Anywhere between 50 and 300 thousands...

[Ivo Skoric]

18 ft (3m) paper-mache sculpture of GW Bush was succesfully toppled 
on Trafalgar Square in front of thousands of cheering protesters. 
Indymedia UK reports that Stop the War Coalition said there were 
300,000 of them. New York Times reports that SWC said there were 
200,000 of them. Both sources agree that Scottland Yard put the 
number at 110,000. Yet, asked about the protests during the visit, 
Laura Bush said she hadn't really seen any: "We've seen plenty of 
American flags, we've seen plenty of people who were waving to us," 
she said, "many, many more people, in fact, than we've seen 
protesters."

Was she drunk all the time? Did she forget to put her glasses on? Or 
is she just pulling Marie Antoinette here?

As Bush chose London as the first stop in his campaign, the 
terrorists chose to attack Brittish interests in the secular Muslim 
country that wants to be a part of Europe: Turkey. And as they 
managed to kill the highest ranking British official there, Tony 
Blair refuted the notion that the action in Iraq might be responsible 
for the spread of terror attacks around the world.

Motioning toward his pal, Bush, he said: "What has caused the 
terrorist attack today in Turkey is not the president of the United 
States, is not the alliance between America and Britain. What is 
responsible for that terrorist attack is terrorism, are the 
terrorists."

Do those sound like shrieks of desperation at the world that seems 
just not to get the message, or what? Maybe because he is becoming 
aware that "the message" disagrees with Newton's laws, disregarding 
the cause and effect relationship.

Fortunatelly, GWB saw the funny side in all that horror - "I fully 
understand people don't agree with war," he said, "but I hope that 
they agree with peace and freedom and liberty." This was an 
unscripted answer to an ad-hoc journalist question. In saying so, he 
probably forgot that in this campaign he is perceived as being on the 
side of war, that he fully understand that people do not agree 
with... It is as if he said: "I hope people will be smart enough not 
to vote for me."

ivo