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 News from Around the Americas | March 2007 
Protests in US Seek End to Iraq War Four Years On
 Agence France-Presse
| | Anti-war protesters march across 42nd Street in New York City, 18 March 2007. Anti-war demonstrators readied for at least a thousand candlelight vigils around the United States on Monday, day four of protests demanding an end to the war in Iraq four years after it began. (AFP/Mario Tama) |
Anti-war demonstrators readied for at least a thousand candlelight vigils around the United States on Monday, day four of protests demanding an end to the war in Iraq four years after it began.
"We cannot send tens of thousands of exhausted, under-equipped and unprepared troops into the middle of an Iraqi civil war," left-leaning organizer MoveOn.org said in a statement, which claimed late Sunday that 1,100 vigils were planned around the country.
Thousands of anti-war protesters took to New York's streets Sunday, demanding US withdrawal of troops from Iraq, in a second day of national rallies marking the fourth anniversary of the war.
Organizers from the group United for Peace and Justice said between 25,000 and 30,000 people marched in the rally, which came a day after similar mass protests in Washington and Los Angeles. Police did not estimate the turnout.
A colorful mixture of students, cyclists, Vietnam war veterans and musicians marched through Midtown Manhattan, drumming and chanting slogans such as "Troops out now" and calling for President George W. Bush to be impeached.
Waving placards reading "Drop Bush, Not Bombs," and "Four Years Too Long," the crowds braved near-freezing temperatures as they marched under clear skies down streets lined with piles of snow.
"This is not a strange, lefty movement. This is the voice of the people," said actor Tim Robbins, a prominent and vocal critic of the Iraq war, who was among those leading the march.
"American people want this war to end, so when are we going to start listening to them?" he asked. "The main message is to stop this immoral war."
Conscientious objector Jose Vasquez, a US Army staff sergeant who refused to be deployed to Iraq, said he believed the anti-war movement was seeing renewed vigor with the weekend protests.
"If people are willing to listen to what the troops have to say, they'll find that the military itself is turning against the war, not unlike what happened during Vietnam," he said.
Besides groups as diverse as the Iraq Veterans Against The War and the Granny Peace Brigade, families of those killed in Iraq or those currently deployed there said it was time for the troops to come home.
"I want the war to stop, I want everyone to come home. I don't want to see people coming back hurt with brain injuries and missing limbs," said one woman who gave her name only as Michelle and whose brother was about to be deployed.
Along the route, the rally passed the offices of New York Senators Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer.
"We're telling our congressional representatives that the people want them to stand up to Bush," said Leslie Kielson, the New York coordinator for United for Peace and Justice.
"The troops must be brought home now, this war and occupation must end, and it must end now," she pleaded.
A demonstration was also held Sunday in San Francisco, where several thousand protesters carried anti-war banners and chanted slogans during a march to the city's Civic Center.
The New York and San Francisco rallies followed the arrests late Friday of about 100 people as they held a vigil outside the White House and ignored police orders to disperse in a protest organized by Christian Peace Witness for Iraq.
On Saturday, thousands marched on the Pentagon, the Defense Department's headquarters in Washington, demanding a US withdrawal.
Among those at the rally was former US attorney general Ramsey Clark, who called for Bush to be impeached over his handling of the war.
The march, organized by peace group ANSWER (Act Now To Stop War & End Racism), met a counter-demonstration by Vietnam war veterans.
Thousands of protesters also took to the streets in Los Angeles, blowing whistles and carrying placards bearing slogans critical of Bush, such as "Worst President Ever" and "It's time for regime change in Washington." |
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