Hundreds of Thousands of Americans March Against War
By ReutersFiled at 5:02 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of Americans opposed to waging war in Iraq rallied on Saturday in several cities demanding the White House back down and give U.N. weapons inspectors a chance.
Thousands marched on Washington and San Francisco and at smaller protests in Chicago and Tampa, Florida, in what organizers said was the largest showing of U.S. anti-war sentiment since President Bush started making his case for attacking
Baghdad last year.In San Francisco, a group of nude women demanded that the Bush Administration restrain what they called its ``naked aggression'' toward Iraq. In Washington, one placard read ``Regime Change Starts At Home.''
``The path this administration is on is wrong and we object. It is an immoral war they are planning and we must not be silenced,'' said U.S. actress Jessica Lange, addressing a huge crowd on the national Mall in the center of Washington.
``All this talk of war, all this rhetoric has been an excellent cover, an excellent camouflage, to turn back the clock on civil rights, on woman's rights, on social justice and on environmental policies,'' she said.
Protesters arrived by bus from California, Colorado, Maine Minnesota and other states and gathered on the Mall in 20 degree F (minus 6 Celsius) temperatures. Many were middle aged and said they had also demonstrated against the Vietnam
war.``It's really important for us to show Europe and the rest of the world that we oppose this so they have the courage to say 'No,''' said May Paddock, 60, of Copake, New York.
Protesters said the recent deployment of U.S. troops to the Gulf, and widespread speculation that a Jan. 27 report by U.N. arms inspectors could serve as a trigger for war, had lit a fire under the American peace movement.
Tens of thousands of demonstrators in Europe, the Middle East and Asia also denounced U.S. war plans, where they beat drums, raised home-made placards and chanted slogans even as U.S. troops streamed to the Gulf and Iraqi President Saddam
Hussein vowed to repel the invaders.'NO BLOOD FOR OIL'
In Washington, protesters pleaded for the White House to let inspections run their course and said containment of Saddam is otherwise working. Some held homemade placards reading ``No Blood for Oil'' and ``Would Jesus Bomb Them?,'' waving
them against the clear blue skies.``Bush is counting on the fact that the American people have been lulled into complacency by prosperity,'' said Kevin Lynch, one of 180 people from the Catholic Church of St. Joan of Arc in Minneapolis. ``He thinks middle-aged white guys like me are his bedrock supporters, and we're not.''
Several dozen war veterans held a counter-demonstration, billed as a ``Patriot's Rally'' in support of U.S. troops, near the Vietnam War memorial on the Mall.
``You were born to reclaim this country. You were born to take this country back,'' Vietnam War veteran and ``Born on the Fourth of July'' author Ron Kovic told the main peace rally. ``You will not only stop the war, but you will change the priorities of this nation and return it to the people.''
Protesters later marched to a downtown Navy base to demand the right to inspect U.S. weapons of mass destruction.
Rally organizers claimed attendance of up to 500,000 but there were no official figures, with the police having adopted a policy of not estimating the size of Washington rallies.
In San Francisco a patchwork of environmentalists, labor activists, Hollywood celebrities, veterans and self-described anarchists gathered to oppose an attack on Iraq.
One placard read ``If War is inevitable ... Start Drafting SUV Drivers Now,'' a reference to gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles and the opinion of many protesters the conflict is over Iraq's oil resources.
Organizers estimated a turnout of up to 50,000 people, though that number could not be independently verified.
Though U.S. opinion polls have shown broad support for ousting Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, a Newsweek survey released on Saturday found 60 percent of Americans want to take more time to explore nonmilitary solutions.
A TIME/CNN poll also found 49 percent of respondents thought Bush was doing a good job handling the Iraq situation, while 44 percent thought he was doing a poor job.
On Thursday, United Nations weapons inspectors found empty rocket warheads designed to carry chemical warfare agents, a discovery the White House called ``troubling and serious'' and evidence Saddam was not disarming.
Angry Protestors From Asia to the Americas Stage Mass Rallies
Agence France-PresseSunday January 19, 06:16 AM
Angry protestors from Asia to the Americas staged mass rallies to demonstrate against war in Iraq, in a direct challenge to a US-led assault on Baghdad that many fear is drawing near.
