I arrived last night in Waco, Texas. I’m staying about half an hour outside Crawford, where anti-war protesters have gathered and remain even in absence of Cindy Sheehan. I made the drive out to the first protest site, where Sheehan’s old tent remains in a ditch, as did several dozen protesters.

What surprised me, and what has received almost no coverage, where the counter-protesters gathered across the street in support of U.S. troops and President Bush.

I continued down the dusty road several miles before arriving at the new, main protest site. What I saw there was a sight to behold. The protesters have erected giant tents that stand several stories high. Inside were hundreds of protesters gathered around a stage where organizers were preparing to give a speech and a band off-stage was preparing to play music:


Alongside the road, dozens of cars were lined-up making the already narrow path more difficult to traverse. It was obvious anti-Bush protesters had truly come from across the nation to attend. I saw plates from New York, Florida, Washington State, Indiana, Colorado, New Mexico, Maine, Maryland, California and others.


As I drove slowly along the roadside taking pictures, one protester beckoned, “Why don’t you come inside, we have food?” Even as they walked past several hundred miniature erected gravesites for fallen soldiers, most protesters seemed in a jovial mood. Their campsite is erected quite literally next to the secret service checkpoint that leads up a road approximately one mile from President Bush’s ranch.