Activists hold candles in front of the White House as
they take part in an anti-war procession, 16 March 2007, in Washington,
DC. Ten of thousands of protesters marched in Washington against the Iraq
war Saturday, taking their message on placards, "US out of Iraq now," to
the Pentagon's doorstep ahead of the fourth anniversary of the U.S.
invasion. (Xinhua/AFP photo, More photos of protests against Iraq
war)
WASHINGTON,
March 17 (Xinhua) -- Thousands of protesters marched from Washington D.C. to the
steps of Pentagon on the other side of the Potomac River Saturday, to mark the
4th anniversary of the Iraq war, which falls on March 20.
Protesters were carrying such signs that read "U.S.
Out of Iraq Now" and "Stop Iraq War, No Iran War, Impeach," "Bring Our
TroopsHome", "Stop Occupation in Iraq" and so on.
Some demonstrators were dressed like Guantanamo
prisoners while a father whose son was killed in Iraq, drove his pick-up car
with a coffin on the top of it.
Williams Tucker, a Vietnam War veteran from Kentucky,
said politicians should bring U.S. forces home immediately instead of "playing
politics with the troops."
"We should stop occupation of Iraq, and bringing
peace back to the Middle East," he said.
Vivian Hampson, a grandmother from Pittsburgh, Penn.,
said Iraq war is a huge mistake and won't make the country safer as the Bush
administration claimed.
"What they really want is to occupy the Middle East
and control the oil resource. But we must not let them waste American money and
lives on such a wrong cause," she said.
Organizers of the event draws parallel between the
event with the historical march on the Pentagon against the Vietnam War in
October 1967, which marked a tipping point for the anti-war movement to go
mainstream.
Saturday's march began near the Vietnam War Memorial,
just a few blocks away from the White House, and proceeded across the Potomac
River toward the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia.
It was not immediately clear exactly how many
protestors showed up for the march on the chilly but sunny afternoon, but they
began moving over the Memorial Bridge on the Potomac River at about 1 p.m. and
were done about an hour later.
There were no official estimates of the number of
participants,but some news reports put the number at about 10,000 to 20,000.
The organizers of the march -- led by the anti-war
group network A.N.S.W.E.R.( Coalition, for Act Now to Stop War and End Racism)
-- appeared to set their sites on a range of sweeping goals, from the
impeachment of U.S. President George W. Bush to the end of the Israeli
occupation of Palestine.
After demonstrators arrived in the north side of the
Pentagon, Cindy Sheehan, the "anti-war mom" who made headlines camping outside
the Bush's Texas ranch after her son was killed in Iraq, took the stage and
delivered a speech, calling for "stopping the war machine".
Anita Dennis, whose son refused the military's call
to go to Iraq again, said people should support such resistance to "save lives."
Michael Berg, whose son died in Iraq, urged the
lawmakers to stop funding the war and "impeach Bush."
On Friday night, a coalition of Christian groups led
several thousand marchers in a procession from the National Cathedral. Dozens
were arrested praying in front of the White House.
Outside Washington D.C., similar anti-war
demonstrations were also held across the U.S. and around the world in the days
ahead of next Tuesday's Iraq war anniversary.
Anti-war rallies were planned for New York, Los
Angeles, Denver, Chicago, Oklahoma City, Hartford, Conn., and Lincoln, Neb.
Around the globe, about 1,000 people protested in
Athens, Greece, while more than 3,000 gathered for peaceful protests in
Istanbul, Turkey. Others gathered in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia.
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