March 17 anti-war demonstration at the Pentagon. The protest marked the fourth anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq.
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos.
Thousands at Pentagon: 'US Out of Iraq Now'
AFP
Tens of thousands of protesters marched to the Pentagon's doorstep Saturday demanding "US out of Iraq Now," ahead of the fourth anniversary of the US invasion.
Demonstrators from across the United States gathered in a cold winter day to descend on the US Defense Department offices and decry the conflict that has killed more than 3,200 US soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians.
Former US attorney general Ramsey Clark called for President George W. Bush's impeachment, while Cindy Sheehan, who lost a son in Iraq, demanded a US withdrawal.
"I marched in 1967 here," Maureen Dooley, 59, said outside the Pentagon, site of Vietnam war protests, but results were not immediate: "It took seven years to end the war."
War opponents trickled into Washington for the rally organized by the peace group ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War & End Racism) as Vietnam war veterans wearing black leather jackets gathered nearby for a counter-demonstration.
Some war supporters confronted the peace activists, tearing up and spitting on anti-war signs while chanting: "USA! USA!"
Washington police do not give crowd estimates, but an AFP correspondent said tens of thousands of people could be seen at the march.
War opponents have organized a series of protests against the conflict that started March 20, 2003.
In Los Angeles, several thousand demonstrators took to the streets. Organizers of the rally in Hollywood estimated its size at "tens of thousands," while the Los Angeles Police Department said the figure was in the 5,000-6,000 range.
Protestors blew whistles and carried placards bearing slogans critical of Bush, such as "Worst President Ever" and "It's time for regime change in Washington."
A smattering of celebrities were also marching in the crowd, organizers said, including veteran actor and peace activist Martin Sheen and actress Maria Bello, the star of "Thank you for Smoking" and "A History of Violence."
Ian Thompson, of ANSWER, said the protest was the biggest in Los Angeles since 2005. "People have had enough and this is their way of showing it," Thompson told AFP.
"This government needs to start listening to what the people want. And most people don't want us to be fighting war in Iraq," Thompson added.
In European cities, protest turnout ranged from 6,000 in Istanbul to several hundred in Copenhagen, Prague, Athens and Thessaloniki in Greece.
Alan Pugh, 27, a computer student from Ohio, said he hoped the Washington protest would have the same impact as the mass demonstrations denouncing the Vietnam war decades ago.
"This is the 40th anniversary of the Vietnam protest that changed the direction and we hope we can do the same thing today," he said.
Late Friday, about 100 people were arrested as they held a vigil on a sidewalk in front of the White House and ignored police orders to disperse in a protest organized by Christian Peace Witness for Iraq.
United for Peace and Justice, which describes itself as the largest anti-war coalition in the United States, said it expected thousands of people to turn up at a protest in New York on Sunday.
"The national anti-war movement is planning a unified surge of protest actions calling on Congress to end the occupation and for the immediate withdrawal of US troops," the group said in a statement.
The leftist group MoveOn.org was also organizing candlelight vigils for Monday in Washington and across the country, spokesman Steve Hoffman said.
The war has grown increasingly unpopular, with recent polls showing that a majority of Americans now say the invasion was a mistake and want the US government to set a timetable for the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq.
Peace activists want the US Congress, secured by the Democrats in November elections that were marked by voter anger at the war, to push hard for the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq.
But Democrats have so far failed to pass legislation that would compel Bush to change course in Iraq.
Democrats failed to pass in the Senate a plan to withdraw US troops by March 2008, although a measure calling for a pullout by September 2008 passed a key panel in the House of Representatives on Thursday.
Thousands march to protest Iraq war
Sat Mar 17, 2007 10:32PM EDT
By Caren Bohan
ARLINGTON, Virginia (Reuters) - Thousands of anti-war demonstrators, some carrying yellow and black signs reading "U.S. out of Iraq now!" marched on the Pentagon on Saturday, one of several protests worldwide to mark four years of war.
The march, on a cold, cloudy and windy St. Patrick's Day, comes just before the fourth anniversary of the start of the Iraq war on Tuesday and 40 years after a similar protest at the Pentagon over the Vietnam War.
