Thousands Rally in St. Louis and Baghdad
On Saturday, 100,000 showed up to hear Barack Obama give a stump speech under the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Mo.
As far as I can tell, there was no band playing, and no free beer. Just that many people in a Red State (Missouri went to Bush43 twice) wanted to come outside on a gorgeous autumn day and see and hear “that one.”
That one: you know, the one who says he’s going to give 95% of Americans a tax cut; not the erratic, out-of-touch one who tries to pass off Joe the Plumber — or any other contractor who clears a quarter million dollars profit per year — as middle-class.
After what may have been the largest ever political rally on American soil, Obama went across the state to address a rally of 75,000 people in Kansas City.
Meanwhile, there were other rallies going on Saturday…
In Iraq, an estimated 50,000 supporters of the Iraqi Shia cleric Moqtada al Sadr peacefully marched through the streets of Baghdad to protest a draft security pact that would extend the American military presence in Iraq.
OK, like, I really think they’re ready for us to leave. Any day. Take a hint.
Just in case the Pentagon is still confused if “leave” means “leave,” an aide read a statement from al Sadr:
“I am with every Sunni, Shiite or Christian who is opposed to the agreement … and I reject, condemn and renounce the presence of occupying forces and bases on our beloved land.”
And the crowd went wild.
Mind you, this protest was not held by a few radical insurgents. Look at that crowd, waving their own Iraqi flag, almost as if they were exercising the right of their people to peaceably assemble and to petition their government for a redress of grievances. They almost look like embittered patriots who want the troops of an occupying empire to leave their land. This almost begs the question: does anybody in Washington D.C. remember what happened in 1776?
Read More: Barack Obama, St. Louis, Muqtada al-Sadr, Baghdad, Election 2008, Iraq War
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