The Day We Took Our Country Back
Contributed by Bill Faith
Forty years lost in the wilderness. Forty years in exile. Behind us now. Yesterday we took our country back. It's in the air. I can feel it. Can you?
This post will remain at the top of the site for the remainder of the day. Please scroll down for possible newer content. Actual timestamp 2007.03.18.01:35. Please consider this post an extension of my Eagles Up! post. Click the eagle to see the entire Old War Dogs Gathering of Eagles series on one page.
"Let us make it clear, we've all come here
To defend our long-dead brothers;
And understand you ain't layin' a hand
On our Wall you leftie mothers."
(Click here to listen to the .mp3)
***
Don't miss the great video Antimedia posted here.
*** 
Gathering of Eagles
Bryan Preston
Check out that eagle. He looks annoyed. I probably looked a lot like him today, watching thousands of Soros-funded astroturfed moonbats in their parade of scum and villainy across Washington.
But seeing thousands of patriots, some barely able to walk, many still scarred outside and inside from their heroic efforts to defend our country during conflicts past, took a little of the edge off. Those patriots found out about the Gathering of Eagles through emails, word of mouth, on Free Republic, on Move America Forward, here on Hot Air and michellemalkin.com, all over the place. There was no Soros Santa on our side marketing the march and bussing people in from all over the country. People drove through ice storms to get there, because they believed it was their duty to support the troops who are putting their lives on the line every single day to defend us. And they were noticed. If you were there, you were noticed. March 17, 2007 was a day that will go down as the first day that patriots decided to answer ANSWER man for man and woman for woman. Cindy Sheehan and Jane Fonda and the anti-America chorus didn’t monopolize the day. Veterans, bikers, and moms and dads and kids wouldn’t let them. Not anymore. It was a historic day. ...
We did it once and we can do it again. And again. It's time to decide we're mad as hell and we ain't gonna take it any more. If we don't this country's headed straight to Hell. We have to care enough to save it.
[Yes I realize I'm using "we" rather generously. I sat on my ass in front of a PC, waiting for my next Disability check, telling everyone else to "Be there!" Maybe the reader will grant a sick old vet credit for caring enough to do that. I'd have been there if I could have. I'd like to believe there was at least one person at the Gathering who wouldn't have been if not for my efforts. If there was it was worth every second I put into it.]
***
Michelle's GoE blogburst post which I linked to last night, has been updated big time. (Thanks for the link, Michelle. Luv ya. Thanks for helping spread the word and for showing up yourself.) Check it out.
*** Mission Accomplished
(Kit? Heidi? I can't tell.)
What an outstanding day! The Eagles soared!
You should be very proud of your fellow veterans, families, and supporters. There’s so much to tell, and we encourage you to post your experiences in the the comments.
In the meantime, two items of business: 1) we have a gallery open for you to upload your digital photos to the website. That way you can share your photos with others. See the tab in the top right corner of the site. 2) the National Parks Service called with their official estimate of the Eagle turn-out today…
30,000!
Fox News reported today that the anti-war protesters had significantly less than they expected. However, they are erroneously reporting that the Eagles were there in “equal numbers”. The truth is that we outnumbered them by at least three to one!
Consider…
***  Reflections on the Gathering of Eagles (Pt. I)
March 18th, 2007 by CJ
Well, I went to the Gathering of Eagles event, but only to cover it from a reporter's standpoint. I wanted to be there, take pictures, and observe and then compare my observations with how the event gets portrayed in the media. I came to some interesting, though not entirely surprising, conclusions. But, let me back up. ...
My first observation was that there were a LOT of flags over at the Gathering of Eagles "bullpen". There is a lot of love for those colors and this country. Patriotism oozed out of and spread throughout the mall. Everyone got out of the way and yelled to "make a hole" (move out of the way) whenever an injured vet was wheeled through. And the bullpen was FULL. It was difficult walking in there without stepping on someone's toes. The majority of the people there were Vietnam Vets and their reasons for being there were similar from person to person: "We're going to ensure that our troops are treated with the respect missing when we returned from Vietnam." They refuse to let it happen again. Everyone was united with one goal - Victory!
Skye and I decided to walk down to the "other side" to see what they were up to. The first thing that caught my was this: ...
*** Gathering Of Eagles Round-Up
Ed Morrissey
Michelle Malkin has a great round-up on the Gathering of Eagles counterprotest yesterday in Washington, DC:
[...]
