There's Just No Place For Street Fightin' Maaaaan.. No!

Ev'rywhere I hear the sound of marching, charging feet, boy
'Cause summer's here and the time is right for fighting in the street, boy
Well then what can a poor boy do
Except to sing for a rock 'n' roll band
'Cause in sleepy London town
There's just no place for a street fighting man
No!

Hey! Said my name is called disturbance
I'll shout and scream, I'll kill the king, I'll rail at all his servants
Well, what can a poor boy do
Except to sing for a rock 'n' roll band
'Cause in sleepy London town
There's no place for a street fighting man
No
Get down

Street Fightin' Man, by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, 1968.

Like the engine of a '64 VW Bug that song still sounds great after 40 years, eh Moondoggy? Speaking of hearing marching charging feet boys...

All around the world this weekend demonstrations marked the anniversary of the Iraq war. From London to New York, San Francisco to Sydney, Chicago to Athens, the smell of protest was on the breeze and thousands of feet were on the march, as citizens of the world went out to rail at... well, uh... who knows what exactly. The injustice of it all, perhaps. And the war! Yes, certainly we can all agree that war is bad! And we can demand... well.. we can demand, uh... stop the war! No more blood for oil!

But at least one city seems determined to steadfastly refuse to get with the program - Baghdad, Iraq:

Iraqis March On Jordanian Embassy BAGHDAD - Shiite demonstrators raised the Iraqi flag over Jordan's Embassy yesterday after more than 2,000 people marched through Baghdad demanding an apology for the alleged involvement of a Jordanian in a suicide bombing that killed 125 people.

The protest - the largest in a week of mounting anger - came two days after the leader of the clergy-backed United Iraqi Alliance claimed during Iraq's first National Assembly meeting that neighboring Jordan was not doing enough to prevent foreign fighters from slipping into Iraq.

Even though tremendous forward strides towards freedom have been made there it looks like the people of Baghdad are a bit too busy to stop and join hands with "the global community" today.

And if citizens of Iraq think Jordan isn't doing enough then what would they think of the few diehard former regime loyalists in the American media who urge the terrorist forces to just hang in there a little longer. "Success is within your grasp" they cry, "the US is almost defeated." In page one headlines the Washington Post declares Two Years Later, Iraq War Drains Military. Not to be outdone and ever-eager to claim the crown as the most "jihaddi-friendly news source in America" the Miami Herald's front page cries out: Two Years Later, U.S. Bogged Down In Iraq. "The guerrilla conflict is grinding away at the resources of the U.S. military, there's uncertainty over the fitness of the all-volunteer force, U.S. troops are stuck in a grinding war..." those quotes just from the first paragraph of each page one 'news' story. In each case 'grinding' is apparently la word du jour, indicative of early AM coffee-break-inspired prose.

Al Jazeera could not raise the hopes and spirits of future suicide bombers higher than these American newspapers. But off shore the world becomes even more bizarre; and on bizarro world the war's toll is just now starting to hit home. In fact, today's front-page headline in the International Herald Tribune screams just that: U.S. Toll In Iraq War Starting To Hit Home. For years, apparently, Americans have been ignoring events there.

...But antiwar activists, even one who said that organizing against the war "can feel like stirring concrete with an eyelash," point to tangible changes: Scores of local communities have voted to demand that U.S. troops come home. Small protests are staged weekly. And military recruiters have had increasing difficulty in attracting enough recruits.

More potential good news for terrorists debating that tough personal choice between med school and Mosul. But according to the story the word isn't getting out! People everywhere are blissfully ignorant of the growing "stop the war" movement. Who's fault is this international ignorance? According to the IHT, the blame lies with the media, who've failed to rally the world to The Cause.

"The media isn't doing the job, and this is one reason why people in Europe don't know about the very extensive antiwar movement that exists here," said Joseph Gainza, the Vermont director for the American Friends Service Committee.

(No statements from actual Vermont Guard members accompany the piece.)

But where there's life there is hope! Though off the front pages, where the headlines don't scream from kiosks for the attention of passers-by, some papers run identified opinion pieces like this one in the NY Daily News:

...Those of a more sensible persuasion will today, two years after U.S. troops started whooping their way toward Baghdad, recognize how profoundly better a place the world is on its way to becoming. This at the very least being a corollary result of Washington's bold stroke to take matters into its own hands, regardless of what this and that faintheart thought about such rude unilateralism.

Or this piece from the New York Post, that actually cites a rival:

The liberation of Iraq ? and perhaps the transformation of the Middle East ? began two years ago today.

It's been a long, oft-tragic process, but Operation Iraqi Freedom is paying off.

Even The New York Times has noticed.

"Prominent officials," the Times wrote yesterday, "were saying early on that overthrowing Saddam Hussein would shake up the hidebound, undemocratic regimes in the Middle East and free the natural democratic impulses of Arab and Islamic regimes." And, adds the paper, "this rationale may still hold up."

So take heart, those of you who were inspired by the example of the people of Baghdad or disgusted by the behavior of those who march against them.

And be familiar with these numbers from the Philadelphia Inquirer - even if they aren't front page news:

The best way to note this second anniversary simply may be to present some numbers about Iraq that have accumulated since March 19, 2003 - the good and the bad. Iraqi Olympians in 2004: 31.

High-ranking Baathists on the most-wanted deck of cards now in custody: 44 of 55.

Iraqis registered to vote in the Jan. 30 election: 14 million.

Iraqis who voted: 8 million.

U.S. troop strength: 155,000.

British troop strength: 8,000.

U.S. soldiers killed in combat: 1,520.

Iraqi forces killed since June 2004: an estimated 1,342.

Iraqi civilian deaths: 17,053 to 30,000.

U.S. soldiers wounded in action: 11,285 (as of March 10).

Bombings with multiple casualties: at least 219.

Foreign nationals kidnapped: 189, with at least 33 killed.

Estimated number of insurgents: 18,000.

Schools renovated: 3,100; 263 under construction.

Children enrolled in primary school: 3.6 million in 2000; 4.3 million in 2003/2004.

Telephone subscribers: 833,000 prewar; 2.6 million now.

Internet subscribers: 11,000 prewar; 140,293 now.

Daily oil production: 3 million barrels prewar; 2.1 million now.

Average daily hours of electricity nationwide: 8

Nationwide unemployment rate: 28 to 40 percent.

U.S. funding in Iraq: more than $300 billion.

Blood-curdling cruel dictators removed: 1.