-->ist jetzt angesagt bei den Allierten. Bush muss jetzt, wider Willen, seinem
Volk bekanntgeben, was er an Geld benötigt für diesen Wahnsinn. Er hat wohl-
weislich zugewartet mit seinen Schulbuben-Additionen, welche ein 2.Klässler
ehrlicher gemacht hätte. Da der Krieg in die 2. Woche geht, musste der Chef
der $-Verbrennerei ans Stehpult und aufrechnen was es kosten könnte.


Sein Adlat Rumsfeld hat wortreich zugefügt, dass man doch näher am Anfang
als am Ende des Krieges stehen würde. (Das tönt aber gar nicht mehr wie vor
10 Tagen).


und in London hat der Allierte Tony Blair einmal mehr alles heruntergespielt,
indem er verlegen, und jetzt eher kneifend, sich um die rasch fortschreitende
Einnahme Basras und Aenderung der Strategie, bzw. wieder Aufgabe derselben
vergallopierte. Herr Blair wann machen Sie einen Truppen-Besuch in Kerbala,
der Sandsturm ermöglicht Ihnen gegenwärtig das Ankommen als Inkognito, die
Soldaten(Innen) möchten vielleicht einmal"vor Ort" mit ihnen sprechen.

Emerald.

-->>Sein Adlat Rumsfeld hat wortreich zugefügt, dass man doch näher am Anfang
>als am Ende des Krieges stehen würde. (Das tönt aber gar nicht mehr wie vor
>10 Tagen).
>
>und in London hat der Allierte Tony Blair einmal mehr alles heruntergespielt,
>indem er verlegen, und jetzt eher kneifend, sich um die rasch fortschreitende
>Einnahme Basras und Aenderung der Strategie, bzw. wieder Aufgabe derselben
>vergallopierte. Herr Blair wann machen Sie einen Truppen-Besuch in Kerbala,
>der Sandsturm ermöglicht Ihnen gegenwärtig das Ankommen als Inkognito, die
>Soldaten(Innen) möchten vielleicht einmal"vor Ort" mit ihnen sprechen.
>Emerald.
>

Nüchtern betrachtet, war es natürlich pure Propaganda einen"schnellen Krieg"
vorzugaukeln. Andererseits ist ein Teil der beobachtenden Weltzusehergemeinschaft natürlich sehr naiv, wenn sie solche Propaganda für bare Münze nimmt.

Der"Enthauptungsschlag" wäre ein lucky punch gewesen. Ein Dessert Storm Tempo
kann gar nicht erreicht werden. Diesmal sind die Hauptteile nicht im Kuwait sondern"zu Hause" und seit Monaten vorbereitet. Vielleicht dauert es Monate, nichts desto trotz liesse sich handeln.

Nützlich könnte sich die UNO jetzt erweisen: Wenn Sie von den Amerikanern verlangt, dass Blauhelme für die Aufsicht in erorberten Gebieten sorgen bzw.möglichst rasch die betroffene Bevölkerung versorgt.

-->> Nützlich könnte sich die UNO jetzt erweisen: Wenn Sie von den Amerikanern
> verlangt, dass Blauhelme für die Aufsicht in erorberten Gebieten sorgen
> bzw.möglichst rasch die betroffene Bevölkerung versorgt.
>

.....und die Anglo-Amerikaner weiter gen Bagdad, Kirkuk, Mosul und bald auch gegen Ishfahan und Teheran marschieren läßt? ---> Pfui Deibel!!!

Wißt Ihr eventuell, was sich derzeit genau in San Francisco abspielt? In diversen Foren gibt es Mitteilungen dazu aber keine Aufklärung ob Fake oder nicht.

-->>> Nützlich könnte sich die UNO jetzt erweisen: Wenn Sie von den Amerikanern
>> verlangt, dass Blauhelme für die Aufsicht in erorberten Gebieten sorgen
>> bzw.möglichst rasch die betroffene Bevölkerung versorgt.
>>
>.....und die Anglo-Amerikaner weiter gen Bagdad, Kirkuk, Mosul und bald auch gegen Ishfahan und Teheran marschieren läßt? ---> Pfui Deibel!!!

Was soll man sonst tun? Glaubst du irgendjemand könnte die USA von ihrem Vorhaben abbringen?
Warum den armen Teufeln nicht zu Hilfe springen? Aus purem Trotz?

