Iraqi Protests

Dr. Walid Phares, writing for FrontPage Magazine has this description of an Iraqi "protest" in Baghdad

Almost 20,000 men and women - twice the number reported by al-Jazeera - marched across central Baghdad, while others repeated the move in different cities of Mesopotamia yesterday. The demonstrators, from all walks of life and from all religions and ethnicities of Iraq, shouted one slogan in Arabic: "La' la' lil irhab. Na'am, na'am lil dimucratiya." That is: "No, no to terrorism. Yes, yes to Democracy!" . . .While the underdogs are barking freely in the streets of Baghdad, challenging the Ba'athist shadows and the jihadist terrorists, human rights and democracy groups in the West lack the courage to come to the rescue of their fellow progressive forces in the Middle East. As a group of Iraqi students told me, "Isn't it terrible to see that Western elites came here to demonstrate in support of Saddam against the Coalition, and when we took the streets to demonstrate against the Saddam war crimes, they didn't show up?"

Meanwhile, Iraqi blogger Zayed had this to say:

The rallies today proved to be a major success. I didn't expect anything even close to this. It was probably the largest demonstration in Baghdad for months. It wasn't just against terrorism. It was against Arab media, against the interference of neighbouring countries, against dictatorships, against Wahhabism, against oppression, and of course against the Ba'ath and Saddam. . . Some people recognized a reporter from Al-Arabiyah station and they started taunting him. One old man shouted to him "For once, speak the truth".

Finally, Omar has a list of signs carried at the protest

No to terrorism, no to Saddam, yes to peace

No to the Ba'athists, no to the terrorists, yes to democracy

Dictatorship will never return

Bribed Arab channels; shame on you to show terrorism as resistance

Sunni and Shia are united to build Iraq

Stop using religion and nationalism to justify terrorism

Islam is against violence and terrorism

Al-Jazeera+al-Arabiya = terrorism

Thank you IP (Iraqi Police)

How sad that we were not regaled with coverage of this in the West. We are grimly informed of every heinous act by the so-called "resistance," but when 20,000 Iraqis turn out in protest of the insurgents, nothing. How can we, in a democratic republic, form our opinions on US foreign policy without appropriate information? If these brave souls are willing to march through Baghdad in support of a peaceful, democratic existence, aren't we obligated to help them find it?