Make peace!
_______________________________________________________________
Thousands march in Washington, other U.S. cities to protest
Iraq war
WASHINGTON (AP) - Denouncing a conflict entering its fifth year, protesters raised their voices Saturday against U.S. policy in Iraq and marched by the thousands to the Pentagon in the footsteps of an epic demonstration four decades ago against another divisive war.
A counter-protest shadowed the anti-war crowd on a day of duelling signs and sentiments such as "Illegal Combat" and "Peace Through Strength," and songs like "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" and "War (What's It Good For?)."
Thousands crossed the Potomac River from the Lincoln Memorial to rally loudly but peacefully near the Pentagon. "We're here in the shadow of the war machine," said anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan.
"It's like being in the shadow of the death star. They take their death and destruction and they export it around the world. We need to shut it down."
Smaller protests were organized across the United States and abroad, including demonstrations in several Canadian cities, in the lead-up to Tuesday's four-year anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
In Los Angeles, Vietnam veteran Ed Ellis, 59, hoped the demonstrations would be the "tipping point" against a war that has killed more than 3,200 U.S. troops and engulfed Iraq in a deadly cycle of violence.
"It's all moving in our direction, it's happening," he predicted at the Hollywood rally. "The administration, their get-out-of-jail-free card, they don't get one anymore."
Speakers criticized the Bush administration at every turn but blamed congressional Democrats, too, for refusing to cut off money for the war.
"This is a bipartisan war," New York City labour activist Michael Letwin told the crowd. "The Democratic party cannot be trusted to end it."
Letwin said the key to ending the war soon is to bring more troops and their families into the protest movement.
President George W. Bush was at Camp David in Maryland for the weekend. Spokesman Blair Jones said of the protests: "Our Constitution guarantees the right to peacefully express one's views. The men and women in our military are fighting to bring the people of Iraq the same rights and freedoms."
People travelled from afar in stormy weather to join the march.
"Too many people have died and it doesn't solve anything," said Ann O'Grady, who drove through snow with her husband, Tom, and two children, 13 and 10, from Athens, Ohio. "I feel bad carrying out my daily activities while people are suffering, Americans and Iraqis."
Retired marine Jeff Carroll, 47, an electrician in Milton, Del., held a sign saying: "Proud of our soldiers, ashamed of our president."
Carroll said he served in Lebanon when the marine barracks was bombed in a deadly attack in 1983, and thinks the U.S. should be focusing on Afghanistan and Osama bin Laden instead of Iraq. "We're fighting the wrong country."
Police on horseback and foot separated the two groups of demonstrators, who shouted at each other from opposite sides of Constitution Avenue in view of the Lincoln Memorial before the anti-war group marched. Barriers also kept them apart.
1 2 3 next page
canada.com |