Hilft nix und gibt nur rote Köpfe. Lieber zynische Hilfe leisten
als nicht über den eigenen Schatten springen zu können.

-->>Wißt Ihr eventuell, was sich derzeit genau in San Francisco abspielt? In diversen Foren gibt es Mitteilungen dazu aber keine Aufklärung ob Fake oder nicht.

Was soll sich denn dort abspielen?

-->laut unbestätigten Mails aus S.F. soll die ganze Innenstadt alltäglich ab 17:00 belagert sein. Ca. 2.300 Festnahmen soll es in den letzten Tagen schon gegeben haben.

********???********


Hier der Beitrag aus dem FAKT-INFO-FORUM:
Quelle: hopps
..................................................................................

In San Francisco flattert die Trikolore

US-Flaggen sind in der Bay Area unbeliebt. Es boomt der Protest gegen"den Idioten, den wir als Präsidenten haben"
SAN FRANCISCO taz Die"Straßen von San Francisco" sind wieder da. Doch nicht mit Karl Malden und Michael Douglas auf Verbrecherjagd - es sind die Gegner des neuen US-Krieges, die seit vergangenem Mittwoch die Hauptrolle in der kalifornischen Stadt übernommen haben. Initiiert von Organisationen wie Direct Action oder International, erhitzen die täglichen Proteste inzwischen die Gemüter an der Westküste. Auch wenn sie längst nicht die Ausmaße der Demonstrationen in New York erreichen, haben die scheinbar spontanen, aber per Handy und Internet koordinierten Straßenblockaden ihr erstes Ziel erreicht: Die im Wesentlichen Bush-treuen Medien kommen an dieser Opposition nicht mehr vorbei.

Eine Mischung aus Studenten, Globalisierungkritikern, Punks, Alt- und Neo-Hippies hindert die Hauptstadt des verblichenen Internet-Hypes am Business as usual. Spätestens um 17 Uhr versammeln sie sich jeden Tag auf San Franciscos Verkehrsader, der Market Street."Impeach Bush","preemptive war = terrorism with a western face","carpet bombing is not the answer","down with the american military junta" steht auf den Plakaten, dazwischen flattert provokativ die Trikolore, die französische Nationalfahne. Eine Gruppe, die aus einer Seitenstraße hinzustößt, wird mit begeistertem Johlen empfangen. Über den Hochhäusern kreisen Hubschrauber, und Polizisten drohen selbst Passanten, die die Straße überqueren wollen, sie festzunehmen.

Das sind keine leeren Drohungen: Über 2.300 Demonstranten sind in den vergangenen Tagen festgenommen worden - und nicht wenige für das Verlassen des Bürgersteiges. So viel wie nie zuvor in der an Protesten wahrlich nicht armen Geschichte der Stadt, wie ein Sprecher des Radiosenders Pacifica ärgerlich feststellt. Wer sich über die Abgründe des US-Feldzugs ein Bild machen will, wird dort bestens informiert. Rund um die Uhr liefert Pacifica Interviews mit Wissenschaftlern, Politexperten oder kritischen Militärs, lädt Hörer dazu ein, ihren Protest als Poetry Slams in den Äther zu rappen, und kündigt die aktuellen Demotermine und -orte in der Bay Area an.

Die diskutiert nun heftig, wie viel ziviler Ungehorsam der guten Sache wohl dienlich ist, ob damit nicht gar die Rechte unbescholtener Bürger angetastet würden. Während sich ein Teil der Demonstrantenszene von Sitzblockaden und zertrümmerten Papierkörben distanziert, verteidigen andere das radikale Vorgehen.

"Die USA sind aus zivilem Ungehorsam entstanden", klärt eine Demonstrantin im Fernsehen einen verständnislos dreinblickenden Reporter auf. Und ihr Begleiter, um die Sache noch klarer zu machen, fügt hinzu:"We're back in the 60s."

Zurück in den 60ern? Für die einen ein Albtraum, für andere die große Hoffnung. Selbst auf einer wissenschaftlichen Konferenz im Nasa Ames Research Center südlich von San Francisco landet jedes zweite Gespräch beim Krieg und dem"Idioten, den wir jetzt als Präsidenten haben". Kaum einer, der nicht zumindest Unbehagen äußert. Selbst im drögen Silicon Valley, dass den Charme eines gigantischen Gewerbeparks hat, stößt man an der einen oder anderen Kreuzung auf versprengte Kriegsgegner, die den Autofahrern enthusiastisch ihre Plakate entgegenstrecken. Etwas sei anders als beim Vietnamkrieg, und das stimme ihn optimistisch, sagt Nasa-Mann Don Scott."Damals dauerte es Jahre, bis der Protest ins Rollen kam. Diesmal haben wir ihn direkt von Beginn des Krieges an."

