Home > Estimated a crowd of about 200,000. Antiwar Protests Commence in Washington

Estimated a crowd of about 200,000. Antiwar Protests Commence in Washington

by Open-Publishing - Sunday 25 September 2005
33 comments

Edito Demos-Actions Movement Wars and conflicts USA

By Miranda S. Spivack and Petula Dvorak

Thousands of protesters against the war in Iraq rallied today in Washington and other U.S. and European cities to demand the return of U.S. troops in what organizers hope will be the largest gathering since the war began more than two years ago.

Protest organizers estimated a crowd of about 200,000 rallied at the Ellipse, then marched around the White House and along Pennsylvania Avenue. Police downgraded the count to about 150,000. The crowd thinned when a misty drizzle began before the afternoon concert on the Washington Monument grounds.

D.C. police and U.S. Park Police said there were no significant problems during the demonstrations and reported three arrests — one for destruction of property, one for attempted theft, and one for disorderly conduct. Police said all three incidents stemmed from the tearing-down of a construction fence and the destruction of a newspaper box in the 1000 block of 11th Street NW.

Police said that some windows were broken at 13th Street, just south of L Street.

The antiwar activities occurred on the same weekend as the fall meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, which drew several hundred activists who criticized the organization’s policies as detrimental to the world’s poor.

Protesters came from around the country to the nation’s capital, arriving on buses, planes and in cars, carrying signs that read "Bush Lied, Thousands Died," and "End the Occupation," among other messages.

"We believe we are at a tipping point whereby the anti-war sentiment has now become the majority sentiment," said Brian Becker, national coordinator for ANSWER, one of the main antiwar groups coordinating today’s events.

Cindy Sheehan, the California mother who drew thousands of demonstrators to her 26-day vigil outside Bush’s Texas ranch last month, won a roar of approval when she took the stage before the march. Her 24-year-old son, Casey, was killed in Iraq last year.

"Shame on you," Sheehan admonished, directing that portion of her remarks to members of Congress who backed Bush on the war. "How many more of other people’s children are you willing to sacrifice?

She led the crowd in chanting, "Not one more."

President Bush was not around to hear the protesters, assembled just blocks from the White House, although his wife, Laura, was at home hosting authors for a long-planned literary festival on the Mall. Bush had flown out of town on Friday to assess Hurricane Rita recovery efforts. Vice President Cheney was undergoing surgery at George Washington University Hospital to repair aneurysms on the back of his knees.

The protest march, which launched from the Ellipse south of the White House, began shortly after 1 p.m. Protesters planned to cross in front of the White House, a few blocks north, and then traverse the city, finally ending where they began at the Ellipse.

Nearby, at the Washington Monument, an 11-hour concert, featuring folk singer Joan Baez, began in late afternoon.

In a hitch for some coming to the protest, 13 Amtrak trains running between New York and Washington were delayed for up to three hours Saturday morning for repair of overhead electrical lines. Protest organizers said that held up thousands coming to the rally.

Organizers delayed the start of the march, originally planned to begin at 12:30 p.m., to wait for protesters arriving on the Amtrak trains. There were other reports of Metro delays in northern Virginia on the Blue and Yellow lines.

Elsewhere, rallies were planned in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Florence, London, Rome, Paris and Madrid.

A crowd in London, estimated by police at 10,000, marched in support of withdrawing British troops from Iraq. Violent clashes between insurgents and British troops in the southern Iraq city of Basra in recent days highlighted the need to get out, protesters said.

"Enough is enough," said Lindsey German, an official of the Stop the War Coalition, which organized the London march. "It is now time, once again, for the British people to step forward into the streets and insist that this time we will not be ignored."

Counter demonstrations also were planned.

Gary Qualls, 48, of Temple, Tex., whose Marine reservist son, Louis, died last year in the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah, spoke at a rally near the U.S. Navy Memorial in support of continued U.S. involvement.

