I suppose this is one of the brilliant plans hatched by the Crawford Brain Trust as they work on the P.R. problem posed by Bubble Boy’s plunging poll numbers. Creepy - these people can’t seem to think of mass deaths as anything other than a political opportunity:
The Pentagon would hold a massive march and country music concert to mark the fourth anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in an announcement tucked into an Iraq war briefing today.
“This year the Department of Defence will initiate an America Supports Your Freedom Walk,” Rumsfeld said, adding that the march would remind people of “the sacrifices of this generation and of each previous generation”.
The march will start at the Pentagon, where nearly 200 people died on September 11, 2001, and end at the National Mall with a show by country star Clint Black.
Word of the event startled some observers. “I’ve never heard of such a thing,” said John Pike, who has been a defence analyst in Washington for 25 years and runs GlobalSecurity.org.
Maybe this will go down in history as the first American Nuremberg rally.
May Day came to my mind rather than Nuremburg.
Plus, as the article mentions, it yet agains conflates 9/11 and Iraq. We have our own rally and march scheduled for September 24 in DC and LA. The info is at ANSWER’s site. United for Peace and Justice will be involved as well.
Uhhhh… Why not have Springstein do an anti-9/11-remembrance concert? The concert could be preceded by the ‘America Does Not Support Your Freedom Walk.’ That’ll expose ‘em for the hypocrites they are.
I think a parade of flag-draped coffins, with buglers playing “taps”, would be an appropriate accompanyment to the official parade.
Let’s see: four abreast, about 12 feet apart lengthwise, 1800 dead troops, that’s a mile long parade.
And the video footage when the fascisti send in the riot police to disrupt the parade would be priceless
I hope someone is there to hand out copies of the Downing Street Memos.
fucking unbelievable! how much are we paying for that i wonder?
Suzie, my email to you bounced. here’s the letter I sent mr. Black’s webmaster (I used my real name in the letter).
To: webmaster@clintblack.com
Dear Clint Black webmaster,
My name is Frenchy L’Amour, and I am a huge fan of
country music, including everything from Bill Monroe
and the Bluegrass Boys to Alan Jackson to the Dixie
Chicks. I play electric bass in one country band,
acoustic guitar in another, and upright bass in a
bluegrass band. As the David Alan Coe song goes, “I
can sing you every song Hank Williams ever wrote…” I
drive my coworkers crazy listening to country. I am
definitely a fan of Clint Black.
However, I am utterly appalled, offended, and
downright angry that Mr. Black is going to play at the
Pentagon’s “America Supports Your Freedom Walk”, an
event that blatantly politicizes the national tragedy
of September 11, and I want to write to Clint’s
manager to ask Mr. Black to reconsider.
http://www.asyfreedomwalk.com/
I live two hours from Manhattan, and have many many
friends in the city: permit me to offer you a few
brief stories.
The mother of my son narrowly escaped with her life on
September 11: she was a temp worker in Tower 1, and if
she had arrived to work an hour earlier, she would be
dead.
My best friend’s brother arrived at work that day only
to watch a plane crash into the World Trade Center.
He was unable to reach his wife across the river in
New Jersey, since the cell towers perched atop the
buildings were destroyed, and all the landline
circuits were overwhelmed. He couldn’t reach her
until 6:00 PM that evening after walking to the Bronx.
Another friend’s finace was evacuated from the smaller
tower, and walked miles uptown to where she was
teaching a 6th grade science class. He arrived,
covered with ashes and debris, sobbing “Look what
happened, look what happened.”
I was in New York a week after the attacks, and my
friend, standing on a dock in Williamsburg looking
across the East River, I could still smell the burning
and see the smoke rising from the hole that had been
punched in the city’s skyline.
I am as patriotic as the next guy: it’s hard not to be
when you love country music as much as I do. But this
is a bad decision by Mr. Black, and he should not
allow his music to be employed in a crude government
sponsored pep rally that has more to do with Iraq, a
country which had nothing to do with September 11 and
had never attacked us, than it does with the World
Trade Center attacks.
May I remind you that those responsible for September
11, Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda buddies, are
still at large? May I remind you that we had warnings
all summer in the President’s Daily Briefing titled
“Al Qaeda Determined to Strike Inside US”? Or that
the Taliban are resurging in Afghanistan as our troops
are overstretched and tied down in Iraq, with no end
in sight?
This event is little more than another attempt to
conflate Iraq and 9/11, an association that even
President Bush admits is untrue. The “America
Supports Your Freedom Walk” does not honor the dead of
9/11: rather, it uses them as props in a crass
political stunt. It does the same with our veterans
as well, who would be better honored if the President
and the Republicans in Congress would adequately fund
health care and services for returning veterans
instead of cutting said funding.
I know that Clint Black is a straight shooter, and I
am sure his motives are pure: who wouldn’t want to be
involved with an event that honors the victims of
September 11? However, given the nature of the
“America Supports Your Freedom Walk”, I believe Clint
should reconsider and back out. This is event is
clearly not what it purports to be, and I for one will
cease to be a fan of Mr. Black or his music should he
decide to participate.
Please provide me with a way to get in touch with
Clint’s management. I thank you for your time, and
hope to hear from you within the next 24 hours.
Yours,
Frenchy L’Amour
So, how many troops you think they asked before coming up with this mind-bendingly bad idea? Because I’m thinking that’s just what our troops really need and want: a human ribbon magnet.
Frenchy, you rule.
Stop by Steve Gilliard’s site and check the comments on this one. To say some of them are a little pissed would be an understatement.
The American Friends Service Committee has launched a campaign criticizing the Washington Post’s decision to co-sponsor the Department of Defense’s 9-11 Freedom Walk in DC. More info at http://afsc.org/iraq/washpost.htm
I Love a Parade!
and Hooray for Eastasia! ———————- The Pentagon would hold a massive march and country music concert to mark the fourth anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in an announcement tucked…