suprised there is no thread about the protest against our troops

[2shoes]

here
disgusting imo

They have the right to protest yes but they are protesting at the wrong people.

If they are so worried about the people in Basra then they should go live there and help make it a better place, and I did not see them out protesting when Saddam and his mad men were killing people left right and centre.

They are anti west not anti war

small point of note...

'sons, husbands and fathers', yes. and daughters, wives and mothers too.

no-one has any issue with freedom of speech. sometimes it's not what you say, but how you say it that is out of order.

am i the only one that thinks it slightly ironic that it is the anti-war mob baying aggressively, and the alleged butchers being all calm and rational-like and defending the howling mob's right to protest? funny old world, eh?

Has anyone else read The Islamist by Ed Housain (sp?). I am pretty sure that He talks about the very group that did the protests, how horrid their tactics and attitudes are. This protest totally fit with their strategies of whipping up divisive sentiments.

I'm all for free speech, but it's worth pointing out that the people who said the worst things in this protest are very much against free speech. They don't even really care about the war in Iraq. All they want to do is promote an "us vs. them" attitude.

oops, should have made it clear, some of the protesters were quite reasonable (eg., Stop the War Coalition). But the very provocative stuff came from extremists.

According to the Sun yesterday - and I have not seen this reported anywhere else - of the two people who were arrested, one had been standing on a roof and throwing bacon at the Muslim anti-troop protesters.

It's so depressing the way people play right into the protesters' hands in allowing hatred to be whipped up.

LOL @ "throwing bacon"

What is that supposed to achieve? Muslims aren't scared of bacon, they just don't eat it. It's not like showing garlic to a vampire, you know.

Well if the stop the war lot are being reasonable, that's a first in my experience. it was one of their protestors who told Ds2 (who was about 4/5 at the time)

"Your daddy murders little children, so you'd better watch he doens't murder you"!

'If they're so worried about Basra they should go and live there' ????

So if we're concerned about percieved injustices in the world we should go and live there? I'm deeply concerned about the situation in Basra, and myriad other places in the world where people are suffering.

But I feel no need to go and live there.

What a bizarre way to look at it.

I support the right to demonstrate and most demos will have people shouting/ chanting things and sounding or looking aggressive.

I remember going on countless marches as a kid and seeing puppets of Thatcher being hanged. I agree that this protest was against the wrong people, but that's my opinion. People are allowed to protest even when you don't agree with them.

I don't think their protest was disgusting at all. If you fight in a war like that then you have to expect people to be pissed off abot it. Good Charlie Brooker piece.

the 'poor men' who are being protested against are grown men who ultimately made their own choice about joining up and also about fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. I'm sure they are tough enough to put up with a few protesters raising their voices in a big crowd of supporters, the protesters were basically outnumbered by the amount of people supporting them. If this kind of protest causes the soldiers that much grief then I wouldn't think thy'd make very good soldiers in any case.

Well, yes, the irony is that same nutcases screaming inaccuracies to the soldiers are probably the very same reactionaries who were screaming death threats to the cartoonists who drew a picture they didn't like.

'Free speech' my pert little backside.

That said, I have no problem with it being allowed, that's the freedom the soldiers were fighting for in the first place.

no. wrong. you don't make up your own mind about where you fight. you either decide you trust the government enough to only become embroiled in wars that they believe are necessary to protect the UK or allies, or you don't sign up. a bit like voting. are you suggesting that labour supporters should automatically support iraq and afghanistan because they voted for tony blair? you make your vote/ sign on the dotted line, and entrust that you won't get embroiled unnecessarily. it's not like you can opt out because you don't fancy sand at this time of year, a bit like we can't opt out of a labour government.

oops, x post

Saltire, the 'stop the war lot' are the majority of the UK population. The war in Iraq is the most unpopular thing any gvt has done in my living memory.

I'm anti war and consider myself very reasonable. One person saying something nasty doesn't summarise all of us.

I think Saltire is referring to the 'Stop the war' coalition people. Which do not represent the majority of the UK population. I didn't support the Iraq war, but I'm not part of the 'Stop the war' coalition.

Thanks Kay, yes I was referring to the Stop the War Coalition, referred to in an earlier post.

"no. wrong. you don't make up your own mind about where you fight"

sorry but they do make up their own mind about joining up and so as an extention to to that they know they will have to fight where they are asked to. If you can't handle fighting unjust wars then don't join up. If you can then don't piss and moan when a few people excercise their right to protest against the war.

As for voting - not everyone votes for who they want in NO. 10 for a start so I don't see the connection.

Of course there's nothing wrong with a peaceful anti-war protest but accusing people of being murderers and so on is hardly that.

Are we supposed to have a situation whereby we laud our soldiers for engaging in conflicts which bring real benefits (Bosnia, Sierra Lenone etc) and hurling insults when they're enggaged in a failed campaign?

What I find absolutely incredible is that the Muslim Community defend the protesters on the basis of freedom of speech. The hypocrisy of that is just astonishing.

Freedom of speech like any other 'right' carries a duty too - the flip side of living in a society that upholds your various adult rights is that you are obliged to use your rights reasonably. Inciting civil unrest and violence and whipping up hated should mean you forfeit your right to 'speak' since you clearly don't understand the responsibilities that come with it. Or you do but don't give a shit because your agenda is one of hatred in the first place. How that works in practice in a tolerant society I have no idea but giving minimal time to this kind of protest in the media might help.

or 'hatred' even.

I think any protest with peaceful intentions is absolutely valid and have been involved in them myself. This set out to be aggressive from the start.

In fact in a way they have boosted the status of the troops, as over in Lincoln today I think the streets were packed with supporters to welcome back the Poachers, so by broadcasting this incident more people felt compelled to turn out and show their support.

To those of you who appear to back the protesters perhaps you would like to put yourself in the position of the parents who were in tears hearing their children being variously described as 'rapists' 'murderers' and 'butchers' as they tried to march.

Have we really reached the stage in this country where we are afraid to condemn these utter idiots but stand rubbing their backs and holding their hands in case we appear 'prejudiced'. If so how sad.

it took place in luton, google it

"Allowed"?

Loads of people have condemned the utter idiots.

In some newspapers there is talk of treason etc.

Nobody is supporting what they said (at least, I'm not anyway), they're supporting their right to free speech.

I support freedom of speech wholeheartedly . I dont support the protesters simply because i think they are wrong in what they say and who they have directed their venom at. I also think it is very naive and simplistic to say that soldiers in some way deserve this abuse because they knew what the job entailed . I remember my father becoming very depressed when as a policeman he had to police the miners strike in the area he grew up in and where his father had worked as a miner . He beleived the miners were right and had total sympathy for their plight but he was a policeman and was told what to do .Granted the only injury he sustained whilst working was a twisted ankle during a bobbys v miners cricket match! Soldiers sign up to soldier and accept that as a part of their job they will risk life and limb for their country. The vast majority of soldiers probably do not support the political descions upon which the war started but would be court martialed and lose their job and pension if they had refused to go. I would have been interested to see if a protest by the relatives of soldiers killed during this war ,waving palcards at politicains saying 'murderers' etc ,given that so many soldiers have died needlessly due to a criminal lack of equipment ,would have got the same media coverage