On a stage in the Pentagon parking lot, speaker after speaker demanded the end of the war in Iraq and some called for President George W. Bush's impeachment. A flag-draped coffin was displayed near the stage bearing a picture of a young soldier killed in Iraq.
"We're here in the shadow of the war machine," peace activist Cindy Sheehan said. "We need to shut it down."
Wearing a black ski cap, Sheehan said soldiers like her son, Casey, who was killed in Iraq, were being sent "to die for nothing."
A woman for the group that organized the protest told the cheering crowd, "Impeach Bush, impeach Cheney, impeach Gates." The latter references were to Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
Jonathan Hutto, a 29-year-old active-duty sailor who served in Iraq, urged the demonstrators to tell lawmakers "to get a backbone and spine" and stop the war.
The march began near the Vietnam War Memorial, just a few blocks from the White House, and proceeded across the Potomac River toward the Pentagon.
A smaller group of war supporters held a counter-demonstration with signs that said: "Win the war or lose to jihad," "Our troops are shedding their blood to keep terrorists from America," and "St. Patrick: Drive the Democrats from our land."
One of the supporters, Vietnam War veteran David Warne, 57, said, "What you need to have is the military fight a war, not a bunch of politicians," referring to efforts by Democrats in Congress to limit the war.
"JAIL TO THE CHIEF"
In the anti-war protest, one sign near the front read, "The worst tyrants ever: Napoleon, Hitler and Bush." Others read, "Jail to the chief" and "Impeach Bush for war crimes." Many protesters chanted "Troops out now."'
Frustration over the Iraq war cost Bush's Republicans control of Congress in elections last year and is the main reason his poll numbers are stuck near 30 percent, the lowest of his presidency.
Bush also faces other problems, including complaints of poor health care for U.S. veterans, the perjury conviction of a former top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney and an uproar over the firing of U.S. prosecutors that has prompted calls for the ouster of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
Bush announced in January he was sending 21,500 additional troops to Iraq, further stoking anger over the war. The number of extra troops being sent has climbed to around 30,000 with the addition of support troops. His plan aims to quell violence in Baghdad and the western province of Anbar.
The march marked the latest protest in Washington against the war in which more than 3,200 U.S. troops have died.
Police in Los Angeles said 5,000 to 6,000 protesters turned out for an anti-war rally there. In downtown Hollywood, many protesters carried signs in Spanish and there were at least 12 fake coffins covered with the American flag.
One sign read "Iraq is Bush's Vietnam" and another read, "Bush lies, soldiers die." People chanted "Bring the troops home now" and "No more war."
Other demonstrations were planned for Austin, Texas, San Francisco and Seattle. Protests were also staged or planned in Australia, Britain, and Canada.
Democrats in Congress are wrestling with legislation to set deadlines on the U.S. military presence in Iraq. A proposal to be debated soon in the House of Representatives would tie approval of $124 billion in emergency war funds to a troop pullout by September 2008.
Warning that a U.S. withdrawal would worsen the violence in Iraq, Bush has labeled such proposals an attempt by lawmakers to "micromanage" the war and has threatened a veto.
"The consequences of imposing such an artificial timetable would be disastrous," Bush said in his weekly radio address on Saturday.
(Additional reporting by Nichola Groom in Los Angeles and James Vicini in Washington)
Protesters march against Iraq war
Thousands of demonstrators have been holding anti-war rallies as the anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq nears.
In Washington, thousands braved cold temperatures to march to the Pentagon carrying placards denouncing the war.
Tuesday marks four years since the war began. Tens of thousands of Iraqis have died as well as some 3,200 US troops.
Protests took place in other US cities including Los Angeles, in European capitals and in Australia.
'Shadow of death'
US anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan, whose soldier son died in Iraq, said those marching were walking "in the shadow of the war machine".
"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," she said.
Many carried black and yellow signs urging the US to leave Iraq as they made their way across the Potomac River from the Lincoln Memorial.
Organisers said freezing temperatures had probably discouraged some from taking part in the march which followed the same path as a key rally against the Vietnam War in 1967.
Several thousand others, many members of the armed services, gathered in counter rallies in support of the war, playing the Battle Hymn of the Republic.
