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150,000 people marched in Melbourne yesterday, and they're expecting even more in Sydney tomorrow. I had friends there, but I was cooped up at work (didn't hear about it until it too late to find cover unfortunately). But still, they were only expecting 20-30,000 people I think, so that's a pretty good indication of what the average Australian feels right now.
Hopefully the rest of the world (especially people in the US) can follow suit, and at the very least get the message across to George Bush (and Tony Blair and John Howard) that the majority of the world's population find this war unnecessary and - at base - completely unjust.
| quote: | | I am sure Bush saw this coming.... |
I'm not sure that he did. These are the biggest pre-war protests ever (the bigger Vietnam protests were staged during the war, when people starting getting images into their homes about what was going on over there) and I think that the US government's reaction to French and German dissonance demonstrates that the US aren't used to being told that they're in the wrong - especially by their closest allies (what they fail to realise is that being "allies" with another nation doesn't mean that one must kowtow and be entirely subserviant to the other, agreeing with every decision it makes). Powell looked beseiged last night in front of the UN, and his ad-lib speech looked like a frustrated plea more than anything else. Perhaps they're starting to realise that being a part of an international community involves compromise, and that if you demand your own way at all costs then you're going to get rebuked for it.
I don't think the US quite realises just how strong the anti-US sentiment is around the world at the moment, even in countries like the UK and Australia - its two closest allies in this war - the majority of the population disagree vehemently disagree with a US-led war on Iraq. If the US goes to war with Iraq (especially if it decides to use the nuclear weapons its hinted at using) I don't think it quite understands how forceful the international reaction - especially amongst average citizens like us - is likely to be.
Bush is an evil man, with scant regard for human life, the environment or any international issues whatsoever (except for those from which he and his nation stand to gain from of course). I think these anti-war protests are as much a condemnation of Bush's policies and his nation's history of such policies, as it is a demonstration against the new Gulf War. Bush must realise that the longer his militant invective continues, the louder the masses are going to get.
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