Home > Protesters Call Bush ’No. 1 Terrorist’ (Germany)

Protesters Call Bush ’No. 1 Terrorist’ (Germany)

by Open-Publishing - Thursday 24 February 2005
12 comments

Edito Wars and conflicts Europe Governments USA

By Alexandra Hudson

MAINZ, Germany - About 12,000 protesters,
many carrying banners reading "Bush go home," "No. 1
Terrorist" and "Warmonger," marched through the German
city of Mainz on Wednesday, but were mostly kept away
from the visiting U.S. president.

The official rally, which was twice as big as expected,
never got within earshot of President Bush, but a small
group of protestors rushed toward his car as he left to
visit a U.S. base in nearby Wiesbaden. Police wrestled
several demonstrators to the ground and led them away
in handcuffs, a Reuters witness said.

Bush was visiting Germany for the first time since the
2003 Iraq war, which Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and
most Germans opposed.

"I’m disgusted by the war in Iraq Bush started that has
cost thousands of civilian lives," said Thomas
Odenweller, 49, a computer technician. "Now he’s trying
to normalize relations with Europe. It must be
stopped."

Ignoring snow and freezing temperatures, the
demonstrators held banners chastising Bush in English
with slogans such as: "You can bomb the world to pieces
but not into peace." Many had pre-printed posters
reading: "Bush, No. 1 Terrorist."

Before the march, which Mainz police said was one of
the largest ever in the city of about 300,000, one
speaker told the crowd: "Mr. Bush, please leave our
country. You started an illegal war against Iraq."

German police confiscated one poster that read: "We had
our Hitler, now you have yours."

Some protesters praised Schroeder for his anti-war
stance.

"Schroeder’s opposition to the Iraq war made me so
proud to be German," said Helmut Bach, 50, a pilot who
marched with his 20-year-old daughter. "That’s why I
voted for him."

Several protesters wearing fake U.S. army uniforms
pulled a trailer with dummies of blood-covered Iraq
prisoners impaled on iron bars under a banner: "We
don’t want your type of freedom."

A force of 10,000 police officers staged one of the
biggest postwar security operations. Frogmen searched
the Rhine for explosives, 1,300 manhole covers were
welded shut and thousands of residents were displaced.

For Bush’s eight-hour stay there was also a strict ban
on air traffic within a 60-km (40-mile) radius of
Mainz, barges on the river were halted and motorways in
the region closed. Factories, businesses and schools
were shut.

Alex Berg, 31, a dancer, and her friends were dressed
as cows and carried a poster reading: "We don’t need no
cowboys."

Bush’s visit contrasted with that of his father to
Mainz in 1989 when large crowds cheered Bush senior for
his calls for the Berlin Wall to be torn down.

Other U.S. presidents have also been given a hero’s
welcome in Germany, although the younger Bush has never
been popular. When he visited Berlin in May 2002, some
20,000 demonstrators took to the streets.

"When John F. Kennedy came to Germany he drove through
cheering crowds," said Mark Reichelt, 20, a student.
"Now Bush is here and will drive through empty
streets."

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Forum posts

  • Herr Bush ist ein kriegshetzer.

    • if these stupid krauts think things were bad under Hitler, the way their population demographics are moving, it won’t be long before there are Islamic majorities in many of their cities; let them find out how bad Sharia law is. This has got to be the best comedy site on the web!

  • Great job Germany! But why couldn’t you nab him and drag him to the Hague...pppplllllease!!!

    • Nice to see there are people in this world that can see Bush for who and what he is...makes you want to immigrate to Germany where the people have I.Q.s higher than duh!

    • Bush’s good friend Vladimir Putin gave old Bush a good grubbing when he said to Bush’s accusation that Russia is backing off on democracy, "We have democracy, Russian style". Which is certainly no less democratic than the pretend democracy we have in the U.S. The Bush hypocrites love to spout off about our democracy, which any student of politics and government will tell you is not a true democracy since we do not elect our officials directly and do not have any participation in the decisions made by our "representatives", representatives who do not represent us, they only represent themselves and their corporate buddies who share the money with them. And unless you are an uneducated boob, you will have to agree with the facts that we do not have a democracy here by a long shot, so who is the turdblossom Bush to talk to anyone about democracy???

    • RESIST AND REVOLT! THIS IS NOT OUR PRESIDENT, NOT OUR GOVERNMENT. REFUSE TO PAY TAXES, REFUSE TO VOTE. TELL YOUR CONGRESSPERSON THAT THEY ARE PART OF THE PROBLEM.

    • Yes, you should move there and enjoy their 12% unemployment.

      Deutschland ist kaput. Frankreich ist tot. Europa ist historiche.

  • They closed Frankfurt Airport for 5 hours.
    They closed 3 highways.
    They stopped 3 S-train lines for 5 hours.

    No civilian got a glimpse on him! So may be Bush might think European countries have turned into
    police staates, where everybody wears uniforms.

    We know the majority or Americans are not with him. But somebody will like the fact that the days
    where the dollar ruled the world ecomony come to an end.

  • bush is a terrorist.

    • Thank you Germany! I really appreciate those of you who stood in the cold and protested. In this "democracy", the laws of assembly and protest have been replaced by the " Patriot" Act, which gives the government the right to throw protesters into prison without charges, lawyers and totally cutoff from family. Torture is the next step for anyone incarcerated. Imagine what it would have been like to protest Hilter and you have a fair idea of what the U.S.A. has become. You are right, Democracy? freedom of speech? freedom of the press (depressed)? Can you believe that your government caved in to the arrogant security demands of this unelected cowboy? What gives him the right to make demands on the free countries of Europe, just for the pleasure of his company, or is it corporations? Instead of arresting him for crimes against humanity, they bent over backward to welcome him. Does anyone else smell something Poopy here?

    • Lies, lies and moore lies. You can protest here. Thousands do all the time. You are an out of touch jackass that would help support the very people who want to kill you.

      There is more freedom of speech and freedom of the press here than in Germany.

      Those same protesters in Germany would be put in prison there if they did the "heil hitler" salute or waved a swastika. Here you can do those things and instead of being jailed you are just shunned by everyone as a facsist racist bigot.

      Maybe you ought to learn a bit before you spout your ignorant anti American bullshit propaganda.

      The Germans apparently forget everything we did for them during the cold war. If we hadn’t stood by them western Europe would have been plucked like a ripe plum by the Soviets, just like eastern Europe was.

    • Is your name Rush somebody, liar to the people, propaganda mouthpiece of the extreme right wrong? The terrorists are not all foreign. Does the term "police state" mean anything to you when a father is assaulted by the police, lands in a mother’s lap (while holding a baby) and then tasered twice and beaten in front of many children (inluding his own) and people in Chunky Cheese’s, all because he did not produce a receipt for a salad? As in all these cases, and there are 100’s, the police say that these are proper procedures. What kind of "proper" world do you live in?