Protest Warrior was organized in March 2003 to counter the anti-war movement in San Francisco. Their mission to “counter and expose the radical totatalirian left” has spread across the country and the group now organizes against major leftist rallies from San Francisco to New York and this last weekend, Washington D.C. The following is a first-hand account from the D.C. rally.
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I recently was selected to lead the Washington, D.C., chapter of Protest Warrior. Countering the anti-war protest last weekend was my first event as chapter leader, and my members proved to be fiery and courageous. The Left had gathered over 50,000 communists, socialists, anarchists and other assorted revolutionaries to protest the Iraqi war, but Protest Warrior was there to show our support for the troops.
Protest Warrior decided to confront these Leftists at their rally with signs that mocked them. One sign read, “Except for ending slavery, fascism, Nazism and communism, War has never solved anything.” Another read, “Communism has only killed 100 million people, Let’s give it another chance!”
Our group of 20 gathered Saturday by the Washington Monument to wait for instructions. I told them it wouldn’t be long before we would start moving. I could sense their nervousness-and their excitement. For most of these guys, this was their first time crashing an anti-war protest.
To say our group was outnumbered would be a vast understatement. We had 40 scattered supporters, at the most, and the anti-war protesters had enough to fill a major sports stadium. Our first plan was to infiltrate the Leftists on their turf and confront their political philosophy. Immediately, the Leftists began shouting, calling us “racist bigots” and “anti-gay.” Oddly, none of the Protest Warriors had signs or spoke about race issues or sexuality. Nevertheless, the Leftists liked their slogans and continued to accuse us.
We suspect the Leftists knew we were coming because they did a remarkable job of slowly pushing away from their rally. They never really shoved too hard, or struck us, but they did inch us out across the street and up the sidewalk for a few hundred yards. My group did a good job of sticking together and avoiding physical confrontation.
While the Leftists forced us out, they shouted, “Whose streets? Our Streets!” at us.
Our next modus operandi was to use turn their own march against them. We gathered some intel on the parade route and found they were scheduled to come down Pennsylvania Avenue toward the Capitol. Now, we knew we had hundreds of supporters lining the front of the FBI building and that if we could just play our cards right, we could outsmart the Leftists and to make them look foolish. So, we did just that.
Protest Warrior Takes Over Anti-War Parade
My group of about 40 gathered at 13th and Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the Reagan Building (notice the symbolism) and waited for the Leftists to approach. We divided ourselves into smaller groups on all four sides of the intersection. When the Leftists got within 50 yards, we ran out into the middle of the street and blocked their parade! We quickly placed ourselves in the forefront, faced toward the Capitol and began to march, chanting “U.S.A! U.S.A!”
The Leftists behind us had no idea our signs were parodying them saying things like, “Equal Rights for Suicide Bombers.” In fact, for awhile, they believed we were fellow anti-war protestors, just like them. People watching on the sidewalks seemed perplexed when they read our signs. Here we were, a Pro-Troops group, holding our signs high, walking right in front of the Leftists as major media and television cameras rolled. Our planning had paid huge dividends.
As we approached fellow Pro-Troops protestors along Pennsylvania and 7th, we started chanting louder. At first, the Pro-Troops protestors started shouting against us, thinking we were Leftists. Once they realized we were conservatives and had taken over the anti-war parade, they erupted in cheers and laughter.
Protest Warrior had pulled a fast one on the national anti-war rally, which angered hosting groups, like A.N.S.W.E.R. The Leftists stopped twice to get us off their parade route, but we stopped with them, turned, and faced them down. It was quite a spectacle. Although Leftists broke the will of the American people and troops during Vietnam, the so-called “Silent Majority” had never actually tried to protest them. But, during the course of the current war, pro-troops groups like Protest Warrior have been stealing pages out of the playbook of the Leftists, and crashing their events to express our “dissent.”
Saturday was one of the largest anti-war rallies since Vietnam, and the whole world was watching. But this time, the “Silent Majority” of decent Americans showed up to expose the Leftists, and to take away some of their steam. Such organizations are only growing in number, and never again will a large anti-war, anti-capitalism rally go unanswered. Those days are long gone. The new era of Protest Warrior, whose motto is, “Fighting the Left, and Doing it Right,” has begun. And there is nothing the Left can do.
