BWG
DP Veteran
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Good news from Iraq.
Col. Steven Boylan, a U.S. military spokesman and aide to the commander of all U.S. forces in Iraq, praised the peaceful nature of the demonstration, saying Iraqis "could not have done this four years ago."
"This is the right to assemble, the right to free speech — they didn't have that under the former regime," Boylan said. "This is progress, there's no two ways about it."
Gordon Johndroe, the National Security Council spokesman, said the protests were a sign of Iraqi democracy at work.
"Iraq, four years on, is now a place where people can freely gather and express their opinions,"
Uh Oh....
What were they peacefully protesting?
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!"
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.
"The enemy that is occupying our country is now targeting the dignity of the Iraqi people," Nassar al-Rubaie, head of al-Sadr's bloc in parliament, told an interviewer as he marched. "After four years of occupation, we have hundreds of thousands of people dead and wounded."
Iraqi soldiers in uniform joined the crowd, which was led by at least a dozen turbaned clerics — including one Sunni. Many marchers danced as they moved through the streets.
Source
Col. Steven Boylan, a U.S. military spokesman and aide to the commander of all U.S. forces in Iraq, praised the peaceful nature of the demonstration, saying Iraqis "could not have done this four years ago."
"This is the right to assemble, the right to free speech — they didn't have that under the former regime," Boylan said. "This is progress, there's no two ways about it."
Gordon Johndroe, the National Security Council spokesman, said the protests were a sign of Iraqi democracy at work.
"Iraq, four years on, is now a place where people can freely gather and express their opinions,"
Uh Oh....
What were they peacefully protesting?
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!"
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.
"The enemy that is occupying our country is now targeting the dignity of the Iraqi people," Nassar al-Rubaie, head of al-Sadr's bloc in parliament, told an interviewer as he marched. "After four years of occupation, we have hundreds of thousands of people dead and wounded."
Iraqi soldiers in uniform joined the crowd, which was led by at least a dozen turbaned clerics — including one Sunni. Many marchers danced as they moved through the streets.
Source