The National Park Service estimates that 30,000 counterprotestors lined the streets of DC in response to the organized protests sponsored by International ANSWER and other groups. Janet from SCSU Scholars did a great phone-in interview with us on the NARN, which should be podcasted by tomorrow at Townhall. Be sure to read her reports on the GoE effort, too. And See Jane Mom revels in the retrosexuality on display by the GoE.
The Washington Post noted the strong turnout: As war protesters marched toward Arlington Memorial Bridge en route to the Pentagon yesterday, they were flanked by long lines of military veterans and others who stood in solidarity with U.S. troops and the Bush administration's cause in Iraq. Many booed loudly as the protesters passed, turned their backs to them or yelled, "If you don't like America, get out!" ...
It seems the demise of support for the war in Iraq has been somewhat exaggerated. Be sure to read all of the links in Michelle's post.
***
Don't miss Smash's posts here and here. I'm sure he'll have more later.
***
Aside from their stupid choice of vet pictures al-WaPo's GoE coverage here ain't half bad. Check it out. (H/T: Jules)
***
I guess the weather was a little nicer in Tucson but the atmosphere was about the same. Don't miss this post at Speed of Thought.
*** Reflections on the Gathering of Eagles (Pt. II)
March 18th, 2007 by CJ
When we were last reading, I was heading back over to the protester side to do a couple of interviews. Since this was supposedly an anti-war march, I decided that I would get some interviews with those who didn't quite seem realize that it was, in fact, an anti-war march. Some had other agendas.
I'll start with the interview that, unfortunately, I forgot to record. ...
*** Protests and Counter-Protests
John Hinderaker
There were antiwar demonstrations in a number of cities yesterday, with the largest one in Washington, D.C. There was also a sizable counter-protest in Washington, sponsored by Gathering of Eagles and other pro-military groups. Generally speaking, the news coverage of the demonstrations that I've seen hasn't been too bad.
Most newspaper readers will probably see this Associated Press account, which gives reasonable prominence to the pro-war counter-demonstrators:
[...]
Reading between the lines, you can deduce that the antiwar turnout was disappointing: Police no longer give official estimates but said privately that perhaps 10,000 to 20,000 anti-war demonstrators marched, with a smaller but still sizable number of counterprotesters also out in force. An hour into the three-hour Pentagon rally, with the temperature near freezing, protesters had peeled away to a point where fewer than 1,000 were left.
Some participants dispute the claim that the antiwar protesters were more numerous; the Gathering of Eagles site estimates that there were 30,000 pro-military demonstrators in Washington.
This New York Times account is interesting, once you get past the clearly low-ball assertion that "several hundred" pro-war demonstrators turned out. The Times acknowledges with unusual frankness the far-left sponsorship of the antiwar rally: Saturday’s march was organized by the Answer Coalition — named for Act Now to Stop War and End Racism — an organization that was initially associated with the Workers World Party and now affiliated with a breakaway faction of that party called the Party for Socialism and Liberation. ...
Socialism is dead, but a tiny remnant of holdouts didn't get the memo, and they are running the antiwar movement.
Michelle Malkin has a great roundup of the day's events. Like Michelle, Michael Fumento was at the D.C. rally and has posted his photos here.
Reuters put out some photos of the pro-war as well as the antiwar demonstrators; I liked this one: ...
*** Stand Up, Speak Up
Contributed by J D Pendry “Say what you have to say. Not what you ought.” – Henry David Thoreau
... On March 17, 2001, according to National Park Service estimates 30,000 Americans, defenders of freedom past and present, decided it was time to break silence, stand up and speak up in defense of our troops and our country. What 30,000 Eagles proved is that when you stand up, the jihad sympathizers back down. Like the Phoenix rising from the ashes, this group consisting of many Vietnam veterans, outnumbered the anarchists 3 to 1. As always, throughout the history of our nation, men and women such as this step forward to lead when others are reluctant. They sent a strong message to the America haters and the political establishment in Washington. Emphatically they said no more!
Mr. President, Americans hunger for the type of candid and courageous leadership shown to us this weekend by the Gathering of Eagles. They have now passed the baton to you, our leader. You have choices to make. You can either spend the next two years parrying nonsensical attacks from liberals while they decimate your administration or you can put your finger in the collective chest of America’s axis of idiots and call BS on them. ...
Read the rest.
|
