Musings: Dismissive

Interesting, how tens of thousands of people can gather for a protest in Okinawa against the expansion of the American military presence there, generating international coverage, but it doesn’t even make the Honolulu newspapers.

Check out the picture of the protesters in the link above. These ain’t no "black block" guys, but middle-aged, middle-class citizens. Now that's a clear sign that the anti-American sentiment runs deep.

This paragraph, in the ABC News report, sums up America’s astonishing arrogance, and its grating effect on Okinawans, quite nicely:

Okinawa has long been called the United States' "unsinkable aircraft carrier" but the vast majority of Okinawa's 1.4 million inhabitants would like the Americans to sail off into the sunset.

Meanwhile, as Democracy Now! reports, our great ally Israel has a similarly dismissive attitude toward the Palestinians who chafe under their heavy handed occupation. In an action taken to commemorate today’s 20th anniversary of the falling of the Berlin Wall, Palestinian protesters knocked down part of the Israeli separation wall that divides the region:

Palestinians hung a banner on the wall reading "No matter how tall, all walls fall.” Israeli troops responded by firing tear gas and skunk spray, a chemical concoction that smells of corpses and feces.

Who thinks this stuff up?

And closer to home, about 40 to 50 people — some of them veterans — turned out at the Hilo Veteran’s Day parade to protest America’s illegal wars of aggression and occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan. They were also concerned about the participation of two command Stryker vehicles and several Humvees armed with machine guns. Because these vehicles had recently returned from Iraq and were engaged in live fire training exercises at Pohakuloa, where depleted uranium has been confirmed, they feared they could be contaminated with that toxic material.

According to the report of one protester:

It should also be noted that members of a right wing citizen group called "The Eagles" were walking as escorts for the Strykers and there were several Hawaii County police on bicycles also acting as a security escort for the Strykers.

[A]nd even many of the vets in the parade gave positive thumbs up signals to many of our signs such as: "No War Surge," "Protect the Troops from DU," "Aloha Means Peace," "Stop the Wars," and "End Occupations."

Who can be against that?

Oh, more than a few folks, I imagine. But they’re not usually the ones who are actually doing the fighting.