Demonstrations were at full throttle in Japan and the Middle East, and others were launched in European capitals from Moscow to Paris, ahead of peace protests planned in several US cities and in Latin American countries.
Rallies in Britain, Germany, Ireland, Italy and Spain were expected to draw thousands more to protest US President George W. Bush's threats to go to war against Baghdad and Washington's ramped-up war preparations.
In London, where British Prime Minister Tony Blair has offered Europe's strongest support for Bush's stance on Iraq,
hundreds gathered near Northwood, the permanent joint headquarters of the British armed forces.Candlelit vigils were to be held later in the day in Birmingham, Nottingham and in London's Trafalgar Square.
In Paris, an anti-war rally drew 6,000 people, according to police, as a range of left-wing activists demanded that Washington lay aside its war plans. Organizers said 20,000 people marched through the French capital.
"Obviously (Iraqi President) Saddam Hussein is a dictator. But if we attacked all non-democratic regimes, there would be few peaceful countries left," said a woman attending her first protest.
Another 10,000 people rallied in France's southern city of Marseille, according to organisers, crying "Bush, Blair, Chirac, we don't want your dirty war!" Police put protester numbers at 5,000.
Laura Nelson, a 43-year-old American who with her 18-year-old son joined in, said: "We are protesting Bush's policies that favor the richest and the oil companies."
Peace protests were planned in some 40 other French cities.
In Germany, two demonstrations -- in the northeastern port city of Rostock and in the southwestern university town of Tuebingen -- brought thousands out in support of peace.
In the Irish republic, around 1,500 activists gathered outside the Shannon airport to protest the possible refuelling there of Gulf-bound US warplanes in the event of war, police said.
Sweden, too, saw up to 5,000 demonstrators march through the southwestern city of Gothenburg, Swedish news agency TT reported.
Meanwhile, several hundred Russian Communists wielding banners of Lenin and Stalin rallied to revolutionary songs outside the US embassy.
Waving crimson banners, the militants denounced the United States as a "terrorist" and "world policeman", comparing Bush to Hitler.
Austrians got an early start in Vienna late Friday with 1,000 mostly students and school children burning a US flag and chanting "Stop the War".
In Japan, rally organizers from World Peace Now said up to 5,000 protestors had marched through Tokyo's glitzy shopping district Ginza.
"I hope that president Bush, who is acting like a cowboy, will recognize that an era of western films is over," said Tomoharu Yamauchi, a 45-year-old coffee shop owner.
David Loy, an American teaching in Japan, carried a banner which read: "Today, I am ashamed to be a US citizen".
Near the Pakistani capital, a human chain of more than 1,000 people -- including hundred schoolchildren -- wove through the streets of Rawalpindi in a collective call for peace.
Children carried paper doves symbolizing the call for peace, while other held banners saying: "American imperialism is brutal
and mad" and "US has the maximum weapons of mass destruction."Massive rallies were staged throughout the Middle East, including a march through the Syrian capital that brought 15,000 people into the streets.
Shouting "Down with the United States!" the Damascus marchers carried banners reading: "Iraq: a history and a civilization, not an oil well."
In neighboring Lebanon, more than 8,000 protestors marched to UN offices in central Beirut in the largest anti-war rally
held in support of Iraq in the past year.Visiting British left-wing MP George Galloway took part in the protest, which gathered MPs as well as several secular and nationalist Lebanese and Palestinian leaders.
"From Ramallah to Baghdad, one people that will never die!" was among the more popular chants.
A protest in Cairo had a more modest turnout, with only 300 people assembling in the central Sayeda Zeynad Square, as a heavy police presence prevented others from joining in.
US anti-war protests were planned for Washington and San Francisco and other cities, synchronized with the rallies in a total of 18 countries, including Argentina and Mexico.
Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer said Friday the US president was happy to allow the US rallies, since they are a sign of the "strength of our democracy."
Saddam is accused by Washington and London of harboring and developing weapons of mass destruction, and of not cooperating with UN weapons inspectors who are carrying out searches in Iraq.
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