"If you bring them home now, who’s going to be responsible for all the atrocities that are fixing to happen over there?" he asked. "Cindy Sheehan?

Also at the rally, put on by Protest Warrior and other groups supporting Bush’s policy, demonstrators denounced Sheehan as a mother exploiting her son’s death.

"If I were to die in Iraq, I wouldn’t want my parents to be like Cindy Sheehan," said Army National Guard Spc. Julie McManus, 20, of Drexel Hill, Pa., who was among more than 100 people holding signs. "I’d be ashamed of them."

McManus said she drove to Washington with her boyfriend; she wore a white tank top with the words "American Soldier" in black marker.

Protesters were not the only visitors to the city this weekend. As fate would have it, organizers of the National Book Festival found themselves sharing the Mall with antiwar protesters. They stationed volunteers in green t-shirts at the top of the escalators at the Smithsonian metro station so that the thousands arriving would know which event was which.

Book lovers were told to go to the nearby white tent; antiwar demonstrators were told to head to the Washington Monument grounds.

That posed a problem for Martin Freed and his wife, Ruta Vaskys, from Fairbanks, Alaska, who are book lovers and antiwar protesters. In route to the rally, they stopped at the "Pavilion of States" tent to check out authors at the Alaska table.

Freed carried a protest sign. On one side it read, "Alaskans Against War." On the other side, it read "The War is 100 percent Bush-[expletive]."

He was immediately surrounded by the book lovers group, including a security guard.

"I object to your sign," said one. "You can’t have a sign here," said another. "Why don’t you go outside?"

A woman announced, "You’re crashing the wrong party."

Vaskys resisted leaving. "The war is a lot more offensive than the sign," she said. But the couple eventually left, with Freed calling over his shoulder: "This is the state the country has come to — you can’t even have free speech at a book festival. In the early afternoon, a convoy of about 200 motorcyclists made a full lap around the outer loop of the Beltway to show support for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The ride, first organized in April by John "Big John" Oppido of Marbury, Md., was not politically motivated or planned to coincide with the protest. The event raised more than $17,000 dollars in donations, registration fees, and t-shirt sales to purchase care packages filled with international phone cards, disposable cameras and other supplies through Operation USO Care Package. Some 12 motorcycle clubs took part, some traveling from as far as Florida and Texas, Oppido said.

Earlier, at Freedom Plaza, near 13th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue in downtown Washington, dozens of charter buses were disgorging protests, among them Sister Maureen Metty, 66.

Metty stepped off a bus from Kalamazoo, Mich., at 8 a.m., arriving for what she said was her first-ever political rally. She carried a sitting stool, a backpack loaded with snacks, a toothbrush and toothpaste and a message from her fellow nuns — a sign that said "Sisters of St. Joseph’s for Peace."

"There were 250 sisters who wanted to be here today, but I’m the one they chose to send," she said. "I believe I’m supposed to be here today. This war is not right."

A bus from Lancaster, Pa., brought an eclectic crowd — gray-haired men in shorts and black socks, grannies with needle-point purses and a young man with facial piercings and aqua hair. Ginny DiIlio, who is in her late 50s, wore a red-white-and-blue shirt that said "Patriots for Peace."

"I was marching in ’68, and I’m back today," she said.

DiIlio was with her husband, George, who said he was new to the protest scene. "She corrupted me," he said.

Washington Post Staff Writers Karlyn Barker, Jo Becker, David Nakamura and Michael Tunison and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dy...

Forum posts

  • Nice meeting, but it will not change a thing. Unless you change your voting!

    • You can only vote for the candidate they choose for you. Voting is a scam to make you believe you have a say so. Do you have a say in how much you pay your elected officials? Do you have a say in how much these same elected officials take out of your paycheck? NO! Until the voters have a say in these matters and are able to defeat irresponsible spending by lifetime bureaucrats immediately, it will always be the "land of the fee, and the home of the slave."

