The AP reports on the anti-American protest today as if it’s a countrywide thing put together by all sides inside Iraq:
BAGHDAD – Tens of thousands draped themselves in Iraqi flags and marched peacefully through the streets of two Shiite holy cities Monday to mark the fourth anniversary of Baghdad’s fall. Demonstrators were flanked by two cordons of police as they called for U.S. forces to leave, shouting "Get out, get out occupier!"
Some marchers strode along trying to rip apart an American flag; others marched across an American flag rug flung across the road.
Security was tight across Iraq, with a 24-hour ban on all vehicles in Baghdad starting from 5 a.m. Monday. The government quickly reinstated the day as a national holiday, rescinding its weekend order that had decreed that April 9 no longer would be a day off.
The Najaf rally was ordered by Muqtada al-Sadr, the powerful Shiite cleric who a day earlier issued a statement ordering his militiamen to redouble their battle to oust American forces, and argued that Iraq’s army and police should join him in defeating "your archenemy."
Those marching were overwhelmingly Shiite, but Sunnis — who are believed to make up the heart of Iraq’s insurgency — have also called for an American withdrawal.
But it isn’t. Sadr, understanding that he is being marginalized, has called for his followers to attack Americans and set up this protest. Of course the AP being the AP they ended up using the numbers from the local police…cough Jamil Hussein cough….and printed that "tens of thousands" were protesting.
But:
The U.S. Army estimated the crowd size at closer to 5,000 to 7,000 participants based on aerial photographs, said military spokesman Col. Steve Boylan.
And that’s from CNN. You know it’s bad when the CNN is less biased then the AP.
So a few thousand protest and the MSM goes bananas. Of course we didn’t hear about these kind of things did we?
- 60 Terrorists killed in Diwaniyah
- A top al-Qaeda aide was captured
- The nightly curfew was eased due to the success of The Surge
- First Iraqi water bottling company opens
- Senior Iraqi Cleric says there is no civil war
- Iraqi Sunni’s call for end to violence
- 14 terrorists arrested in Baghdad today
- Joint Iraqi/US operation destroys 15 weapon cache’s, kills 30 terrorists, and arrests 28 more.
- Local Baghdad police deliver supplies to schools
- A Iraqi neighborhood watch in 15 villages is working
We hear none of this. What we hear is that a few thousand Sadr followers protested the United States.
Oh, I’m sorry…I meant tens of thousands.
Sigh…
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One of the things about this is, the demonstrators can march through the streets, expressing their dissent, knowing that they won’t be gunned down by American, Coalition, and Iraqi forces. Certainly, the malcontents aren’t helping us bring about a quicker resolution to the violence; and probably many of the marchers are involved in the insurgency.
Why won’t we see a counter-demonstration? Because it would be open season on pro-American presence, as our enemies have no qualms about terrorizing the citizenry into publically expressing their feelings through carbombs, suicidists, and sniper attacks.
We are working at a disadvantage in the propaganda field.