can cause problems.

So they hate everything, including themelves. It's a near-universal constant that marxists are invariably the children of middle-class-or-higher parents who never grew past the stage of "It's not fair!". They may know a great deal but they're ignorant of how the world works, so they are ignorant the fact that if they had their way the wealth of the west would be destroyed and they'd have no resources to redistribute anymore.

They hate themselves because, deep down, they know this, but they don't use it as a sign to pause and reflect. Their minds are closed in the way they accuse everyone else of being and they use their hate and anger as a crutch, turning it outward to whomever they think is in their way, crying out "I hate you!" the wame way they did to their parents.

Rivka said...

This is great! Great job! This is my first time visiting your blog. I usually comment at LGF. I enjoyed your coverage on this and am visiting other blogs that covered it as well since the MSM won't report it. I loved the story about the vet not letting the moonbat in!

Sissy Willis said...

Thanks for being our eyes and ears . . . The Rights -- Dad, Mom and Junior -- rule! Your report renewed MY spirit! :-)

Always On Watch said...

Baron,
Good to meet you yesterday!

I linked to this posting you have here.

Baron Bodissey said...

Naked,

It was way too cold for naked moonbats!

We were thus fortunately spared the sight of lefty gooseflesh.

Baron Bodissey said...

AOW,

It was great to meet you, too!

There were a lot of Freepers there -- I don't know if any Freepers are reading this, but your comrades were out on the Mall in force yesterday.

Buck said...

Excellent post, superb photos. Our "eyes and ears," indeed.

Thanks for your efforts, Baron.

directorblue said...

Fantastic coverage, Baron. Thank you for posting this.

Redneck Texan said...

Excellent work Baron.

Mike's America said...

Naked: Skye from Midnight Blue reports seeing one of the naked protesters, but they were clothed. Apparently it was too cold for them.

Which brings up the point of my comment. You also posted the photo of the protesters silly looking dragon or whatever. What does it say about the seriousness of the issues here when anti-American-war protesers behave like this is some freak show mardi gras?

Thanks to everyone who made Saturday such a great success.

Before we stand a chance of winning the war against Islamic Fascists we have to win the political battles here at home.

Our troops have done their part. The political fight is our responsibility.

We need to build on the success of the Gathering of Eagles and work even harder to get our view out.

One thing everyone can do is contact C-Span via their web site and demand to know why they covered the kookville event live yet reran some boring congressional hearing in the morning when the Gathering was making speeches?

C-Span belongs to US. One thing we can all do is insist it give equal time to both sides.

That's the action item for folks unable to attend who want to know how they can help. That and write letters to your local papers.

Urban Infidel said...

Huge thanks to everyone.

There in spirit.

UI

Exile said...

About that big red thing...
I seem to remember the pyramid and the eye thingy logo on american dollar bills. Could that be a connection somehow?
Otherwise I would think it a caricature study of Mohammed or something like that.

Great job vets.

Great job Baron.

Well done.

Baron Bodissey said...

Exile,

Yes, the eye and pyramid are on the dollar bill. I tink babs is right -- there's probably a connection between the Free Mason paranoia and the thing. It goes along with the International Zionist Conspiracy and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, etc.

As an image, it has a nice convergence with the filthy lucre made by the oil industry, as a bonus.

Richard G. Combs said...

Apparently, one can only submit a link from a Blogger blog. [sigh]

I just want you to know I really liked your "marvelous account" and said so in "The Eagles soared!"

Thanks especially for the heartwarming story of the Right family and the disabled vet.

Flag Gazer said...

It has been an inspiring day to visit the blogs posting on the Eagles! I am so proud of all of them! Thank you!

lumberjack said...

Sorry I couldn't make it down there but it's good to read your report and see everyone's pictures. Looks like the Eagles were well represented.

livfreerdie said...

Baron, sorry I missed you.

http://s47.photobucket.com/albums/f189/marinetbryant/GoE/

Just got back from my trip to D.C. It was so cold I think He ll froze over! My opinion, we had equal numbers as the anti-crowd. We were mostly around the wall and memorials, which is what the mission was about, no protester got close. The Park Police had the Wall sealed off with a controlled entry and metal detectors. A lot of vets were across the street from the anti-crowd. Both sides were behaved with the normal verbal taunting between the two groups. The anti's had a better sound system and probably paid professional agitprops who were really pumping up the anti's.
As their march began, one vet pointed to a heavy set anti, giving him what for. The anti stated to cross the street and a police officer stopped him. I can imagine the officer telling him "Don't go over there, they will hurt you!" Half of the marchers were early 20's and younger, you know, the ones that can't think for themselves. The marchers were not all anti-war. There were the socialists, the commies, the Che crowd, the burka brigade, the 9-11 conspiracy group and so on. We were all vets and families of vets and active duty servicemen and paying our own way, not financed by Soros et. al.
As I was leaving a came across a couple of anti laggers or who didn't want to march in the cold. A blond woman was giving them both barrels. "If it weren't for these vets and my son in Iraq you wouldn't have the freedom to protest!" she shouted. Another anti was talking impeach Cheney and the lady lit into him. Her husband had to keep grabbing her and moving her along. I mentioned to him that she was a pistol and she said he told her that bringing her was like bringing a gallon of gas to a bonfire! I gave them my best and told them to thank their son for serving.
This was my first pro-active, not sitting on my butt complaining event and well worth it.

Always On Watch said...

I never did figure out exactly what the thing represented.

I go along with a couple of the other commenters. I think that the devil is pink because Code Pink is "exposing" the corruption of the Bush administration.

Kafir_Kelbeh said...

Didn't meet up with anyone I knew, but I ain't no powerblogger so may have for all I know. :)

Have an absolute blast...we laughed most of all at the twits & their attempt to twist the facts.

I'm curious: How does Oil play into this when we've purchased as many barrels after (0) that we did prior to the War?

'Ten percent of nothing is...let me do the math here...nothing...and nothing, carry the nothing..'

Boy, Joss Whedon has been so helpful with quotes lately!

Captain USpace said...

Great job Baron, Eagles and bloggers! Hopefully this will lead to more Pro-Victory counter-protesters at future events.

absurd thought -
God of the Universe says
abandon the Iraqis

just like in Vietnam
nothing is worth fighting for
.

Brian H said...

Archonix;
That kind of mental conflict is called "Cognitive Dissonance". It results in frenzied efforts to justify the dominant position, so as to reduce the confusion caused by facts and incompatible input.