Dass die Kriegsgegner sich von der ersten lauten Kritik an ihrer Blockadestrategie nicht unterkriegen lassen, zeigte sich am Wochenende. Während einige tausend ihrer Wut Luft machten, trainierten Protestveteranen auf einer Wiese hinter dem Civic Center in San Francisco Neulinge, wie man sich zusammenkettet oder der Polizei den Abtransport von einer Kreuzung möglichst schwer macht. Auch wenn sich derzeit nicht absehen lässt, ob die Blockaden die Protestbewegung spalten - den Medien haben sie damit ihre Themen aufgedrückt. Ein TV-Sender, der zunächst über die Räumung der Zufahrt zur Bechtel Corporation berichtet hatte, legte später nach und hinterfragte in einem Beitrag die Verbindungen des Dienstleistungskonzerns zur US-Militärindustrie."Ein lokaler Nachrichtensender hätte die Story nie gebracht, wenn dort vorher nicht Demonstranten gewesen wären", sagt Patrick Reinsborough von Direct Action.

Als Besucher aus Deutschland erlebt man nicht gekannte Sympathiebekundungen. Die reichen von"Ihr Europäer habt eine bessere Zukunft vor euch" bis zu dem Satz einer Demonstrantin im Getümmel der Market Street, der einem dann schon fast wieder peinlich ist:"Sagt Schröder, dass wir seine Politik wirklich gut finden."" NIELS BOEING

-->>laut unbestätigten Mails aus S.F. soll die ganze Innenstadt alltäglich ab 17:00 belagert sein. Ca. 2.300 Festnahmen soll es in den letzten Tagen schon gegeben haben.
>********???********

Gesucht und gefunden:
=============================================================================

WAR ON IRAQ: The Home Front
Protests shift to firms
Demonstrators scale back, focus on war's supporters

Joe Garofoli, Harriet Chiang, Peter Fimrite, Wyatt Buchanan,
Chronicle Staff Writers

Anti-war demonstrators are turning away from the widespread protests that disrupted San Francisco last week and are instead using smaller actions focusing on the government and businesses that contribute to the U.S. war effort, activists said Monday.

The shift in tactics came after protests Thursday closed much of downtown to traffic and smaller demonstrations Friday led to several hundred arrests.

City officials pleaded with protesters to scale back their efforts, saying that dealing with them was costing the city $900,000 a day and inconveniencing thousands of people -- many of whom agreed with their anti-war stance.

On Monday, a few hundred protesters organized by Direct Action to Stop the War chose two sites in San Francisco to test the new strategy -- the Federal Building and the Carlyle Group, a politically connected investment firm with offices in the Transamerica Pyramid.

In a separate action at San Francisco State University, several hundred students held a peace rally that ended with a sit-in at the school's administration building.

"People are moving on from tying up intersections and preventing ordinary San Franciscans from getting to work," said Andrea Buffa, national spokeswoman for United for Peace and Justice, one of the anti-war movement's largest umbrella organizations.

"We sent a powerful message last Thursday that on the day after the war started there would be no business as usual," Buffa said."Now, we're going to show how corporations are profiting from the war."

OBEYING RULES FOR PEDESTRIANS

Monday's protesters appeared to be careful about clashing with police, urging each other to stay on the sidewalk and cross intersections with the light.

Downtown, the action started around 7 a.m. at Justin Herman Plaza, where a couple of hundred people gathered before walking up Market Street in a mock funeral procession to mourn people killed in the first days of the war -- U.S. soldiers and Iraqis alike.

"We're mourning the children who died in the first Persian Gulf War and those who have died since then because of the sanctions," the Rev. Louie Vitale of St. Boniface Church in San Francisco said as he paused at a crosswalk to wait for the motorcycle police officers escorting them.

"We also grieve those soldiers who have died and those who will die," he said."War is just hell."

One group of protesters marched to the Federal Building, near the Civic Center, and blocked the entrance on Turk Street.

Gopal Dayaneni, 33, refused to leave the back door of the building, which was protected by steel barricades, when police gave the order to disperse around 10 a.m.

