Under Reported
Independent Media TV Date: 02/15/2003
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Many more than 1 million protest in London, England
It's been a long journey. It's been a long journey since September 11th, 2001. Our nation was attacked, and their was a sense of unity not felt in the country for a long time. There was world wide outpouring of sympathy and support. There was definitely world wide support for our war on terror. Don't you ask yourself why or how? How can all of this world unity and world sympathy be turned into the biggest day of public outpouring in the history of the world? I can tell you why. Unilateral foreign policy as far as Kyoto, International Criminal Court, and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, and of course the obvious, our rush to war with Iraq. Also in the United States they protest because of a lack of media representation of a point of view that many in the United States have.
The world wide unity has been replaced with, world wide opposition to our foreign policy. The Israeli public is the only country that is supporting us on this. Public opinion, even within our so- called "coalition of the willing", is very poor. It's more like the coalition of the unwilling, as 14 out of the 30 countries that support us are pending or aspiring NATO countries, or are receiving cash.
More than 250,000 protest in San Francisco, on Sunday, February 16th
As I sat watching our so called "Free Press" report on the largest day of protests in the history of the world I was once again amazed at the lack of accurate coverage of what took place. I must give a little credit to CNN and their Saturday Night, and Sunday Morning coverage (not CNN Headline News, their coverage was horrible), it was almost accurate and fair. Although by Sunday afternoon they had returned to stacking all conversations on the war with only people that support the war. Fox, MSNBC, ABC coverage was horrendous, inaccurate, not fully disclosing what took place and why. They frequently followed up showing a protest in the United States, with showing a protest in Iraq, and gave the impression that Iraq is the only benefactor of these protests. Sometimes it was even reported with those words. Other times simply the visual image of protests in New York, followed by gun toting protestors in Iraq.
Accurate coverage would have shown all the pictures I have here. If you do not read one more word of this, that is fine, but please look at the pictures.
Don't you ask yourself why, during the biggest day of protest in the history of the world, not 1 national news station felt it was news worthy to cover live even 1 speaker from any of the protests, in any part of the world? Not 1 speaker live from any part of the world. No, they chose to frequently interviewed some oddball. But this protest was anything but a bunch of oddballs. This was a mainstream protest. They could have even had some of the more prominent speakers that night or Sunday, sharing their views on national television. This is only normal during the largest day of protest in the history of the world. Especially because at least 33% of the people agree with this position.
Tens of thousands protest in Hollywood, CA
Overall all there has been a great deal of bias and misrepresentation of the truth in the news. I will show just two examples of this, but there are an endless line of daily examples of misrepresentation.
First, various polls in the United States have generally shown that about 33% support the war unconditionally, about 33% support the war with a condition of a United Nations resolution in support of using force, and about 33% completely oppose the war. Of course, they always lump together first two groups and say that 67% support the war. This is very deceitful, as this is ONLY the case if we have a UN resolution in support of force.
On the news, we regularly see the 33% that support the war; retired military personnel, politicians, not to mention anyone in the Bush Administration. In fact, they are frequently given 1 on 1 interviews that basically let them share their views without any critical opposition. The 33% who support the war conditionally, are also frequently on the news. They are given the incorrect tile of "the opposition", but really they are the middle of the road people. Then there are the 33% who completely oppose the war, and completely agree that Saddam is an atrocious person and leader.
500,000 - 1 million protest in Barcelona, Spain
Ask yourself how often you have seen these people on the news, sharing their facts and opinions. I watch the news every night, and prior to February, 15th, 2003, I have seen them 3 times in about 10 months. I'll say that again, 3 times in 10 months. 2 of the times I saw someone, they were completely outnumbered on the panel and were shouted down as being anti- American, and told they should just leave the country. On the other hand, those who thirst for war are on TV every night beating the war drum. Every night.
200,000 - 250,000 protest in Melbourne, Australia
Prior to Bush's "Axis of Evil" State of the Union address of 2002, were you at all concerned about Iraq? Think back, were they even a remote concern. Our impression of Saddam was more like Kadafi of Libya, a dictator who has power over a weak and defenseless nation. Then the beating of the war drum began, and here we are 1 year later.
