Sunday, September 25, 2005
Organizers hoped for 20,000 people, but only about 1,000 showed up.
LOS ANGELES TIMES
WASHINGTON -- Supporters of the war in Iraq, concerned that Saturday's anti-war demonstrations might hurt morale among U.S. troops abroad and at home, staged their own rally Sunday, taking digs at liberal critics of the Bush administration, including Cindy Sheehan, who last month staged a vigil outside the president's vacation ranch in Crawford, Texas.
"Our sons are there to try and defeat these evil ideologues," said Robert Hemenway, whose son, Navy Chief Petty Officer, Ronald Hemenway, died in the terrorist attack at the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001. "If we don't stand up for this country, then who will?" Otherwise, he added, "Our sons have died in vain."
A large patchwork American flag made by children of soldiers from Fort Benning, Ga., served as the backdrop to a stage where an estimated 1,000 people gathered to hear speakers hail U.S. efforts in Iraq and denounce those who are calling for President Bush to bring the troops home now.
Quotable
"A lot of these people want to live here, but they don't want to defend where they're living," said John Horrigon, a former Army Ranger whose identical twin brother, Robert, died in combat in Iraq this year. "I think our forefathers are wondering what happened to the country they once knew."
Zia Groosh, a young Iraqi soldier visiting the United States, spoke, saying the war was necessary and that progress had been made in Iraq since the war began.
"I've been there before the war and I've been there during the war, and it's getting better every day," she said. "People who are demonstrating and saying, 'Pull the troops out of Iraq' haven't been there, so they can't judge." Groosh cited the new Iraqi government, police force and army as signs of U.S. military success.
"For the first time women make up 25 percent of the government and that's a huge step," she said.
Many speakers singled out Sheehan, the California mother of a soldier slain in Iraq whose Camp Casey protest in Texas drew attention to the anti-war movement, accusing her of undermining U.S. morale at home and abroad.
"The group who spoke here the other day did not represent the American ideals of freedom, liberty and spreading that around the world," Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., told the crowd. "I frankly don't know what they represent, other than to blame America first."
While organizers of Sunday's demonstration said they had hoped for as many as 20,000 people, they acknowledged that far fewer had come, and certainly nowhere near the numbers of Saturday's anti-war rally. "We're not trying to compete with them head-to-head," said spokesman Mark Coyle.