After spending the last week on stand-by to see if my team would be activated, I am finally free to go hit the rivers. I am just a little curious how people here feel about these "peaceful" protesters.

I was very involved in one last year when we arrested 23. I wish I was free to tell you about all the BS we had to put with from them during that. I am a former greeener myself, so please refrain from gross stereotyping please.

Here's my take-

Most of the protesters were college age, although the leader (Evergreen College professor) never placed himself in the line of fire.....

Some of the older ones brought their children into an unsafe place at least one of the days and should have been arrested for child endangerment.

They were all quickly booked and arrested although after what happened (or didn't happen) last time they will probably face no consquences as they should for their property destruction, rock throwing, and defacing of public property. Not to mention their tying up of expensive taxpayer resources.

They neither stopped the shipments or changed anything about the war.

They are mostly a bunch of whining, idealistic, brainwashed idealogues that have no clue about what is really going on in Iraq.

If you want to see for yourself, check out "The Olympian" newspaper website.




http://www.theolympian.com/

I am a liberal, and someone who feels strongly that the Iraqi war was ill advised, ill conceived, and total BS. I also feel just as strongly that acting like a doped up jackass doesn't help win peoples hearts and minds. It turns the average citizen away from the message.

If I was staging a war protest in Olympia, I'd foregone the whole civilian unrest thing. I think a better angle would have been a welcome home celebration, with a theme of "Welcome Home, We Wish You Had Never Left".

And for the average American who doesn't believe we should have gone into Iraq to begin with, I think that sentiment captures how they feel. Same reason I can't watch more than 10 minutes of Baghdad ER; because the pain and suffering were totally preventable. Because those soldiers should have been "home", and safe until that time that we really did need them.

It's Fall, and a bit nippy outside. How come the cops didn't just water those protestors down? I bet 40 degree water would have been as effective as pepper spray.

Goinfishin,
And one other thing, I might have Friday to bank fish if you want to come along with Jake and I.

[censored] [censored] [censored] [censored] sumbitch [censored]

+1

LOL!!! Whoops ,wrong thread. More trees,less BUSH

I would love to have a water cannon to gently spray a cold mist on the little trustfundarians...lol

I agree with much of your sentiment Vince. My brother is over there now and while the situation in country is very complex, he feels that our presence there has kept the islamofacists from taking over and the average Iraqi is terrified of our troops leaving.

We shouldn't have gone there in the first place. I think that when Saddam traded oil to China, Russia and France, in defiance of the sanctions, he had no interest in providing any help for his people. Diplomatic pressure on those countries would have been better. Saddam was contained and had yet to become a rallying point for radical islam. There are alot of countries that abuse human rights.

I am just a little pissed at having been on the front lines last year, bearing the brunt of protesters abuse and not receiving the support of the judicial system. We were defending the port property from their aggression and they came to us. A peacefull protest would have been great, but they decided to crank it up. I am not going to whine about us getting sprayed with noxious liquids from supersoakers, rocks and debris being hurled, a 30 foot panel gate ripped out of my hands...etc....oh well, it's what the people pay me to do and I won't complain.

This is because I know they do not represent the community as a whole.

Vince,
Thanks for the invite. Any day but Friday would be great. I promised the wife I would spend at least one day with her before she is a fish widow. I will call you if that changes.

I like your idea Vince. A little hospitality would do more than what the civil annoyance mess did.

Jumping in front of a styker vehicle? How did that idiot even get into college?

Vince, you are right on!

I agree with that Vince.



It's called attention seeking behavior. Probably more of an Evergreen tradition or fad than anything.

My take on the Oly police is that they are patient and accustomed to a certain amount of this stuff. I think dumb kids with no common sense (who challenge the 5-0 and get pepper sprayed for not doing what they are asked), have gotten what they deserved. There are consequences for breaking the law. The police have more serious matters to deal with instead of babysitting a bunch of spoiled brats.

1) The professor/ringleaders are doing the same thing that they are protesting against and has caused all the problems humanity has ever faced--Old, well fed, comfortable men convincing young, starry-eyed idealists into the trenches to fight their fights for them with the young's only reward being bragging rights and maybe a shiny commemorative pin to show for it.

2)Radicals suck no matter what banner they are under.

3)Not one of those losers I've ever seen around Olympia, which leads me to assume they are just Dipsh.its up from Portland & Eugene here to try and have a mini WTO they can tell thier friends about.

4)Vince hit the nail on the head.

Vince----

wimpy skinny dudes and ugly chicks all hoping to get laid after the fact?
i read that somewhere but it reads true for evergreen kids protesting the green speghetti
or? atleast it did 3 decades ago
i see some things don't change

Fuzzygrub maybe it is all about getting laid but I hate to think that. It is their generation that has to pay the ultimate price so it is of course of great interest/concern to them. I had a sign on my gate "No Iraq War" but took it down once the first American died. Maybe wrong but I figure you stand behind your troops at that point.

Sadam was a cockroach, probably another Hitler. I too have an Iraqi acquaintance who has told me that Iraq is now occupied, time for America to get out. I really don't know, who REALLY knows.

It is very sad to see all those young Americans who have lost their lives, or have come home injured. I support them 100% but I don't know that those who protest against the war are not supporting them also in another way. I REALLY don't know but I am willing to tolerate the inconvience.

