WASHINGTON, Jan 18: Thousands of protesters began their march in Washington on Saturday to complete a chain of protest sweeping across the world capitals against the Bush administration’s plan to declare war on Iraq.
Chilly winds brought down the temperature to minus 12 degree Celsius when protesters from outside Washington came out of their hideouts early Sunday morning to join the protest. Saturday night was, so far, the coldest this winter.
Braving freezing cold and chilly winds was a seven-year-old child holding a large placard that said: “We love you daddy.” His father is one of the thousands of US troops deployed in the Persian Gulf to fight the Iraqis.
With war on Iraq seeming so close, protesters from across the US converged on the country’s capital to display their rejection of the administration’s aggressive plans.
Several thousand people had already gathered outside Congress, with the plan to march to a nearby naval yard where they would demand that anti-war groups should also be allowed to inspect the empty shells the UN inspectors have reportedly discovered in Iraq.
UN inspectors say the shells were used for making chemical weapons but the protesters say they will not believe the UN until their own experts inspect the shells.
Several protesters were holding a placard that said: “No blood for oil,” rejecting the Bush administration’s claim that the offensive against Iraq was not for oil.
“Iraqi children need medicines, not bombs,” said yet another placard.
Mass rallies are also taking place around the world to oppose Washington’s war plans. Demonstrations in Washington were followed by protests in Japan, Pakistan, the Middle East, Russia and other European capitals.
Large rallies have also been planned in San Francisco and several other American cities but organizers say that the one in Washington, the seat of the Bush administration, is the largest, so far.
Despite the peace rallies, momentum towards war has been growing, with both the US and its main ally Britain sending tens of thousands of troops to the Gulf, and putting others on standby.
Organizers of the Washington rally say that they find the sight of departing ships discomforting. They fear that the Bush administration will use the recent discovery of empty shells in Iraq to order a military offensive against Iraq.
“The Bush administration seems to be on a relentless march toward war,” said Larry Holmes, a spokesman for International Answer, the group that organized the Washington rally. “It seems like it has a momentum and a sense of inevitability, and so we’re rushing against the clock,” he said.
“They are sending their troops to surround Iraq, we’re sending peace soldiers into the streets of Washington.”
PRE-EMPTIVE ANTI-WAR: Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, a Washington lawyer and protest organizer, said: “Bush has said he intends to launch a pre-emptive war, and now he’s facing the most formidable obstacle, which is a pre-emptive anti-war movement.”
“I hardly see a threat from Iraq,” said Rev. Graylan Hagler, pastor of Washington’s Plymouth Congregational Church. “The threat is the United States being a bully, the bully on the playground.”
Protest leaders in the US want to generate the kind of opposition that was expressed against the Vietnam War 30 years ago.