"I have a soul," Dayaneni said, explaining his decision to stay behind as police in riot gear surrounded him and other protesters.

Around noon, about 75 protesters were escorted to two white buses, searched and eventually whisked off to Pier 27, where plans were to cite most of them and release them.

CALLING ATTENTION TO INVESTORS

While the demonstration at the Federal Building was going on, other protesters were at the Transamerica Pyramid to focus on the Carlyle Group, whose investor roster ranges from former President George H.W. Bush to the Saudi family of Osama bin Laden.

Some protesters locked arms, and police moved in and loaded them into waiting buses.

The rest of the crowd moved to Washington and Montgomery streets, where an eclectic mix of yoga practitioners, chanting protesters, riot police and confused passers-by mingled.

"Compared to some of the other arrestees over the past week, this was kind of nice," said Police Department spokesman Bob Mammone.

"They're not yelling epithets at us," he said."It's a real peaceful, serene scene here, especially with the chanting. And the yoga was nice to watch, but unfortunately, they're still getting arrested."

About 125 protesters regrouped at Powell and Market streets at 5 p.m. Monday and wandered down to the Embarcadero and back up toward the Castro.

At about the same time, a group of about 100 students who had been staging a sit-in on the first floor of S.F. State's administration building dispersed on their own, said school spokeswoman Ligeia Polidora.

That group, part of a larger crowd that had come from an 11 a.m. rally, presented five demands: that administrators pass a resolution condemning the war; that the FBI and police not interfere with either the student peace movement or with international students; that the administration lift sanctions on a Palestinian student group; that the administration provide money for the anti-war movement; and that there be no increase in tuition or fees this year.

Polidora said administrators have not responded to the students' demands but the faculty senate already has passed a resolution against the war.

None of the students was arrested.

San Francisco Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Eileen Hirst said police had made <font color=red>about 130 protest-related arrests throughout the day, bringing the total since Thursday to almost 2,300.</font>

POLICE WITHSTAND THE STRESS

The hundreds of police officers who have been keeping protesters in check for five days now are holding up well -- despite taunts, name-calling and marathon shifts, said Assistant Police Chief Alex Fagan Sr., who watched the crowd assemble at Justin Herman Plaza.

Fagan said he believed 99 percent of the protesters had been peaceful.

"It's that 1 percent that's unlawful that requires 75 percent more resources," he said.

Deputy Chief Rick Bruce, who is in charge of the special operations and security bureau for the San Francisco police, said that, overall, the protests had gone well Monday.

"There were no fights, no struggles, and nobody resisted arrest," Bruce said."Yoga for Peace has been out here every day. They are very nice, and they are extremely limber.

"The political message is irrelevant to us," he said."If a bunch of pro- war demonstrators decided to take over the streets and disrupt the operations of the city, we would do the same thing. It's an issue of keeping the city open and running."

Chronicle staff writers Kathleen Sullivan and Suzanne Herel contributed to this report. / E-mail the writers at jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com, hchiang@sfchronicle.com, pfimrite@sfchronicle.com and wbuchanan@sfchronicle.com.

<ul> ~ http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/03/25/MN175729.DTL&type=ne</ul>

-->In Praise of the Protesters

Emil Guillermo, Special to SF Gate

--------------------------------------------
"They're defecating in the streets," my wife said.

Somehow, I didn't expect freedom of expression to include the subject of toilet training.

I was out of town and getting dispatches from my wife over the phone. She repeated radio and TV news reports about the protests in San Francisco last week that netted more than 1,000 arrests.

By now, you're probably ready to start a movement to put up signs around the city that say"Curb the Protesters." But before you do, I think we need to take time to praise the thousands in San Francisco who have taken to the streets.

You heard me right: Praise them.

(For the record, I support the troops and wish for their safe return. But I doubt the wisdom that put them in harm's way in the first place.)

When you don't have 30 seconds on a worldwide Oscar telecast, like documentary filmmaker Michael Moore does, to denounce the president's"fictitious war," the next best thing is to take to the streets with a few thousand like-minded folks.

Nothing un-American about that.

You've got to get attention and be heard.

Besides, who else is there to remind us, whether we acknowledge it or not, that the real embedding that's taken place these last few days has been the war into our lives?

And yet, how many try to move on with their day, pretending that the war is being waged at our convenience? That it's somewhere over there, and that we really are as disconnected from, and blameless about, the violence and killing as we'd like to think?

