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Thousands rally to demand an end to US
wars
AP, WASHINGTON
Monday, Mar 22, 2010, Page 1
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Protesters calling for an immediate end to the
wars in Iraq and Afghanistan march through the streets of Washington on
Saturday.
PHOTO: AFP
Thousands of protesters ¡X many directing their anger squarely at US President
Barack Obama ¡X marched through the US capital on Saturday to urge the immediate
withdrawal of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.
At least eight people, including activist Cindy Sheehan, were arrested by US
park police at the end of the march after laying coffins at a fence outside the
White House. Friday marked the seventh anniversary of the US-led invasion of
Iraq.
¡§Arrest that war criminal,¡¨ Sheehan shouted outside the White House before her
arrest, referring to Obama.
At a rally before the march, Sheehan asked whether ¡§the honeymoon was over with
that war criminal in the White House¡¨ ¡X an apparent reference to Obama ¡X
prompting moderate applause.
The protesters defied orders to clear the sidewalk on Pennsylvania Avenue in
front of the White House and park police said they face charges of failure to
obey a lawful order.
Activist Ralph Nader told thousands who gathered in Lafayette Park across from
the White House that Obama has essentially continued the policies of former US
president George W. Bush¡¦s administration and it was foolish to have thought
otherwise.
¡§He¡¦s kept Guantanamo open, he¡¦s continued to use indefinite detention,¡¨ Nader
said.
The only real difference, he said, is that ¡§Obama¡¦s speeches are better.¡¨
Others were more conciliatory toward Obama.
Shirley Allan carried a sign that read: ¡§President Obama. We love you, but we
need to tell you! Your hands are getting bloody!! Stop it now.¡¨
Allan thought it was going too far to call Obama a war criminal, but said she
was deeply disappointed that the conflicts were continuing.
Allan said: ¡§He has to know it¡¦s unacceptable. I am absolutely disappointed.¡¨
The protest organized by Act Now to Stop War and Racism or ANSWER drew a smaller
crowd than the tens of thousands who marched in 2006 and 2007. Protests in
cities around the country also had far fewer participants than in the past.
San Francisco¡¦s rally brought out Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the top-secret
Pentagon Papers study of the Vietnam War and is the subject of the recent
documentary film The Most Dangerous Man in America. He likened the protest and
others like it around the country on Saturday to a day of demonstrations
organized against the conflict in Vietnam in 1969.
¡§They thought it had no effect,¡¨ he told the crowd in San Francisco, referring
to the 1969 protesters. ¡§They were wrong.¡¨
Protesters in Washington stopped at the offices of military contractor
Halliburton ¡X where they tore apart an effigy of former US vice president and
Halliburton chief executive Dick Cheney ¡X the Mortgage Bankers Association and
the Washington Post offices.
Anna Berlinrut was one of a number of protesters who have children who have
served in Iraq and she said her son supported her protest.
¡§If there were a draft, we¡¦d have a million people out here,¡¨ Berlinrut said
when asked about the turnout.
The exact number of protesters was unclear, as Washington authorities do not
give out crowd estimates. Organizers estimated the march, which stretched for
several blocks, at 10,000.
Despite the arrests, the protest was peaceful. At the outset, police closed a
portion of the sidewalk in front of the White House fence after protesters tried
to use mud and large stencils to spell out ¡§Iraq veterans against the war.¡¨
Once the sidewalk was closed, the protesters stenciled the message on the street
using mud.
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