Tens
Of Thousands Rally
Around World Against Iraq War
by
Mark Wilkinson, October 26, 2002
WASHINGTON
(Reuters) - Tens of thousands of anti-war protesters marched
peacefully on the White House on Saturday to express opposition
to a possible U.S. attack on Iraq, some chanting slogans accusing
President Bush of planning genocide.
Thousands
more people took part in anti-war demonstrations in San Francisco,
Berlin, Amsterdam and other cities.
"This
is going to be an ugly, unnecessary fight. Most of the world
is saying 'no' to it," civil rights leader the Rev. Jesse
Jackson told the crowd at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington.
"Pre-emptive, one-bullet diplomacy, we cannot resort to
that."
In
Washington, actress Susan Sarandon, who supports numerous liberal
causes, accused Bush of having "hijacked our losses and
our fears." Sarandon said terrorism could not be fought
with violence and that most Americans did not want a conflict.
"Let
us resist this war," Sarandon told the cheering crowd.
"Let us hate war in all its forms, whether the weapon used
is a missile or an airplane."
Demonstrators
of all ages, many religions and many nationalities gathered
at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial before marching behind Jackson
to the White House. Bush, however, was in Mexico for a summit
of Pacific Rim leaders.
The
protesters brandished signs reading: "No Proof, No War,"
"Bush Sucks" and "Pre-emptive Impeachment."
Some protesters carried Iraqi flags. "No war, no way,"
shouted a protester wearing a mask of Bush with horns and a
pitchfork.
"George
Bush, you can't hide. We charge you with genocide!" chanted
the demonstrators, who were escorted by mounted U.S. Park Police
and watched by 600 police officers along the route in the heart
of the nation's capital.
Bush
has made "regime change" in Iraq -- ousting President
Saddam Hussein -- a policy of his administration. Bush has said
that if the United Nations fails to compel Iraq to give up any
weapons of mass destruction -- chemical, biological or nuclear
arms -- it possesses, the United States would do so by force
if necessary. Congress has given Bush the authorization he sought
to carry out a possible attack.
Police
did not give an official estimate of the size of the crowd in
Washington, which numbered in the tens of thousands.
42,000
PROTEST IN SAN FRANCISCO
In
San Francisco, known for its liberal politics and history of
activism, a crowd that police estimated at about 42,000 marched
near the city's historic Ferry Building to its Civic Center.
A
group of about 20 children led the parade as protesters carried
signs bearing pictures of Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld beneath the words "weapons
of mass destruction." Other signs read: "No blood
for oil" and "Regime change begins at home. Vote on
Nov. 5," referring to the U.S. congressional elections.
In
Germany, demonstrations were staged in about 70 towns and cities.
The largest was in Berlin, where almost 10,000 people marched.
In Amsterdam, some 4,000 people rallied in heavy rain to protest
against U.S. policy.
In
Washington, protesters called on Bush to spend the tens of billions
of dollars that a war against Iraq could cost on social programs
in the United States. They also argued that sanctions imposed
on Iraq after its invasion of Kuwait in 1990 and the 1991 Gulf
War should be lifted, blaming them for the deaths of hundreds
of thousands of Iraqi civilians.
Mahdi
Bray of the Muslim American Society's Freedom Foundation said
the situation in Iraq "is the result of inhumane and incompetent
policies implemented by people with the desire to rule with
an iron fist, by people who don't know what it means to live
in constant fear and hunger and cold."
"This
is a silent weapon of mass destruction," Bray added.
About
500 Iraqi exiles came to Washington to show support for efforts
to remove Saddam from power.
Tamir
Musa, an Iraqi who has lived in Michigan for 10 years, said,
"The war is good if it goes to kill Saddam Hussein. He
has a lot of bombs. He's terrorist number one."
"If
violence fixed the problem, then Israel should be at peace,"
countered Rick Blumhorst of Kansas, a U.S. Gulf War veteran
wearing his Army dress uniform. "Acting unilaterally, we're
going to inflame the Muslim community."
Source:
http://reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=politicsnews&Story
ID=1637906
http://www.VoteNoWar.org
In
the biggest anti-war demonstrations since the Vietnam War, hundreds
of thousands of people on October 26th took to the streets across
the country announcing with a massive visible and vocal presence
the creation of a new anti-war movement to stop George W. Bush's
plans to wage war against Iraq. The demonstrators included a
vast number of people compelled to action because they were
frustrated and angered when the Congress failed to listen to
the people's opposition to a war on Iraq.
More
than 200,000 people marched in the streets of Washington, D.C.
and over 100,000 in San Francisco in addition to tens of thousands
in other cities around the country. In Washington, D.C., the
march was so vast that as the front of the march completed encircling
the White House it met the last quarter of the march that had
not even begun moving up towards the White House, and was forced
to stop for a half an hour to allow the last portion of the
march to proceed before the front could continue along the route
back towards the rally site. People filled Washington's wide
boulevards and sidewalks shoulder to shoulder for 25 city blocks,
over two miles.
The
October 26 demonstrations launched another major step in mass
action against the war -- the grassroots People's Anti-War Referendum
and a mass national 2-day mobilization on the weekend of January
18-19 in Washington, DC, timed to coincide with the birthday
of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the 12th anniversary of the
start of the 1991 Gulf War. To VOTE NO TO WAR, go to:
http://www.votenowar.org/referendum.html
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