2/25/07: Vice President Dick Cheney’s visit to Australia was met be hundreds of defiant
protesters demanding an end to the Iraq
war and for the release of David Hicks, and Australian imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay.
Cheney was in Australia shoring up support for
the “war on terrorism”. John
Howard, Australia’s prime
minister, has been an ardent supporter of the Bush administration’s war on the
world, and Australia currently
has 500 combat troops in Iraq.
In the face of a massive police security operation, hundreds
of people came out to protest Cheney Feb. 22nd & 23rd
in rallies organized by the Sydney Stop the War Coalition. Police would not allow protests to march on
the street, saying it would disrupt traffic (when Cheney’s presence had already
caused busy streets to be off limits).
But protesters marched anyway in the face of this intimidation, and the
police responded with brutality and 12 arrests.
It is telling of world public opinion that everywhere Bush
administration officials go, they are met with angry protests, often in
defiance of police intimidation.