You can always turn CNN off by remote control and watch the Cartoon Network, where the bad guys fall with a single punch. And then you can go about your business.

But the protesters keep us from forgetting the truth.

We need them now more than ever. The debate over the morality and legality of war isn't over.

Illegal War? Illegal Protests?

Most of us know how the United States chose to bypass the United Nations by withdrawing a second resolution authorizing force based on Iraq's noncompliance on weapons of mass destruction.

But there is also the matter of the U.N. charter that allows for force in cases of self-defense or an imminent attack. Is Saddam really an imminent threat to the U.S.? There was no debate over that point, leading some legal scholars to say that with this war, the president is in violation of international law.

As NYU law professor Philip Alston pointed out to the Associated Press,"It opens the door for every country to take the law into its own hands and launch preemptive military strikes without any universally binding restraints."

The debate doesn't become moot once the war has started -- it's just beginning.

Bush hopes to circumvent criticism with a quick war, few casualties and maybe even the discovery of some cache of weapons of mass destruction.

But as the war begins, it is proving to be more difficult than expected, with U.S. dead and injured numbers rising and no discovery of WMD. And protesters' voices grow louder.

But you won't hear them hailed as true advocates of democracy. Instead, I heard one radio reporter compare the disruptive protesters to terrorists.

With that kind of prevailing attitude, how long will it be before we see laws against such honest dissent?

In a place as serene as Oregon, an anti-terrorism measure has already been proposed. Senate Bill 742 defines the issue so broadly that the definition of"terrorism" could include a protest march, with a penalty of life imprisonment -- a high price to pay for expressing free speech. The irony, of course, is that those who defend the war as a fight for Iraqi freedom seem to have forgotten that the principle of freedom still applies at home.

Blood for Oil?

Okay, you still don't like the protesters. And I don't blame you. Some of their actions are reprehensible. I sure wish some of the protesters were more like Mohandas Gandhi advocating nonviolence than Johnny Rotten looking for a mosh pit.

But the truly rotten ones are in the minority. Most protesters are peaceful and nonviolent.

I do have one minor criticism of the protesters: Stop picking on people with SUVs. Television reports showed a nasty intersection confrontation in which protesters held hostage what looked to be a soccer mom.

Protesters should know this isn't a"Blood for Oil" campaign, no matter how much more than two dollars a gallon you're paying.

Daniel Yergin, the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian on the world oil industry, puts Iraq's share of the world oil supply at just 3 percent. And most of it flows to Europe and Asia -- not the U.S., which gets 90 percent of its oil from North and South America, West Africa and the North Sea.

Yergin writes in the Financial Times that due to technological advances in production methods, he predicts an increase in the world's oil reserves to a total of 175 billion barrels -- 50 percent more than Iraq's reserves and two-thirds that of Saudi Arabia's.

Where's all that oil coming from?

Not the Gulf.

It's from Canada.

And they're against this war, too.

So the oil issue is my minor quibble with protesters.

This isn't"Blood for Oil."

That was Gulf War I.

This one is just about blood. And dominance.

It's barely about liberation -- Iraqis aren't exactly welcoming our troops with open arms. It's only a liberation of sorts for some conservative think tankers who've been in exile since the first Bush administration, and who now find themselves back in power with what some analysts call a"hammerlock" on U.S. foreign policy.

Now, after years of a bipartisan policy of nonproliferation -- destroying weapons of mass destruction -- the U.S. has shifted into a good-regime/bad-regime approach.

So while it's Iraq today, it could easily be Iran tomorrow and North Korea after that. Bush's foreign-policy vision is one driven by the military and by war.

That's why we need the protesters more than ever. The debate is under way. In the spirit of democracy, voices of dissent need to be heard to remind others that war remains a feeble option.

Emil Guillermo is a radio and TV commentator and the author of"Amok: Essays From an Asian American Perspective," winner of an American Book Award. E-mail: emil@amok.com

<ul> ~ http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/archive/2003/03/25/eguillermo.DTL</ul>

-->Publication date: 03/25/2003

Hall lashes out at protesters

BY ADRIEL HAMPTON
Of The Examiner Staff

Tony Hall has no patience for antiwar demonstrators who break the law and will call today for tough prosecution and legal action to recover costs associated with civil disobedience.