I look forward to our next president reevaluating all of this.

.

". . . the right of the people to peaceably assemble . . . for a redress of grievances . . ." or words to that effect. I believe in it. I've done it. I would do it again.

I didn't join this protest, not because I was busy working for a living, but because I think protesting returning military equipment is misguided at best, likely foolish no matter how you cut it. There are more significant actions to protest and more effective venues. But the port is handy to locals who may have been more in search of easy and convenient opportunity, rather than meaningful and effective, but more difficult action.

Like BWP, I can tolerate the inconvenience, and the public expense (which is less than small change compared to what's being pissed away on the war). I'm old enough now to understand that college age kids are still kids, and most lack the analytical skill to really get their protest sh!t together, and are led and easily manipulated by teachers they respect. What I have a lot less tolerance for are the older, should be wiser, teachers who should definitely have their protest sh!t together, who opt for such a cheap shot as organizing and leading a protest against returning military equipment to the port. This makes it altogether clear to me that it's far too easy to obtain a PhD from some institutions of higher learning, and the public isn't getting it's money's worth from at least one Evergreen prof.

Sg

i don't support this war, and have no problems with peaceful protests, but these morons crossed the line and got what they deserved. throwing rocks at cops, blocking traffic, and bringing impressionable little kids along with just makes you a jackass.

In a better world protestors would protest effectively; presidents, leaders or those in charge would be sane, and people like me wouldn't be so confused even though they know deep down what is right. It is what it is now - but believe it or not things can change for the better. Bring our troops home. I will vote for someone who will because to me - enough is enough already.

Well I guess I will put my 2 cents in. Coming from the perspective of the conservative point of view. Feel free to voice your freedom of speech afterwards as you prolly will.

Anti-war protestors have the God given right to say anything they want to and do anything they want to as long as they aren't breaking the law. People need to respect the opinions of others and be able to deal with it. Not everyone is going to agree with what they say or do. From what I gathered from the news there was just a small group of people that were causing the problem and they were dealt with. They got what they asked for and some of them got away with felonies. Some of them got away without being bothered by child protective services - which should have been there to intervene, but didn't when stupid parent put their children in harms way.

I know alot of you guys on this board are liberal, which is fine. I respect your opinions. Coming from the other side of the coin I feel the war was right and justified. MY opinion comes based on the fact that we live in a world where modern technology has given people the ability to kill whom have wanted to hurt us and anyone whom doesn't believe in their religion should die. They have been lingering there for thousands of years waiting to force their religion upon us and to kill those who don't believe.

I have a good Iraqi friend who left Baghdad and was sent to southeast Asia. He was part of the elite Iraqi guard before the first gulf war. He is a scientist and doctor by profession no longer practicing but working in the automotive business and living here in the United States. He had a very large family in Iraq when he left. They are no longer alive. The reason he was sent to southest Asia was part of Saddam's Jihad to develope biological weapons to poison crops and fields that would be exported to the United States for consumption such as rice. After he refused to do so and sought refuge and came to the United States his entire family and extended family - hundreds of people were executed. Some of the people in his family were Kurds in northern Iraq that survied being gased by their own country in the late 80's. Again that was before the first Gulf war. Saddam's plans according to him were on a much grander scale for the future. He was planning to take over the middle-east, put a choke hold on the United States and it's Allies by cutting oil supply making them beg for mercy and accept islam because he knew politics and environmentalist in the United States would keep us from refining oil rich sections of the United States such as Anwar and making more oil refineries which we haven't done in 25+ years. If accepting Islam after a huge gasoline crisis wasn't the answer, he had planned on using his neighboring country's nuclear weapons to remove those that don't.

After coming here to the United States and seeing all the wonderful things our country had to offer him that he had heard about you couldn't find a more patriotic person as him. He is now a citizen and teaches people to find peace in Islam here.

Now all you liberals are going to argue there was never any chemical weapons they found which is fine, they never did. But that still doesn't erase the fact they did have A LOT and used them against their own people and Iran prior to the wars. IT still doesn't erase the fact that Iraq had the Osiraq reactor that they tried to purchase and did purchase equipment from France to process that material into weapons grade which thankfully Isreal took care of by bombing it and later the United States by destroying it during the gulf wars. IT still doesn't erase the fact that Saddam had much larger plans and he would have followed through on them by now if our coalition didn't prevent them. Now I know you all you liberals are going to argue the reasons for which lead up to our last invasion were bogus and lies. Intelligence whether it was good or when it actually turned out bad from our country and many other countrys intelligence communities is either here nor there and doesn't erase the fact Saddam violated a decades plus worth of sanctions - The real true reason why we went there. Everyone has forgotten because of our leftist media and its controlling interest groups pushing the George Soros type mentality has warped reality of the matter blaming it solely upon The Bush Administration for lack thereof finding WMDs. Well atleast half of our country has forgotten.

No one likes war. But when it comes to preserving and protecting our freedom, it's justifiable.

Has everyone forgotten the lessons of 911? The lesson will be re-educated to the non-believers when we drop our guard. Thank god we have many upon thousands of people protecting us, monitoring, watching and preventing things like that from going on.

Just my 2 cents.

LOL!

Hey Meester Blue Jay. I have one thing to say to you.

BOOM!