In Los Angeles, police estimated that up to 6,000 people demonstrated in anti-war rallies which included flag-draped coffins being carried through the streets of Hollywood.
Europe-wide protests
Spain's protests were the largest in Europe, with some estimates putting the number of people taking part at 100,000.
In the capital, Madrid, protesters waved placards denouncing US President George W Bush and former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar for "war crimes".
Film director Pedro Almodovar was among those who took part.
He said he was present to protest against "the barbarities they have been committing in Iraq for the past four years".
In the Turkish city of Istanbul, more than 3,000 took part in protests, carrying signs reading "Bush go home" and "We are all Iraqis".
Hundreds also gathered to voice their opposition to the Iraq war in the Spanish cities of Seville, Cadiz and Granada as well as the European capital cities of Athens, Copenhagen and Rome.
In Australia, small demonstrations were held in both Sydney and Melbourne.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/6462627.stm
Published: 2007/03/17 22:34:21 GMT
Thousands in U.S., abroad speak out on war
Counterdemonstrators rip up protester's peace sign
Cindy Sheehan likens Pentagon to movie's 'Death Star'
Rally in Washington and Virginia ends after three hours
Thousands also protest in other cities, countries as war enters 5th year
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Thousands of anti-war demonstrators and supporters of the U.S. policy in Iraq shouted at each other Saturday from opposite sides of a street bordering the National Mall as protesters formed a march to the Pentagon to denounce a war entering its fifth year.
The anti-war group carried signs saying "U.S. Out of Iraq Now," "Stop Iraq War, No Iran War, Impeach" and "Illegal Combat." The other side carried signs saying "Peace Through Strength," "al Qaeda Appeasers On Parade" and "We Are At War, Liberals Root For the Enemy."
Police on horseback and foot separated the demonstrators, who were on opposite sides of Constitution Avenue in view of the Lincoln Memorial. Barriers also kept them apart.
But war protester Susanne Shine of Boone, North Carolina, found herself in a crowd of counterdemonstrators. She came out in tears, with her sign in shreds.
"They ripped up my peace sign," she said.
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, whose soldier son was killed in Iraq.
"It's like being in the shadow of the Death Star," she said, referring to the planet-sized warship in the movie "Star Wars." "They take their death and destruction and they export it around the world. We need to shut it down."
Speakers blamed congressional Democrats, too, for refusing to cut off money for the war.
"This is a bipartisan war," New York City labor 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.
An hour into the three-hour rally, with the temperature near freezing, fewer than 1,000 protesters were left.
Police reported no arrests Saturday, after more than 200 Friday night.
People traveled from afar in stormy weather to join the march.
"Too many people have died and it doesn't solve anything," said Ann Bonner, who drove through snow with her husband, Tom O'Grady, and two children, 13 and 10, from Athens, Ohio. "I feel bad carrying out my daily activities while people are suffering, Americans and Iraqis."
Veteran says he's conflicted
Saturday's march was the main event in anti-war demonstrations around the country.
Rallies also took place in Los Angeles, California; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Hartford, Connecticut; Lincoln, Nebraska; and other cities.
In Los Angeles, Vietnam veteran Ed Ellis, 59, hoped the demonstrations would be the "tipping point" against the war.
"It's all moving in our direction, it's happening," he said. "The administration, their get-out-of-jail-free card, they don't get one anymore."
In Washington, war supporters played "The Battle Hymn of the Republic"; the anti-war crowd danced to Stevie Wonder's "Superstition." (See the results of CNN's latest poll on whether Americans think the war is worth it)
Veterans, some from the Rolling Thunder motorcycle group, lined up at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
"I'm not sure I'm in support of the war," said William "Skip" Publicover of Charleston, South Carolina, who was a swift boat gunner in Vietnam and lost two friends whose names are etched on the memorial's wall.
"I learned in Vietnam that it's difficult if not impossible to win the hearts and minds of the people."
Retired Marine Jeff Carroll, 47, an electrician in Milton, Delaware, 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 United States should be focusing on Afghanistan and Osama bin Laden instead of Iraq.
"We're fighting the wrong country," he said.
