Thousands Protest Against Iraq War

Demonstrations Across U.S., Around World Decry Prospect

msnbc.com

Oct. 26 — Tens of thousands of anti-war protesters circled the White House on Saturday after Jesse Jackson and other speakers denounced the Bush administration’s Iraq policies and demanded a revolt at the ballot box to promote peace, while thousands gathered in cities across Europe and elsewhere around the world to demand an end to threats of an “unjustified” war against Iraq.THE WASHINGTON protest coincided with anti-war demonstrations from Augusta, Maine, to San Francisco and abroad from Rome and Berlin to Tokyo to San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Mexico City. In Washington and many of the other demonstrations, protesters added complaints about U.S. policy toward the Palestinians.

“We must not be diverted. In two years we’ve lost 2 million jobs, unemployment is up, stock market down, poverty up,” Jackson told a spirited crowd in Washington. “It’s time for a change. It’s time to vote on Nov. 5 for hope. We need a regime change in this country.”

Congress has authorized the use of military force to achieve the administration policy of “regime change” in Iraq.

“If we launch a pre-emptive strike on Iraq, we lose all moral authority,” Jackson told the chanting, cheering throng spread out on green lawns near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

A sign showed Bush’s face at the end of two bright red bombs with the caption: “Drop Bush, not bombs.”

The protest brought out the elderly, young parents with babies in strollers, even a man dressed as Uncle Sam wearing dreadlocks and another Uncle Sam, on stilts, with an elongated Pinocchio nose.

Protest organizers claimed up to 200,000 people had answered the call to challenge President Bush’s determination to force out Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Because the U.S. Park Police no longer issue crowd estimates, the size of the crowd could not be verified. As the march began, participants stretched for at least five city blocks.

American peace activist Joe Quandt, center, from Albany, N.Y., holds a sign during a vigil protest in front of the Polish Embassy, which houses the U.S. interest section, in Baghdad on Satiurday. A group of mostly American activists opposing the Bush administration's policy towards Iraq held the vigil. At left is Suzan Mackley of Chicago, and second from left is Michael Birmingham of Dublin, Ireland.

On a nearby street corner, a handful of Iraqi-Americans staged a counterdemonstration. Aziz al-Taee, spokesman for the Iraqi-American Council, said, “I think America is doing just fine. ... We think every day Saddam stays in power, he kills more Iraqis.”

New Englanders ventured out in snow, sleet and rain to join demonstrations in Maine and Vermont. Across the nation a couple thousand showed up at the Colorado capitol in downtown Denver, and demonstrators marched in San Francisco.

The thousands who gathered in cities across Europe, Asia and beyond also displayed vocal opposition to the U.S. policy toward Iraq and demanded reversal of Bush’s Iraq policies.

In Berlin, crowds of people brandishing placards that declared “War on the imperialist war,” “Stop Bush’s campaign” and “No blood for oil,” along with a few Iraqi and Palestinian flags, converged on the downtown Alexanderplatz square and marched past the German Foreign Ministry.

Police estimated that as many as 8,000 people took part in damp, windy weather, while organizers put the number at 30,000. No trouble was reported.

Some 1,500 people turned out in Frankfurt and 500 more in Hamburg, according to police, while 1,500 rain-soaked demonstrators gathered under umbrellas outside the U.S. Embassy in Copenhagen, Denmark, and more than 1,000 hit the streets in Stockholm, Sweden.

Closely watched by police in anti-riot gear, a few thousand people marched in downtown Rome in a protest dominated by banners referring to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that also was attended by some opposition politicians.

“We’re aware that war and terrorism feed each other,” Paolo Cento, a lawmaker for the Greens party, said of his opposition to a war against Iraq.

In Baghdad itself, American anti-war activists protested in front of U.N. offices, urging the U.N. Security Council not to give Bush a blank check for war against Iraq. Six members of the Chicago-based Voices in the Wilderness raised banners including “Drop sanctions not bombs.”

In Tokyo, about 300 Japanese staged a “peace walk,” holding up placards urging governments to “stop the war before it starts.”

The United States, backed by Britain, wants tough new rules for U.N. weapons inspections and a declaration from the Security Council that Iraq faces “serious consequences” if it fails to comply.

However, Russia wants to stick as closely as possible to current inspection rules and eliminate any language allowing an attack on Baghdad. France also opposes any language possibly authorizing military action and wants to water down some U.S. inspection proposals.

“We say to President Bush: There is no reason for this war,” pacifist German lawmaker Hans-Christian Stroebele told the crowd in Berlin, drawing cheers as he added: “This war is unjustified.”

Saturday’s were the first major demonstrations in Germany in recent months against the prospect of military action against Iraq, which has been staunchly opposed by Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

“I expect the government at least to stick to that,” said Susanne Roessling, 41, an employee at a legal firm. “They should really exert pressure,” for instance by refusing to let U.S. planes attacking Iraq fly over Germany, she added.

Schroeder has argued that a strike against Baghdad could wreck the international anti-terror coalition and throw the Middle East into turmoil, and says Germany would not participate.

That stance is credited with helping Schroeder narrowly win re-election last month, and led to a cooling in relations between Berlin and Washington.

“It’s a tactical position that could change tomorrow,” 54-year-old peace activist Wolfgang Ratzel said at the Berlin protest. “I have no illusions about the effect” of the demonstration, he added.

“Saddam Hussein is one of the absolutely worst dictators in the world today ... but that doesn’t justify the USA’s war plans,” Gudrun Schyman, leader of Sweden’s former communist Left Party, told the crowd in Stockholm.

“You don’t disarm a regime by conducting an armed war.”