Daniel J. Flynn
Tuesday, Feb 18, 2003

While this demonstration and hundreds of others garnered page-one coverage across the globe, the attitudes and beliefs of the actual protestors received scant attention. In what has become an almost monthly ritual, mobs of protestors demonstrate in major cities against the Bush administration, and the mass media then vaguely infers that the protestors represent a cross-section of society.

CNN paraphrased its own on-scene reporter's observations that "the crowd was diverse, with older men and women in fur coats, parents with young children, military veterans and veterans of the anti-war movement." An AP story quoted a protestor at a Knoxville demonstration stating that he was "surprised it's not just the usual suspects." He maintained, "Bush must be really screwing up to bring out the mainstream."

But did the mainstream really turn out in Manhattan?

David Werrier, an activist who traveled to New York City from Ithaca, contends that for the rest of the world the greatest "danger is from the United States, by far." "Let's get rid of our own weapons of mass-destruction," he opined as he marched. "We've got to inspect the U.S. as well, because I think we have a little more weapons of mass-destruction than Iraq-in fact, a lot more."

"I almost feel sorry for Saddam Hussein because this is a big, bogus, fake, pretext thing," stated Big Apple resident Barbara Donaldson. "It has nothing to do with weapons of mass-destruction for Christ's sake. It has to do with the fact that we want a permanent base in that area. That's what it's about."

Donaldson, who braved hours of freezing temperatures at the event, laments America's bullying of smaller countries: "I think we need our ass kicked for that kind of attitude."

Reporters needn't have looked far to find reflexive anti-Americanism coloring the views of other activists in attendance.

"We're basically terrorizing the world," declared Rebecca White, an 18-year-old from Maine. "I think that what the U.S. does all over the world to oppress people is terror," remarked a New Yorker.

"We're hypocrites because we have the weapons of mass-destruction and no one's coming here and inspecting us," explained Frank Lombardi, a "peace" activist from Connecticut who, ironically, wore a picture of revolutionary Che Guevara on his back. The rest of the world, he believes, "should view us as they viewed the Germans and the Nazis."

While a statistically significant minority of Americans cutting across lines of race, income, ideology, and age certainly opposes the idea of war in Iraq, this diversity was virtually non-existent among the protestors in New York City -- despite the proclamations by major newspapers to the contrary.

Most opponents of a war in Iraq stayed home from the rallies-and for good reason. With Marxists controlling the agenda of speakers and fringe activists dominating the ranks, anti-war protests-like Saturday's hate-fest in New York-generally reveal themselves as anti-American protests in quick fashion.

More common than the fictionalized soccer-mom or senior citizen that major media outlets would have us believe peopled the crowd at New York's rally were radical activists like Matt Russillo, who traveled more than 200 miles to Manhattan from suburban Washington, DC. Carrying a placard depicting President Bush dressed as Hitler cavorting with bin Laden and various world leaders, Russillo offered an extreme observation that was echoed by many of his fellow protestors: "I think Bush is the new Hitler."

Is this what journalists believe is mainstream?

Daniel J. Flynn is the author of Why the Left Hates America: Exposing the Lies That Have Obscured Our Nation's Greatness (Prima Forum).

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:

Saddam Hussein/Iraq

Editor's note:
Have an Opinion About This? Send an URGENT PriorityGram Today