Protests In 200 American City Cities Against Bush Peppered By Violence In Portland, Oregon and Seattle

As the killing in the failed Iraq War only mount, more anger and opposition among the American public is growing. Yesterday with only lukewarm publicity thousands were organized and marched against the Bush war policies in 200 American cities. Opposition is only expected to grow as the Iraq violence only worsens. If the Bush Administration would have had a plan to quickly secure Iraq in 2003, then the growing opposition among the American public would never had developed no matter what a bad idea the war was from the beginning. But the Iraq War policy is in a tailspin. Because the violence is increasing and the war is failing, a huge wave of public opposition is building. Not only has the opportunity long since passed to make any form of success of Iraq, but with a building public opposition, it only becomes more difficult to sustain the "stay with the course" policy of the White House.

But protesting even the worst of policies can sometimes carry a high price. Yesterday there were arrests in both Portland and Seattle as police reacted against any that acted outside of the legal parade permits. In Portland, Oregon when just 50 of the estimated 1,000 protesters started to move towards the freeway area, the police felt like these more radical protesters were intending to shutdown the freeway, and some protestors were trampled by the horses of the police and many sprayed with pepper spray.

It's far safer to educate the public in other more constructive ways than to risk becoming a victim of police violence by demonstrating when a few more radical persons may act outside of the legal parade agreement and the situation can become chaos. The police can't win in this situation either, if damage to public or private property results, then the police get the blame as well. No one wins when chaos results.

It's important that people become politically involved and speak their minds. Many just don't bother to do so. But in some cities such as Portland, Oregon, which is often referred to as "Little Beirut" because legal protests often break down into at least some violence and arrests, protests seem to sometimes to involve some risk. My best advice is to write a blog or publish a newspaper, it's a far safer way to expresss yourself. When a situation breaks down into violence, any viable message becomes muddled and lost. More constructive ways exist to show your opposition to government polices that you consider an outrage. Ending with physical injuries from having a 1000 pound horse walk over you is no fun at all.