FayObs: Iraq War Divides Protesters at Market House [View All]

[Hissyspit]

Lots of interview comments in this article from Friday's protest on the bus tour stop in Fayetteville.

http://www.fayettevillenc.com/story.php?Template=news&Story=7170245


Staff photo by David Smith

Myra Kinderknecht, left, protests the Iraq war as Pam Francis shows her support for it Friday at the Market House in downtown Fayetteville.

Iraq war divides protesters at Market House

By Matt Leclercq and Julia Oliver
Staff writers

- snip -

More quietly, some called the war protesters names: socialists, communists, traitors. They derided them for coming into town on a bus. They held signs that said: "So you are anti-war. Isn't that precious," and "Al Queda agrees with Cindy!"

One sign nicknamed Sheehan "Baghdad Cindy," reminiscent of how veterans called actress Jane Fonda "Hanoi Jane" because of her anti-war activism.

On the opposite side of the Market House, Julie Cuniglio of Dallas said it's possible to change people's minds. Traveling on other tour stops, her conversations with pro-war people sometimes made them understand that activists like her are unlike Vietnam-era protesters who derided servicemen.

"They're just afraid we don't support the troops," said Cuniglio, whose nephew died in Iraq in 2003. "That's why it's very important that people understand we totally support the troops. We are the troops. They're our families. We don't support the president's policies."

She added, "Everywhere we go, people get it."