So now WE are going to go against the United Nations and preemptively attack another country. Now any country in the world can ignore the United Nations and attack another country because they "might" do something. This is a very bad precedent, that could lead to global chaos if other countries apply the same philosophy to their international struggles. For example Pakistan and India, both nuclear powers who have been fighting for years. Or Israel, also a nuclear power, who has violated more United Nations Resolutions then any other nation on the planet (yes, more than Iraq, many more). China is also nuclear power, who has had a long history of conflict with Taiwan. I guess they can now resolve that conflict and attack Taiwan before Taiwan attacks them.
600,000 - 2 million protest in Madrid, Spain
Another example of misrepresentation in the news is that President Bush is going to ignore the United Nations with his "coalition of the willing". It's more of a "coalition of the twisted arms". There is not one country in the Coalition, outside of Israel, that has a majority of the people behind their government's position. England, Australia, Spain, Turkey and Italy are constantly shown to be supporting the United States. But polls and protests in these countries show completely the opposite. An overwhelming number of the people in these countries do NOT support the position that their government is taking with the U.S.
Do you really believe that you will be safer if Bush ignores the United Nations and takes the countries who do not support the war, into a region that doesn't want us there? As you can see from the largest protests in the history of the world, you will not be safer. The administration even hints at leaving the United Nations, by constantly saying they will be "irrelevant" if they do not go his way. This is absurd.
60% of Americans want more time for the inspections. 33% percent of the people are completely opposed to the war, but they are NEVER on TV to share facts and opinions. Never. The ENTIRE world is against us on this. The entire world. Opinion polls around the world show this. But you would think that we just have a little struggle with Germany and France. This is not true.
80,000 protest in the Canadian winter, in Toronto, Canada
Other facts that are rarely shared. We do not need to increase our defense budget. Many do not know that we spend more on defense than the next 25 countries combined. I'll say that again, more than the next 25 countries COMBINED, and it's increasing. Think about that for a second. Also, we have more troops in more countries than the British Empire did at the peak of it's imperialistic throne. We are considering using illegal biological weapons against Iraq. Maybe there are reasons why the world is a little concerned with the direction we are heading.
Also, consider these facts: World oil reserves, and the 250 billion barrels of oil reserves in the Caspian Sea area, with Afghanistan as the planned location of a the pipeline, Oil Production is peaking and soon to go downward, and we consume 26% of the worlds oil, even though we are only 6% of the worlds population. Not mention the fact that the Bush Administration is dripping in oil. There is also the possibility of an alterior motive, look at the New American Century supporters, and what they believe in.
800,000 protest in Paris, France
But of course this war is not about oil. It is about weapons of mass destruction. You'll notice that North Korea who is known to have weapons of mass destruction isn't near the top of the world oil reserve list.
Please educate yourself, before people of power and wealth ruin this country. God Bless America, and God Bless our Freedom of Speech.
The people do not protest in support of the atrocious dictator Saddam. The people protest in support of a diplomatic resolution to the problem. They are against this rush to war. The inspectors just got back into Iraq, let's give them a chance to succeed. In the United States they also protest so that maybe the third of the people here in the United States, who also have facts and opinions to share, can get EQUAL time with the Corporate Media. Then the real truth would get out, and true public opinion would be heard and created.
Think again. Do you really think that going to war against world public opinion is a good idea? Is going to war the right thing, right now? Do you think this war is going to make the United States a safer place? The whole world is against us on this. The whole world. Why are these pictures not shown on our media? Why do we never hear from the 33% that do not support the war on our news stations? Their numbers are to equal those who want war. Why does their point a view get such unequal coverage? This is not a Free Press that we have.
Below are pictures from SOME of the protests that took place. But there were.
More than 100,000 protest in Los Angeles, California
500,000 protest in Berlin, Germany
South Korea
200,000 - 250,000 protest in Sydney, Australia
350,000 - 500,000 protest in Washington, DC inJANUARY, 2003
300,000 - 500,000 protest in New York, NY
Mexico City, Mexico
Argentina
200,000 protest in Demascus, Syria
Protest in Lisbon, Portugal
Protest in Brazil
More than 1 million Protest in Rome
Amsterdam
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