Tens of thousands march against Iraq war
Date: Sunday, January 19 @ 19:36:34 UTC
Topic: Politics


Washington - Amid chants of "no blood for oil" and signs and speeches assailing President Bush as a warmonger, tens of thousands of protesters rallied and marched against U.S. policy in Iraq.

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"This is just the beginning," student organizer Peta Lindsay told the bundled-up crowds on the National Mall. "We will stop this war." The D.C. event headlined a series of anti-war protests in the United States and abroad Saturday.

It took place in weather conditions bitter by Washington standards, with temperatures in the 20s. That didn't stop one protester from stripping down to his Speedo and inviting passers-by to draw peace symbols all over his body. The crowds were fed by fleets of buses from across the country, including more than a dozen from Wisconsin. "This is the last chance for thousands of people to tell the president that we don't want another war with Iraq before he makes his final decision," said Josh Healey, a freshman sociology major at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Just west of the Capitol, a long list of speakers decried a possible invasion of Iraq and angrily accused the president and the U.S. government of a litany of sins from imperialism to militarism to oil greed. Among the thousands of signs bobbing in the crowd: "Drunk Frat Boy Drives Country into Ditch." "What Would Jesus Bomb?" "Drop Tuition, Not Bombs." "Barbara, Tell George Not to Play With Guns." Besides the president, the media also was a popular target, reflecting the sentiments of many in the crowd that anti-war feeling in the country has been ignored.

"Where is the liberal media when we need it?" joked Vermonter Margaret Young. "There is time for us to stop the war . . . that so few really support," House Democrat John Conyers of Michigan told the crowd. Clusters of protesters advertised themselves as "Okies for Peace," "Vermonters for Peace," "Fighting Scots for Peace." Art Marburg, 52, a self-employed Milwaukee resident, rode a bus here with 70 others. He called the protests "a decisive moment for American foreign policy." "Nobody wants this war to happen," said Dawn Tucker, an 18-year-old from Madison. "The only people that aren't upset are those that don't know what's going on. If you're not pissed off, you're not reading the news." Tucker described the bus trip and rally as a bonding experience.

On the lengthy road trip here, riders napped, discussed current events and watched a presidential bloopers video. The speakers Saturday included some well-known figures - actress Jessica Lange, rocker Patti Smith, presidential hopeful Al Sharpton, civil rights leader Jesse Jackson - along with many lesser-known activists with an array of causes that ranged far beyond Iraq policy. Jackson told the crowd, "We march today to fight militarism, and racism, and sexism, and anti-Semitism, and Arab-bashing." There was diversity in the audience, in age, background and, to some degree, politics.

Those in the crowd ranged from the rather mainstream in their criticism of government policy to many who were colorfully or stridently anti-Bush or anti-U.S., indicting the government as "globalist," "colonialist" and "fascist." One protester, a retired federal worker from Maryland named Mace Olcott, told a reporter he felt it was important for political moderates to be heard in the debate, so "fringe groups don't dominate the agenda. Middle Americans aren't going to be influenced by the crazies." Said Olcott: "I'm not a leftist at all, but I don't think we are capable of bringing democracy to Iraq." Moments later, a man handed him a leaflet on "Why we are burning flags." Olcott winced. "That I don't agree with," he said. 'All walks of life' Healey, the UW freshman, saw the crowd as coming from "all walks of life." "We had 1,000 people travel from Wisconsin to tell George Bush that we're against this war," he said.

"Bush might not listen to a small group of pacifists, but he'll listen to the churches that come out, he'll listen to the mainstream business people or people from small town Wisconsin. . . . It gives you a feeling of hope." But a lot of demonstrators viewed the prospect of war with pessimism. "We have Bush as a president. He'll come up with any excuse he can find (for war). I'm trying, though," said Karina Kwiatkowski, a Virginia high school senior carrying a "No Blood for Oil" sign. "I refuse to feel resigned," said Pat La Cross of Madison, though she found herself a bit disappointed that Saturday's crowd wasn't larger. "We should be making more noise," she said.

A lot of middle-aged protesters, some of them veterans of the Vietnam peace movement, brought their school- and college-age children to the rally. Tradition of activism Richard Sanford, 51, of Watertown paid $85 to travel 18 hours by bus from Milwaukee with his daughter Chelsea, 18, and her best friend, Jessica Adams, 19, both freshmen at UW-Stevens Point. Richard Sanford, who attended UW-Eau Claire and actively protested the Vietnam War, said he was proud to be passing along the tradition of activism to his daughter. "It's amazing to be here with him," Chelsea Sanford said. "How many people can say that they were out here protesting with their dad? This is affecting my generation. A lot of my friends are in the military, and it scares me." After the rally, protesters marched to the Washington Navy Yard.

Police estimated the marchers at about 30,000, part of a larger crowd that packed the east end of the National Mall. Demonstrations against the war, large and small, also took place in San Francisco; Minneapolis; Toronto; Montreal; Tokyo; Paris; Cairo, Egypt; Christchurch, New Zealand; Moscow and other locales. President Bush was at Camp David on Saturday. The White House issued a statement noting that Americans were free to protest but Iraqis are not. Erin Madigan contributed to this story as a special correspondent.

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