Hall is outraged over protest tactics last week that limited commerce and traffic in downtown San Francisco. At their peak, the protests -- with bands of activists blocking building entrances and dozens of intersections -- cost The City more than half a million dollars a day.

"This is a matter of respecting your fellow man. These people went overboard," Hall said.

At the Board of Supervisors meeting, Hall plans to introduce resolutions asking the District Attorney to vigorously prosecute the more than 2,000 arrested last week for blocking traffic and refusing police orders, and asking the police to itemize protest-related costs so the city attorney can try to recover them from organizers of felony offenders.

Most of the arrested protesters are liable for a fine, but several could face more punishment for allegedly scuffling with officers.

Examiner reporters observed two types of protesters -- those who sat down in intersections and were quietly arrested, and a number who ran from block to block, disrupting traffic, harassing drivers and police.

Asked what he thought of civil disobedience during the civil-rights and Vietnam war protests of the 1960s, Hall said disrupting the lives of others is always inappropriate.

"What good does it do to deprive a cab driver of income, who might be opposed to war?" Hall asked."That's bordering on stupidity, utter stupidity. And selfishness, that's what's behind it."

City Attorney Dennis Herrera could not be reached for comment.

The District Attorney's Office is planning to put 25 arrestees before a judge at once, sorting out the felony charges and"hard-core" rabble rousers, a spokesman told Bay City News last week.

Hall was particularly angered by calls in a leftist publication for simple destruction of property as an act of protest.

"I found that went out of style 25 years ago," Hall said."Some of these kids don't know it yet."

E-mail: ahampton@examiner.com
<ul> ~ http://www.examiner.com/news/default.jsp?story=n.hall.0325w</ul>

-->[img][/img]

Publication date: 03/21/2003

'Anarchy': City's wave of protests

BY J.K. DINEEN
Of The Examiner Staff

An unprecedented day of social unrest brought business grinding to a halt in much of The City Thursday as tens of thousands of antiwar demonstrators blocked intersections and clashed with a police force that at times seemed overwhelmed.

By 8 p.m. cops had made more than 1,100 arrests and Muni buses continued to cart hundreds of cops in riot gear from one hot spot to the next as roving bands of protesters clashed with police from Union Square to the entrance to Sixth Street.

At an emergency press conference at the Office of Emergency Services Thursday night, Assistant Chief Alex Fagan said,"These people want to shut The City down and we won't allow it."

"What we saw today was a ratcheting up of demonstration from largely peaceful protest to absolute anarchy," Fagan said.

The antiwar actions began shortly after 6 a.m. as protesters filled intersections with newspaper boxes, discarded furniture, city garbage bins, and bales of hay, some of which were then lit on fire.

Just after 7 a.m., J.P. Ross of Oakland joined dozens of protesters blocking the entrance to the TransAmerica building, their arms stuffed into steal tubes to make arrest harder.

"We're here today to shut the Carlyle Group down," said Ross, referring to a consulting company with close ties to President Bush.

Nearby at Sansome and Market, three bearded men sat on overturned city trash bins as antiwar organizers brought them small bananas and shots of espresso. A white Ford Bronco slammed into a newspaper box, plowing it until sparks flew against the concrete.

A block away another group blocked an intersection and clashed with firefighters who were responding to a gas leak that turned out to be a false alarm.

"This could have been a medical emergency," screamed one firefighter."You might as well put a gun to somebody's head."

By 8 a.m. police began arresting protesters who had blocked off all entrances of the Bechtel building at 50 Beale Street, as hundreds of workers waited for police to clear the entrance.

Protester Judith Howell, 61, said she would continue to protest Bechtel, an engineering and construction company with many defense department contracts, including one to rebuild Iraq after the war.

"They are an example of murderous greed that is hard to match," said Howell.

Sister Bernie Galvin, also arrested there, said she'd be back.

"Absolutely, day after day," she said.

Nearby, lunch-truck operator Doug Wilson was stuck amid the protesters and cops, unable to make it to his next stops.

"This is a mess," said Wilson."These guys got a right to protest but I got to feed my family with what I make here. Whatever don't get sold today gets thrown away. I can't sell someone an old sandwich."

After noon, tensions flared up and down Market Street as cops clashed over and over again with mostly young activists blocking traffic. At one point a cop on a radio said,"We're doing very badly, we're out of wagons."

While the vast majority of activists either followed police instructions to clear the streets or were peacefully arrested, some battered cops with chains, bottles and rocks. Two police officers suffered minor injuries, Fagan said.

