The issue of free speech shouldn’t be a dilemma at all. It is what it is but I do have a problem with the protestors and the group organizing the counter demonstration, “Gathering of Eagles”. If you read the text of the web site very carefully you can see that it’s a right wing organization and I’m afraid that they are just using the VN Vet as a pawn in their political agenda under the guise of patriotism which is just as bad as Fonda and like ilk using The Wall as a symbolic rallying point. To me The Wall is sacred ground and both sides are wrong.

Pro-War Rally? I have a hard time imagining anybody other than a bunch of chicken-hawks who only get excited about seeing other people shed their blood being pro-war.

And if you are talking specifically about Iraq, why have it at the World Trade Center? What has 9/11 got to do with the Iraq boondoggle? Other than the neo-cons using 9/11 as excuse for their social science experiment in reshaping the middle east, I mean?

I don't like them holding this other silliness at the Viet Nam memorial - but at least I can see the connection. Viet Nam, like Iraq, was a war where America lost thousands of its citizens for no particular reason.

Jack, I respect your views and I can see where you are coming from. It bothers me a bit that the way 9-11 is played down, maybe the U.S. should have done the same about the attack on Dec.7,1941 (I have nothing against rice).
As for the "wall" I like so many others donated money for the building of the "wall" as a place to respect and honor our brothers/sisters not as a kickoff place to belittle the troops now in the military.
What gave me the right to post this? The troopers who fought for in the past.
As for been a "war hawk" nobody hates war more the a person who has been in combat. It seem like the real "warhawks" are the one that likes to have their pictures took in a very safe place while sitting on a "AA" gun or write babybooks.
You guys can put me down if you like but first why not walk a mile in my shoes.
Sorry, didn't mean to make it so long and I'm sure I'll catch some heat from it. Brothers then, Brothers now.

Actually, I don't think that you understand MY position. I have absolutely NEVER said anything against striking back at the people who attacked us on 9/11. Indeed, much of my anger at the current fool who is pretending to be a president of the U.S. stems from his turning his back on those people and allowing them to go free. Rumsfeld, Cheney and Shrub literally turned their backs and let the Afghanis turn Bin Laden loose - and they have allowed him to remain loose for more than three years. There is no excuse for that - period.

The other primary reason for my anger with the assholes currently running the country is that INSTEAD of going after the people who attacked us, they decided to use the 9/11 attack as an excuse to try to restructure the Middle East into a more Israel and West friendly place by overthrowing a pissant dictator - oh, and also as a chance to make a shitpot full of their friends even richer in the process.

It was such an incredibly naive and stupid thing to do. These days, everybody plays along with the lies and pretends that nobody could see how Iraq would sink into the swamp that it has become - but that is pure BS. Nearly every experienced military man willing to talk predicted what happened.

Now, we have been tied up in that crap for longer than it took us to defeat the Germans, the Japanese and all of their allies - Iraq has lasted longer than WWII. Our military is warned down to a nub and their equipment is worn out. All because a bunch of chicken hawks who hid when the war of their generation wanted to send other people's kids out to die in the name of their social science project in the desert.

Yes, I hate Bush - see the above reasons. I wasn't born hating the shitheel, he earned it full out.

And I do not need to walk a mile in your shoes, friend. I have shoes of my own and I have walked my own miles.