Friday, April 15, 2005
The Million [Iraqi] Man March
Muqtada al-Sadr rallied his faithful for a big demonstration in Iraq last weekend, and it got a lot of press coverage. CNN characterized the crowd as "several thousand," and peaceful:
Here's how Major K saw it:
Interestingly, CNN seems to have understated the size of the crowd, which was apparently larger than "several" thousand. Underestimating the size of anti-American demonstrations is not the usual CNN move, but perhaps their regular "Arab Street" crowd counter wasn't available and they had to call in a patriot. No matter. Major K's observation that Sadr's demonstrators have "gone home" is most telling. These demonstrations, as opposed to demonstrations in other countries in the region, seem to have been an ephemeral display of influence -- or lack thereof -- rather than evidence of any popular movement.
The demonstration stayed peaceful, and security around the square was largely Iraqi, with U.S. troops keeping a low profile.
Here's how Major K saw it:
The so-called million man march that he tried to stage that I linked to above was a non-event here. His million man march mustered somewhere north of 20,000 and somewhere south of 50,000 people. We monitored the situation closely as we were concerned that something bad might happen during the march - for many reasons. Only Americans provide dedicated security forces for people who are demonstrating against them. This comparatively small group of people clogged a few streets, made some noise, got their picture on CNN and went home. Big deal.
Interestingly, CNN seems to have understated the size of the crowd, which was apparently larger than "several" thousand. Underestimating the size of anti-American demonstrations is not the usual CNN move, but perhaps their regular "Arab Street" crowd counter wasn't available and they had to call in a patriot. No matter. Major K's observation that Sadr's demonstrators have "gone home" is most telling. These demonstrations, as opposed to demonstrations in other countries in the region, seem to have been an ephemeral display of influence -- or lack thereof -- rather than evidence of any popular movement.
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