Saturday, thousands of people joined together under the guise of a “Rally for Peace” to voice their displeasure over the Iraq war. They were serenaded by cries against the Bush administration by noted patriots such as Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon, and “Hanoi Jane” Fonda. The stage from which they preached their message of what they consider “peace” also held a casket draped with an American flag and combat boots, symbolizing the American soldiers who have died in the conflict.

"Silence is no longer an option” claimed Fonda, who had been absent from anti-war protests for 34 years, due to her actions during the Vietnam War, most notably being photographed sitting atop an anti-aircraft battery used to shoot down United States planes. Fonda also participated in radio broadcasts for the Vietnamese communist regime to convince the United States government to “consider the consequences of their actions.” According to the Associated Press, “she had held back from activism so as not to be a distraction for the Iraq anti-war movement, but now needed to speak out.”

President Bush recently authorized 21,500 extra troops to serve in Iraq, which will deploy in early February, and likely spawned the major interest in this particular protest. When the protests were broached with National Security adviser Gordon Johndroe, he said that the President "understands that Americans want to see a conclusion to the war in Iraq and the new strategy is designed to do just that."

This particular protest was organized by United Peace and Justice, who were counting on at least 100,000 protesters, but the numbers fell quite short of their goal. The event was peaceful, with the only real excitement occurring when around 300 people attempted to rush the Capitol building, only to be met by police to block them from entering. House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (D- MI) spoke to the crowd on some possible intentions of using the Congressional money flow to halt the war. "The founders of our country gave our Congress the power of the purse because they envisioned a scenario exactly like we find ourselves in today. Now only is it in our power, it is our obligation to stop Bush."

I can understand how some naïve individuals feel that they are doing the world a favor by participating in a “Rally for Peace” as this particular protest has been billed. Unfortunately, their idea of peace doesn’t exist. The speakers of these events try to convince their listeners that if the United States were to withdraw all troops from Iraq, there would be a major outbreak of peace in the Middle East. All Iraqis would live together in perfect harmony, and would have done so under Saddam Hussein’s regime had, to quote Jane Fonda; the “mean-spirited, vengeful administration” of President Bush not intervened.

I like to hope that the supporters of events such as this protest don’t actually believe in the manner I just described, but it’s difficult to think otherwise. Instead of looking for real solutions to the problems in the world, these protesters are looking for a scapegoat. Instead of placing the blame of more problems in Iraq on the insurgents that murder our soldiers regularly to uphold their violent, cruel lifestyles, these protesters prefer to blame our President, who has steadily been committed to helping the Iraqi citizens.

As long as these protesters have a method of inflating their self-assigned moral superiority, they’ll keep finding scapegoats for all the problems in the world. While it would be much easier to have only one man to blame for all the problems on Earth, it’s just not that simple. President Bush doesn’t want our soldiers to die, and he’s not looking to take over the world. He does realize that there are people alive that want Americans to die, solely because we do not collectively believe as they want us to. Iraq and Al Qaeda were a thorn in the side of the Clinton administration due to Al Qaeda financed firms and businesses violating the United Nations sanctions on Iraq in the mid 1990’s. Amazingly enough, as soon as Bush was elected, most decided to conveniently forget about these findings from the Clinton White House.

It would be lovely if all the problems in the world were caused solely by one United States President, so all of Earth could return to peace and harmony after he leaves office. Unfortunately, that’s not how things work. Bush has tried to help people to the best of his ability, but always ends up the target of blame. While I don’t respect their message, I respect the protester’s rights to say what they want. It’s very lucky for them that we live in a country where it’s alright to be wrong.