- WASHINGTON (Reuters) -
Thousands
of protesters peacefully flooded the streets of the nation's capital on
Saturday to call for peace, as President Bush moved forward with plans
for a military strike against those responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks
on the United States.
-
- Chanting ``war is not the answer,'' an estimated 10,000
demonstrators assembled peacefully only blocks from the White House. Their
voices rose in opposition to the ``war on terrorism'' that the Bush
administration
declared on Saudi-born militants including Saudi-born Osama bin Laden,
the chief suspect in the attacks, which left 6,500 dead or missing.
-
- ``War is not the answer because the events on Sept. 11
were not the first battle in the war. This has been an escalating cycle
of violence,'' Brian Becker, one of the protest organizers, told
Reuters.
-
- ``The U.S. has tens of thousands of troops in the Middle
East. They occupy Saudi Arabia, they bomb Iraq every week, they impose
economic sanctions in Iraq so dreadfully that the (United Nations) say
1.5 million Iraqi people have died,'' he added.
-
- Many of the protesters traveled from across the country
to join the rally. James Creedon, a rescue worker in New York City, left
the rubble of Ground Zero, where the World Trade Center once stood as a
symbol of America's economic might, to join the medical teams at the
protests.
-
- NO WORLD TRADE CENTERS
-
- ``Like the people here I want justice done, but I don't
want to see the destruction of more innocent lives,'' Creedon told Reuters.
``Many people at Ground Zero want international justice, but we don't want
to see a hundred or a thousand more World Trade Centers in this country
or abroad.''
-
- As hundreds of police officers in riot gear looked on,
protesters of all ages, races and movements carried banners bearing
messages
that revenge would benefit nobody. ``Eye for an eye and we're all blind,''
one banner read. ``Violence does not solve violence,'' said another.
-
- Although recent polls showed an overwhelming majority
of the American people support some form of military action, Becker said
the protesters represented a broad spectrum of the U.S. population.
-
- ``It is the rainbow, it is what America looks like right
now,'' Becker said. ``The administration is unfortunately believing its
own propaganda and its own polls.''
-
- Protesters also demonstrated against the hundreds of
attacks on Arab Americans and Muslims carried out since the attacks across
the country.
-
- PATRIOTS AMONG PROTESTERS
-
- Between the demonstrators' chants and drum beats rose
some voices of support for the Bush administration and a forceful response
to the attacks that have stirred emotions across the world.
-
- ``This isn't about racism, this is about exacting justice
for 6,500 Americans and people from more than 70 countries around the world
were murdered, murdered, mass murdered,'' said Carter Wood, a government
employee who called the demonstrators ''the hard-core anti-American
left.''
-
- ``America mass murders every single day,'' interjected
a masked protester angered by Wood's remarks.
-
- On Pennsylvania Avenue, one man walked swiftly past the
protesters, brandishing a sign that read ``Nuke them, and there will be
no war.''
-
- Others, like Bill Fredericks, brandished signs reading
``God Bless America,'' and said those responsible for the attacks were
in a war against America because of what the nation represents.
-
- ``The people in the Middle East want to kill us no matter
what we say or do, just because we are Americans,'' Fredericks, an office
worker for telephone company, told Reuters.
-
- Further away, anti-war protesters set an American flag
aflame. A young man grabbed the burning cloth and put the flames out,
screaming,
``Don't burn my flag -- ever.''
-
-
-
- MainPage
http://www.rense.com
-
-
-
- This
Site Served by TheHostPros
|