- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Hundreds
of thousands of Americans opposed to waging war in Iraq rallied on Saturday
in several cities demanding the White House back down and give U.N. weapons
inspectors a chance.
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- Thousands marched on Washington and San Francisco and
at smaller protests in Chicago and Tampa, Florida, in what organizers said
was the largest showing of U.S. anti-war sentiment since President Bush
started making his case for attacking Baghdad last year.
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- In San Francisco, a group of nude women demanded that
the Bush Administration restrain what they called its "naked aggression"
toward Iraq. In Washington, one placard read "Regime Change Starts
At Home."
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- "The path this administration is on is wrong and
we object. It is an immoral war they are planning and we must not be silenced,"
said U.S. actress Jessica Lange, addressing a huge crowd on the national
Mall in the center of Washington.
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- "All this talk of war, all this rhetoric has been
an excellent cover, an excellent camouflage, to turn back the clock on
civil rights, on woman's rights, on social justice and on environmental
policies," she said.
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- Protesters arrived by bus from California, Colorado,
Maine Minnesota and other states and gathered on the Mall in 20 degree
F (minus 6 Celsius) temperatures. Many were middle aged and said they had
also demonstrated against the Vietnam war.
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- "It's really important for us to show Europe and
the rest of the world that we oppose this so they have the courage to say
'No,"' said May Paddock, 60, of Copake, New York.
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- Protesters said the recent deployment of U.S. troops
to the Gulf, and widespread speculation that a Jan. 27 report by U.N. arms
inspectors could serve as a trigger for war, had lit a fire under the American
peace movement.
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- Tens of thousands of demonstrators in Europe, the Middle
East and Asia also denounced U.S. war plans, where they beat drums, raised
home-made placards and chanted slogans even as U.S. troops streamed to
the Gulf and Iraqi President Saddam Hussein vowed to repel the invaders.
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- 'NO BLOOD FOR OIL'
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- In Washington, protesters pleaded for the White House
to let inspections run their course and said containment of Saddam is otherwise
working. Some held homemade placards reading "No Blood for Oil"
and "Would Jesus Bomb Them?," waving them against the clear blue
skies.
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- "Bush is counting on the fact that the American
people have been lulled into complacency by prosperity," said Kevin
Lynch, one of 180 people from the Catholic Church of St. Joan of Arc in
Minneapolis. "He thinks middle-aged white guys like me are his bedrock
supporters, and we're not."
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- Several dozen war veterans held a counter-demonstration,
billed as a "Patriot's Rally" in support of U.S. troops, near
the Vietnam War memorial on the Mall.
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- "You were born to reclaim this country. You were
born to take this country back," Vietnam War veteran and "Born
on the Fourth of July" author Ron Kovic told the main peace rally.
"You will not only stop the war, but you will change the priorities
of this nation and return it to the people."
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- Protesters later marched to a downtown Navy base to demand
the right to inspect U.S. weapons of mass destruction.
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- Rally organizers claimed attendance of up to 500,000
but there were no official figures, with the police having adopted a policy
of not estimating the size of Washington rallies.
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- In San Francisco a patchwork of environmentalists, labor
activists, Hollywood celebrities, veterans and self-described anarchists
gathered to oppose an attack on Iraq.
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- One placard read "If War is inevitable ... Start
Drafting SUV Drivers Now," a reference to gas-guzzling sport utility
vehicles and the opinion of many protesters the conflict is over Iraq's
oil resources.
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- Organizers estimated a turnout of up to 50,000 people,
though that number could not be independently verified.
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- Though U.S. opinion polls have shown broad support for
ousting Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, a Newsweek survey released on Saturday
found 60 percent of Americans want to take more time to explore nonmilitary
solutions.
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- A TIME/CNN poll also found 49 percent of respondents
thought Bush was doing a good job handling the Iraq situation, while 44
percent thought he was doing a poor job.
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- On Thursday, United Nations weapons inspectors found
empty rocket warheads designed to carry chemical warfare agents, a discovery
the White House called "troubling and serious" and evidence Saddam
was not disarming.
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