At Seventh and Market, protesters went after pro-war art student Christopher Courter, who was perched on his van with a"Go War" poster. A man ripped it out of his hand, upsetting the majority of protesters who insisted he give the now-crumpled poster back.

"They want peace but they bring this here," said Courter.

Nearby a crew of brick masons clashed with protesters after some of the activists crossed over into an area roped off for working. One mason grabbed a metal level and cracked protester Nelson Comerci over the head with it.

"He could have killed me," said Comerci, threatening to sue the mason.

Shortly after, the smaller bands of more militant activists merged with a giant group that held a noontime rally at Civic Center Plaza. At least 5,000 strong, the group then marched up Van Ness, to the approval of many drivers stuck in traffic.

"This is going really, really well -- everyone is so sympathetic," said Jack Casford, a nattily dressed 75-year-old former human-rights commissioner."I may look like a square, but I'm really a warrior."

By 7 p.m., as news came that 16 U.S. Marines were lost after a helicopter was shot down, thousands of activists continued to spread across The City, blocking an on-ramp to the Bay Bridge and facing off with cops at Union Square.

Fagan -- and many of the protesters -- said the police should be commended for handling the chaos with restraint.

"The City is functioning," he said."I just hope tomorrow is better."

The Examiner's Adriel Hampton contributed to this report.

<ul> ~ http://www.examiner.com/news/default.jsp?story=n.protestmain.0321w</ul>

-->erweisen sich Deutschland und Frankreich als Dolchstosser:

Gestern schrieb ich noch:

>Nützlich könnte sich die UNO jetzt erweisen: Wenn Sie von den Amerikanern verlangt, dass Blauhelme für die Aufsicht in erorberten Gebieten sorgen bzw.möglichst rasch die betroffene Bevölkerung versorgt.
>

Nach heutigen Berichten wird Blair insbesondere deswegen zu
Bush reisen.

Frankreich und Deutschland sperren sich schon wieder dagegen...
man sanktioniere sonst den Krieg gegen den Irak.

Es bleibt nur mehr bares Kopfschütteln.

-->
Ich würde sagen auf beiden Seiten nichts als gekränkte Eitelkeiten und teilweise Verbitterung:

Buhs Autorität als alleiniger Weltbefriediger ist angeknackst weil man niemals damit gerechnet hat daß sich tatsächlich mal jemand findet der bis zum Schluß trotz enormen Drucks ganz einfach Nein zu sagen.


Die andere Seite (Deutschland,Frankreich) ist in ihrem Selbstwertempfinden angeknackst weil man niemals damit gerechnet hat daß der Freund aus Amerika es fertigbringt das einzige Nein seit mehr als 50 Jahren einfach zu ignorieren wo man doch immerzu nur abgenickt hat.

Ich würde sagen das Blairs Versuch bei Bush zu kläglichem Scheitern verurteilt ist weil man Blair die Rolle des Vermittlers auf beiden Seiten gar nicht gestattet.

Es ergeben sich völlig neue Bündnisse und die Investoren die in Amerika ihr Geld plaziert haben bekommen es zunehmend mit der Angst zu tun.
Es droht ja Konfiszierung.
Dies könnte eine große Regierungskrise heraufbeschwören in der sogar Abgeordnete aus dem SPD und Grüne Lager bestochen werden um die Regierung zu stürzen.Wir hatten das schon mal.Im Untergrund werden bestimmt schon Möglichkeiten angebohrt um die Achse zu erhalten.
Steht die SPD die Regierungszeit voll durch ist das Bündnis zu Amerika nicht mehr zu reparieren.
Ein Kern-Europa marschiert voran.
Die Spaltung Europas wurde durch die Abhörmaßnahmen in Brüssel durch die Amerikaner erleichtert.
So geht man nicht mit Freunden um.
Diese Politik war an Hinterhältigkeit nicht zu überbieten.
Aufgrund der täglich neu hinzutretenden Meldungen kann man davon ausgehen daß Amerika nicht davon abläßt die Weltpolizeimacht in der UNO zu teilen.
Frankreich und Deutschland sollten auf keinen Fall eine Großmachtambition raushängen lassen aber zumindest die Anstrengungen im militärischen Bereich verstärken um unabhängiger zu werden.
Die Abschreckzbg muß glaubhaft sein.
Gruß EUKLID