Local Man Joins National Protest Against the War
|By DD TURNER, News Editor|
Friday, October 06, 2006
Cox Newspapers, L.P.
He was a one-man band marching to
the beat of protest Thursday.
Dr. Rael Nidess, a retired
urologist, paced around the historic Harrison County Courthouse carrying a sign
that read “U.S. out of Iraq – Now!
Attack Iran?
No to Bush’s wars” as part of a nation-wide protest against the Iraq and Bush
Administration policies.
“I am a one-man protestor
joined, hopefully, by millions across the country,” said Nidess, adding
that protests were planned in major Texas
cities.
Nidess said he was protesting
because the reasons given for the war in Iraq have proven to be false, and
each time President Bush is presented with facts showing his reasons to be
false, he changes his story.
Also, the bill permitting terror and
taking away habeas corpus also prompted him to protest.
“Half of the house and senate
are in Bush’s pockets and the other half is supine,” he said.
During his protest, Nidess said he
had a lot of support for his position, one cat-call that he described as
“good natured” and one man who challenged him on his position that he
said was an intelligent exchange.
When the war on Iraq was
proposed, Nidess said he was undecided at to whether he should support it.
“If I had know then what I know
now,” he said of what he termed “lies that President Bush knew were
lies” – that Iraq attempted to purchase yellow cake from Niger or that the
aluminum tubes said to be used for uranium enrichment were only good for use in
missiles.
Nidess, a Democrat, said the party
has left him by moving to the right.
“They have forgotten their
progressive basis, their labor roots and their devotion to the first
amendment,” he said.