We get lots and lots of honks. The
fellow who originally started the event off keeps a count. We get
around 400 in the hour we're out there, give or take maybe 50. Couple
of complaints and middle fingers now and then, but that's pretty rare.
Weather was really awful the morning of
our April demonstration, but was pretty nice and clear by the time we
started. News was very encouraging, with both Houses of Congress
having passed and reconciled a spending bill with deadlines in it.
As
Speaker Pelosi put it:
“What is it that the Commander-in-Chief doesn’t know, that doesn’t
equip him to make a regular budget request for the war? Seven
supplementals, seven times unprepared?"
There are problems with making a World War II analogy (i.e., try to imagine an
"emergency" bill in 1945) because by 1943, the Axis was definitely on
the defensive and by the time the Normandy Beach invasion was a
success, the days of Nazi Germany were clearly numbered. In the
Iraq War, victory is nowhere in sight.
Fortunately
the public, if not the President seems to be getting the idea:
"The fight over the Iraq supplemental bill has cemented in the public
mind the idea that Congress has set a deadline for withdrawal at March
31, 2008, a deadline they wholeheartedly support regardless of the 'symbolic' nature of the vote."
As of late May, President Bush has
resolutely refused to see reality;
he's absolutely refused any compromise that would spell the end of his
"neat adventure" in Iraq. Politcal realities are closing in on
him, though. The British Sunday Telegraph reports that Gordon
Brown, the new Prime Minister after Tony Blair,
may pull troops out of Iraq. The
BBC isn't so sure. Let's hope for the best.