In my third and final installment, I’ll take you to the march itself and share a few more photos.

The march kicked off at least an hour late. The reason for this was obvious: there weren’t enough people. The longer the waited, the more the socialists trickled in. As a matter of fact, if it weren’t for the Socialist presence, the peace movement wouldn’t have moved anywhere. Add in the global warming crowd and it probably would have been a solo event. I found it quite ironic that the people who care so much about the environment were the ones responsible for all the trash in the streets as people threw down their literature throughout the route.

ANSWER had the foresight to have volunteers (also with cowardly yellow reflective vests) try to guard the people marching down the street. At one point, I got a little worried because the line was broken not even 5 minutes into the march and I thought for sure the moonbats would get lost if they didn’t hold hands. I tried to warn them but they wouldn’t listen. I loved Kit’s comment: “Look, human shields.” About 250 meters into the march, the crowd was already beginning to look too thin. Prior to crossing the bridge, the organizers had to go ahead and stop so that they could thicken up the front for the media.

At the front part of the formation was a small group of four or five active duty and military vets. Among them was Jonathan Hutto and Liam Madden. For those that don’t know, Liam regularly conducts interviews with Al Jazeera in efforts to discredit the US Military (specifically his former Marine Corps) and this country. He’s also a darling of the anti-war movement, taking center stage in the march and on the podium. As a matter of fact, while I was dealing with Navy Guy, Liam snuck up behind me and I never noticed (that picture was taken by Kit WHILE I spoke to Navy Guy – whose name is William Reyes according to his name tag, if anyone has any information on him. HERE‘s a picture of him protesting Bush at Norfolk, VA). I would have loved to speak with Liam instead of the bucket head conspiracy nut. At one point, I saw a Marine Corporal in uniform walking near the moonbat pen. As he crossed the street approaching them, I thought I’d shadow him in case he got mobbed. I’ve had experiences with moonbats getting physical. Turns out the guy was WITH the moonbats IN his complete uniform. I think this is against regulations.

Throughout the entire march of people who will tell you they love their country, only two people carried flags that were not upside down or altered in some way. TWO!! Heck, if it weren’t for the free signs being given away from the various groups of protestors there, not many would have had them. The Gathering of Eagles also had premade signs, but most people chose to arrive with their own and nearly everyone had an American flag. Some protestors made up their own signs, but you be the judge on their effectiveness. I wondered if my purity was being threatened a few times. And I almost cried when I saw Santa participating.

I tried to take a lot of pictures of both sides and all their signs:

Especially interesting were all the cameras that stayed ahead of the march to make sure that everyone stayed on course. Can’t miss a single shot there, guys.

I guess I lied earlier. I said that only two people carried flags and these people weren’t very patriotic in my opinion. However, many of them actually WERE carrying flags. My bad.

For those that aren’t aware, those are the flags of Palestine, Iraq, Lebanon and Iran. Now, look what greeted them as they passed on BOTH sides of the road ALL the way to the Pentagon.

I promised everyone some breaking news with this post. It’s not so much breaking anymore because I actually broke it on the Mark Levin radio show last night. I got close a few times to take some pictures but was quickly ushered back to the curb. At one point I was on the bridge crossing over towards Arlington. As I turned around and started walking back towards the curb, I looked out over the river and noticed the police boats in the water. A passing Metro train on a separate bridge caught my attention. It was head east away from the Pentagon. This was about 35 minutes into the march – enough time for the lead elements of the march to reach the Pentagon. The train seemed unusually packed, but I didn’t pay much attention. Another train heading west wasn’t as full. About ten minutes later another train headed east. Again, the train was full. That seemed odd since the Pentagon was at minimal manning due to the march and it being a weekend, but I passed it off and didn’t really think anything of it. After awhile, Kit and I remarked at how impressively long the line of marchers was. I quickly turned around and waited for another train to cross the river. Sure enough, it was full too. ANSWER was repopulating the march by using the Metro to make it appear as if there more people. The media never bothered to report that either. The whole time I was wondering where all these people were coming from since they weren’t there at the start of the march. Their bullpen never filled to capacity and only about 1000 or so people stuck around at the Pentagon to hear the speeches at the end of the march. They either weren’t that dedicated enough to stay or there weren’t that many people to begin with.

There are a lot of numbers floating around about how many people were actually there. Some reports have the Gathering of Eagles outnumbering ANSWER 3 to 1. Others have GOE outnumbering them by only about 10,000, if you believe the reported 20,000 ANSWER people that showed up (with GOE having 30,000). I personally don’t think it was 3 to 1, but it was definitely AT LEAST 2 to 1 in favor of patriotic Americans that showed up to secure our war memorials. Even though vets lined up the both sides of the streets most of the way to the Pentagon, there were THOUSANDS surrounding the war memorials to keep them safe from desecration. They never saw the march because they came for a higher purpose.

It was a cold day, which could have explained why the moonbats didn’t show up. They don’t do well in adverse weather conditions. Show up at Walter Reed on any rainy or extremely cold Friday night and you’ll see troop supporters out there weathering the storm, but Code Pink will be unsurprisingly absent. They are fair weather protestors. At the end of the march, those SDS guys tried to rush the Pentagon. True to form, five were arrested. We either heard them incorrectly during their pre-mission rehearsal or they changed plans during the march.

And that’s my report. The Gathering of Eagles proved that there is a silent majority in this country and once again the media succeeded in keeping them that way…silent. But, as you’ve read all the blogger accounts from those present, there is a LOT of support for our troops. They come from all over the country and even other countries. ANSWER made it a point to announce every time a new state or country was mentioned that was represented at their rally. Kit and I chuckled when they mentioned “Turkey is in the house.” We thought they were all turkies. The Gathering of Eagles didn’t have to do that. They carried the flag of the country they come from and love so much. All I hear all the time in the comments of this blog is how offensive it is that we consider the anti-war crowd as unpatriotic. I didn’t see much patriotism out there on March 17th. I saw a bunch of angry youth and frustrated old people. I saw people who wanted to destroy this government through both violent and peaceful means. As a matter of fact, one of the things that Liam Madden said during his speech at the Pentagon was

“protests will not end this war; Only our resistance will end this war. Symbolism carries great power. But symbolic protest…will never send a message to the powers that be. Only a tangible resistance, a determined risk-taking, and our bold civil disobedience will deliver a message capable of reaching our paralized nation. Our mouths can still speak passionately and our signs can still be stinging, but our bodies must be obstructions to business as usual. Let’s make a transition from symbolic protest to tangible resistance. Let’s put our bodies in the streets.”