Taking it to the streets - Part Two

While the usual suspects who weren't even there are busy trying to minimize the peace rally yesterday, an eyewitness account from Liberty Street who was on the ground, puts a clearer perspective on the numbers.

The rally filled the mall as far back as the eye could see (and we were at the front of the rally, at the Capitol end, near the speakers); when the time came to start marching, the crush was so enormous that the part of the crowd where Maggie and I were standing could not even move a step for about 15 or 20 minutes.

And in the coverage I've seen so far, these remarks by Tim Robbins encapsulate what's wrong with the so-called surge.

He told the crowd that on the train going down to D.C., he had struck up a conversation with a young woman whose brother is one of the troops who are going to Iraq as part of the troop surge. His unit was already slated to go to Iraq, but not that soon; the schedule was moved up when Bush escalated the war. This young man's sister told Robbins that, because of the surge, her brother's unit was being deployed to Iraq so fast that their training period -- normally 12 weeks -- had been cut to two weeks. I will say that again. Pres. Bush is sending this soldier, and many others of course, to Iraq with only two weeks of training to fight the war.

When Bush was talking about sacrifice who knew he meant sending in troops like sacrificial lambs? What kind cold-blooded horror is that? I'm racked with disbelief and disgust. Words fail.