Pick a topic — any topic — for Rocky's protest

Like many, you might be among those who are finding it increasingly difficult to support the war in Iraq. No weapons of mass destruction have been found, and it's costing a billion dollars a day and who knows where it will all lead. Not that any of us believe the United States can't accomplish its objectives. All we have to do is undo thousands of years of cultural, religious, tribal, social and political traditions and rivalries, and we should easily be able to make the necessary democratic transition before the next century. It seemed like a fairly big understatement when the Bush administration recently admitted that, jeepers, maybe their original goals were "unrealistic" and they would have to lower their original expectations.

So maybe protesting the war didn't seem like such a bad idea even in the Reddest of the Red States. But was this the way to do it? There was something about a mayor rallying a crowd against the president that didn't feel right. Nor did the occasion.

Didn't it seem somehow disrespectful for the anti-war crowd to crash a party thrown by veterans of foreign wars? That was one reason the protest was held in the park, but they nonetheless were stealing some of the spotlight from the VFW gathering and using their forum as their own.

Judging from the size of the crowd, perhaps others felt the same way.

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Doug Robinson's column runs on Tuesdays. E-mail drob@desnews.com