But Larry Stimeling, 57, a Vietnam veteran from Morton, Illinois, said the loss of public support for the Iraq war mirrors what happened in Vietnam and leaves troops without the backing they need.
"We didn't lose the war in Vietnam, we lost it right here on this same ground," he said, pointing to the grass on the National Mall. "It's the same thing now."
Park Police Lt. Scott Fear said more than 200 people were arrested from a crowd of several thousand protesters who marched to the White House on Friday night after a peace service at the Washington National Cathedral. Full story
Overseas Saturday, at least 20,000 demonstrators rallied against the war in Madrid, Spain; more than 6,000 in Istanbul, Turkey; 1,000 in Athens, Greece; and several hundred in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/03/17/iraq.protest.ap/index.html
March 18, 2007
In March, Protesters Recall War Anniversaries
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK and SARAH ABRUZZESE
New York Times
WASHINGTON, March 17 — Thousands of demonstrators marched to the Pentagon on Saturday to mark both the fourth anniversary of the American invasion of Iraq and the 40th anniversary of the march along the same route to protest the Vietnam War.
The march coincided with other demonstrations in Washington, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and elsewhere in advance of the March 20 anniversary of the invasion. The liberal group MoveOn.org has held many small protest vigils around the country. And in Washington on Friday night a coalition of liberal Christian groups, including Sojourners/Call to Renewal, led several thousand people in a march that began with a service at the National Cathedral. More than 200 participants were arrested praying in front of the White House, the police said.
Saturday’s march was organized by the Answer Coalition — named for Act Now to Stop War and End Racism — an organization that was initially associated with the Workers World Party and now affiliated with a breakaway faction of that party called the Party for Socialism and Liberation.
The turnout for the march was much smaller than the crowd that gathered two months ago on the National Mall for a demonstration opposing President Bush’s plan to send more troops to Iraq. That event featured speeches by a members of Congress who opposed the war as well as a handful of Hollywood stars.
Judging by the speeches and placards, the marchers on Saturday set their sights on sweeping goals, including not only ending the war but also impeaching President Bush and ending the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Many carried Answer Coalition signs bearing the image of the Latin American revolutionary Che Guevara.
Brian Becker, the national coordinator of the Answer Coalition and a member of the Party of Socialism and Liberation, said the group held out little hope of influencing either the president or Congress. “It is about radicalizing people,” Mr. Becker said in an interview. “You hook into a movement that exists — in this case the antiwar movement — and channel people who care about that movement and bring them into political life, the life of political activism.”
In a speech before the march, Cindy Sheehan, who made headlines in 2005 camping outside the Mr. Bush’s Texas ranch after her son was killed in Iraq, called the president and his military advisers “war criminals.”
“We want the people in the White House out of our house and arrested for crimes against humanity,” Ms. Sheehan said.
As they gathered before the march, the protesters met what several veterans of the antiwar movement described as an unusually large contingent of several hundred counterdemonstrators. Many were veterans in biker jackets who said they had come to protect the nearby Vietnam Memorial, citing rumors that had circulated among veterans groups that the demonstrators planned to deface it.
Crossing the bridge toward the Pentagon, the marchers met another group of about 50 counterdemonstrators by the Arlington Cemetery, one holding a sign that said: “Go to hell traitors. You dishonor our dead on hallowed ground.”
Near the Pentagon, police officers in riot gear spread across the road, effectively blocking the demonstrators from approaching the building. Five people were arrested by the Pentagon Force Protection Agency for “failure to obey a lawful order,” said Cheryl Irwin, a Pentagon spokeswoman.
Many in the crowd said they were unfamiliar with the Answer Coalition and puzzled by the many signs about socialism. Several said they had come from across the country for a chance to voice their dismay at the war.
Alan Rainey, an adjunct professor and small publisher from West Lafayette, Ind., said he had not attended a protest since 1973, not long after he had returned from military duty in Vietnam. On Saturday, he carried a sign with green clover and a St. Patrick’s Day theme. “Help drive the snakes out of the White House,” it said, depicting snakes with the faces of Mr. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.
“This war is criminal,” Mr. Rainey said. “We impeached Clinton for a little indiscretion with an adult.”
