Its members have been dubbed the “pinstriped Nazis” and they refer to their demonstrations as “evening strolls” through German cities. But on Monday night, an estimated 15,000 people joined Pegida, or Patriotic Europeans Against Islamisation of the West, in a march through Dresden carrying banners bearing slogans such as “Zero tolerance towards criminal asylum seekers”, “Protect our homeland” and “Stop the Islamisation”.
Lutz Bachmann, the head of Pegida, a nascent anti-foreigner campaign group, led the crowds, either waving or draped in German flags, in barking chants of “Wir sind das Volk”, or “We are the people”, the slogan adopted by protesters in the historic “Monday demonstrations” against the East German government in the runup to the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Associating themselves with the freedom demonstrations has given Pegida protests an air of moral respectability even though there are hundreds of rightwing extremists in their midst, as well as established groups of hooligans who are known to the police, according to Germany’s federal office for the protection of the constitution.
I’ve recently noted several comments on different blogs asking why all the emphasis on land navigation. Why not just learn your Area of Operations/Area of Interest (AO/AI) like the back of your hand, because you will most likely never venture out of it during WROL anyway. Well, Pilgrim, my best short answer is; land navigation is a valuable skill, that is easily learned and mastered with practice, over time. And like any skill, it makes you a more well-rounded and valuable asset to any team. Why do I need to become familiar with the AK/SKS/Mini-14/FN-FAL/HK systems and every sidearm/shotgun I can get my hands on since I only have an AR-15 ? You never know what you might pick up off of the battlefield.
