WASHINGTON, DC – Support for U.S. troops fighting abroad mixed with anger toward antiwar demonstrators at home as hundreds of people, far fewer than organizers had expected, rallied Sunday on the National Mall one day after a massive anti-war protest on the same grounds.

“Anyone who refuses to support our President is a Commie bastard,” said Marilyn Faatz, who drove from New Jersey to attend the rally. “How dare those tree hugging hippies bad mouth our efforts to liberate those poor sand niggers in Iraq.”

About 400 people gathered near a stage on an eastern segment of the mall, a large photo of an American flag serving as a backdrop. Amid banners and signs proclaiming support for U.S. troops, several speakers praised the US effort to bring democracy to Iraq and Afghanistan and denounced those who protest it.

“All I hear is oil this, and oil that” said Sgt. Bucky Connell, Sgt., USMC (Ret.). “I lost my right testicle to shrapnel in Nam. To hear these pansies talking about peace disgusts me. GET A PURPLE HEART, THEN COMPLAIN! We have a right to do whatever we want with the rest of the world. It is called manifest dynasty! It is the reason I stand before you triumphant today with my one ball.”

Many demonstrators focused their ire at Cindy Sheehan, the California woman whose protest near President Bush’s Texas home last summer galvanized the anti-war movement. Sheehan was among the speakers at Saturday’s rally near the Washington Monument on the western part of the mall, an event that attracted an estimated 100,000 people.

One sign on the mall read “Cindy Sheehan doesn’t speak for me” and another “Arrest the traitors”; it listed Sheehan’s name first among several people who have spoken against the war. One sign even went so far as to say “See what happens once you give these bitches the right to vote?”

Organizers of Sunday’s demonstration acknowledged that their rally would be much smaller than the anti-war protest but had hoped that as many as 20,000 people would turn out. They failed to realize that a Walker: Texas Ranger marathon was airing on USA, which is believed to be a large reason for the lack of public support. Who knew Chuck Norris has that much influence on the minds of America?

On Saturday, demonstrators opposed to the war in Iraq surged past the White House in the largest anti-war protest in the nation’s capital since the U.S. invasion. The rally stretched through the night, a marathon of music, speechmaking and chants of “FUCK GEORGE BUSH” on the Mall.

National polls have found steadily declining support for the war in Iraq, with a majority of Americans now believing the war was a mistake to everyone who is not an investor in Haliburton stock.

In an AP-Ipsos poll this month, only 37 percent approved or leaned toward approval of how Bush has handled the situation in Iraq; strong disapproval outweighed strong approval by 2-1, 46 percent to 22 percent. The other 32 percent polled said the only thought on their minds right now is that gas prices are a motherfucker.

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