Judy Creville, who came from Michigan, said she had opposed the war from the start but never attended a protest before. “They got on my last nerve,” Ms. Creville said. She came with two sisters from Michigan and Iowa, and all three wore pictures of their school-age grandchildren.
Zohrea Whitaker said she came from Sacramento for the protest. “I have a son serving over there, and I want him home,” Ms. Whitaker said.
War Protesters, Supporters Rally in D.C.
By LARRY MARGASAK and MATTHEW BARAKAT
The Associated Press
Saturday, March 17, 2007; 11:09 PM
WASHINGTON -- Denouncing a conflict entering its fifth year, protesters across the country 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 counterprotest was staged, too, on a day of dueling 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 held in other U.S. cities, stretching to Tuesday's four-year anniversary of the Iraq invasion. 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."
Other protests _ and counter-demonstrations _ were held in San Francisco, San Diego and Hartford, Conn., where more than 1,000 rallied at the Old State House.
Overseas, tens of thousands marched in Madrid as Spaniards called not only for the U.S. to get out of Iraq but to close the prison for terrorist suspects at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. Smaller protests were staged in Greece and Turkey.
Speakers at the Pentagon rally 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 labor activist Michael Letwin told the crowd. "The Democratic party cannot be trusted to end it."
Five people were arrested after the demonstration when they walked onto a bridge that had been closed off to accommodate the protest and then refused orders to leave so police could reopen it to traffic, Pentagon police spokeswoman Cheryl Irwin said. They were cited and released, she said.
President 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 traveled from afar in stormy weather to join the march.
"Too many people have died and it doesn't solve anything," said Ann Bonner, who drove through snow with her husband, Tom O'Grady, and two children, 13 and 10, from Athens, Ohio. "I feel bad carrying out my daily activities while people are suffering, Americans and Iraqis."
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.
But war protester Susanne Shine of Boone, N.C., found herself in a crowd of counterdemonstrators, and came out in tears, with her sign in shreds. "They ripped up my peace sign," she said, after police escorted her, her husband and two adult daughters from the group. "It was really pretty scary for me."
Protesters walked in a blustery, cold wind across the Potomac River with motorcycles clearing their way and police boats and helicopters watching.
Police no longer give official estimates but said privately that perhaps 10,000 to 20,000 anti-war demonstrators marched, with a smaller but still sizable number of counterprotesters also out in force. An hour into the three-hour Pentagon rally, with the temperature near freezing, protesters had peeled away to a point where fewer than 1,000 were left.
Protesters met at the starting point of the Oct. 21, 1967, march on the Pentagon, which began peacefully but turned ugly in clashes between authorities and more radical elements of the estimated crowd of 50,000 on the plaza in front of the Defense Department's headquarters. More than 600 were arrested that day.
That protest has lived on in the popular imagination because of the crowd's attempts to lift the Pentagon off the ground with their chants; they fell short of their fanciful goal.
Veterans lined up at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and waved U.S, POW-MIA and military-unit flags. Not all were committed to the U.S. course in Iraq, however.
"I'm not sure I'm in support of the war," said William "Skip" Publicover of Charleston, S.C., who was a swift boat gunner in Vietnam and lost two friends whose names are etched on the memorial's wall. "I learned in Vietnam that it's difficult if not impossible to win the hearts and minds of the people."
But Larry Stimeling, 57, a Vietnam veteran from Morton, Ill., said the loss of public support for the Iraq war mirrors what happened in Vietnam and leaves troops without the backing they need.
"We didn't lose the war in Vietnam, we lost it right here on this same ground," he said, pointing to the grass on the National Mall. "It's the same thing now."
In Sacramento, Calif., nearly 200 veterans and parents of troops gathered on the steps of the state Capitol to rally in support of U.S. troops in Iraq.
"This is not a war that can be fought under a white dome in Washington, D.C.," said Kevin Graves, whose son died in Iraq. "If politicians can't support the troops, they should go fight instead."
Opening weekend events, more than 200 were arrested in a demonstration late Friday in front of the White House and charged with disobeying a lawful order or crossing a police line.
Associated Press writers Ann Sanner and Cal Woodward contributed to this report.
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