Here in Sacramento, there is a dedicated group of people that for more than 2 years has been standing at a very busy intersection with anti Iraq war, anti Bush, pro peace messages. The intersection they have chosen is one of the main arteries out of downtown Sacto into the surrounding communities and is perfect for visibility.
The numbers of protesters has dwindled recently (probably due to the scorching heat wave), yet one clean cut, tall, young man wearing a battered Montreal Expos cap for protection has manned his corner dutifully. Everyday he's been out there holding a sign that simply read "You can stop this war."
Simple, clear, concise, poignant.
I was planning on stopping to talk to him today to find out more about him and his dedication to stopping this bloody quagmire Bush has lead us into, maybe doing a story on him for a diary here. He had the look of a soldier and I wondered if he had returned from Iraq and could give us some additional insight.
I left work early to talk to the young man and as I was heading up to his corner I noticed many more people had joined in the protest. I also noticed something very disturbing and the reason for this diary and the title.
Within a group of protesters holding up messages of peace, two protesters were holding up portraits of Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Hezbollah.
I didn't see the young man I wanted to talk to so I drove past and came home. I wanted to do a little more research on Nasrallah before I posted this but the bottom line is the man is repugnant and should never be associated with the just and righteous cause of bringing our troops home.
Some of Nasrallah's odious views (From Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/...):
The scholar Amal Saad-Ghorayeb quotes Nasrallah describing his view of Jews: "If we searched the entire world for a person more cowardly, despicable, weak and feeble in psyche, mind, ideology and religion, we would not find anyone like the Jew. Notice, I do not say the Israeli".
"Jews invented the legend of the Holocaust," said Nasrallah on April 9, 2000. During another appearance on Al-Manar on February 23, Nasrallah praised a leading European Holocaust denier, David Irving, for having "denied the existence of gas chambers."
In another interview with the Washington Post, Nasrallah said "I am against any reconciliation with Israel. I do not even recognize the presence of a state that is called "Israel." I consider its presence both unjust and unlawful. That is why if Lebanon concludes a peace agreement with Israel and brings that accord to the Parliament our deputies will reject it; Hezbollah refuses any conciliation with Israel in principle."
Speaking at a graduation ceremony in Haret Hreik, Nasrallah announced on October 22, 2002: "if they [Jews] all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide."
The New York Times qualifies this as "genocidal thinking", whereas the New York Sun likens it to the 1992 Hezbollah statement, which vowed, "It is an open war until the elimination of Israel and until the death of the last Jew on earth."
Michael Rubin qualifies his goal as genocide too, quoting Nasrallah ruling out "co-existence with" the Jews or "peace", as "they are a cancer which is liable to spread again at any moment."
The Age quotes him like so: "There is no solution to the conflict in this region except with the disappearance of Israel."
He is the head of a terrorist organization, is an advocate of genocide and his portraits are being held up on a street corner? Next to messages of peace? Ridiculous.
I know this isn't representative of the anti-war movement in general, but I am worried that the talking hairdos that pass for TV news around here send a camera crew out there and all of a sudden anti-war becomes pro-Hezbollah.
My question to the DKos community: what should I do, if anything, about this? How to proceed?