    • You’re damn right my friend. People who think they have a voice when they vote are pretty damn naive. Why do you think they keep other parties out of the election process. And if they do let them into the process, they’re manipulated to benefit the Dems or Reps. It’s a two party system. Period. Unless something unexpected happens, it’s gonna stay that way because that’s the way "They" want it. I have a bumper sticker that says it like it is. " Democrats/Republicans - Same shit, different piles." They both have the same agenda, but different MO’s. Only someone with ALOT of money who has different ideas that actually will help the common folk, clean up the environment and change our economic system will make things happen and be able to run. But knowing the way the system operates, that person’s credibility would be torn apart in a malicious manner. Good luck finding that person.

  • I beg to differ with one part of the article, to wit

    "A crowd in London, estimated by police at 10,000, marched in support of withdrawing British troops from Iraq. Violent clashes between insurgents and British troops in the southern Iraq city of Basra in recent days highlighted the need to get out, protesters said."

    The violent clashes were between the British soldiers and the lawful citizens (not insurgents)outraged when two Soldiers dressed as Arab insurgents, shot a policeman and were found with a carload full of weapons. The Brits, desperate to keep this operation a secret, destroyed the prison and killed at least five to get them out. This certainly has the appearance of a false flag operation, to provide justification for the occupation. No other explanation better explains the facts of the situation.

    The timing is pretty interesting too. It was just a week or so before this incident that a story came out saying that many Iraqis believed it was coalition forces acting as insurgents in most cases. This certainly adds support for that postion.

  • As reported in the Washington Post, D.C. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey conceded that the number of anti-war protestors could have been as high as 150,000. This turnout should be weighed against the turnout of the "counter-demonstrators," who set up shop near the FBI building (interesting choice of location), which numbered about 200 people. One wonders how many of these patriots are on the public payroll?

    The will of the American people has spoken. Are you listening, George II?

  • The Tide Has Turned.
    It took THREE (3) crazed ladies (Cindy, Katrina & Rita) to do what the MURDER of nearly 2,000 U.S. Service People,
    the INJURY of Tens of Thousands of same , the Wholesale Slaughter of Hundreds of Thousands of non-combatants
    has been unable to do.

    It’s All Downhill From Here.
    But, No Fair Coasting!
    Pour it on as if Lance Armstrong himself were chasing you.

    PEACE & Peaches,

    With all due respect to ’legally’ elected politicians

  • Someone please refer Mr. Gary Qualls to the LATEST friendly warning from our dear Saudi (allies?).

    Shall we wait until all coalition countries withdraw? Even the U.K.!
    Godspeed to George Galloway, MP and his Respect Party.

    • I thought seriously about attening the rallies in DC, but decided that, in keeping with my policy of non-engagement, it would be a waste of time and effort. Judging by the amount of news coverage (oh, whoopie! the NY Times and Wash. Post actualy ran a story!), especially on the TV (remember, this is America - folks need news spoon-fed to them), that this massive protest will change nothing.

      People on the left, or so-called progressives, have to wake up to the reality that the will of the people no longer matters. Not only does the exxecutive branch ignore us, but the legistative bodies - the House and Senate - are largely committed to their own agenda, one which has little to do with the actual needs and desires of the people who elected them.

      Since 2000, we have been living not in a representative democracy, but in an imperial oligarchy, where decisions of national import are decided not by vote, but by decreee, and the media is nothing more than a propaganda arm of the government.

      Wake up, people! Protesting and voting aren’t going to change a thing. The government see, hears and speaks no evil.

      DON’T YOU GET IT? THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA has been taken over by a ruling class that is bent on bringing the middle class to its knees, devolving the country into specifically the two nations of which John Edwards spoke during the campaign of 2004 - the haves and the have nots. The Haves wil number 500,000. The have nots are already in the millions and GROWING, according to their plans.

      Keep protesting and keep voting in rigged elections for people who won’t do your bidding even if elected. But until we have AN UNBIASED, FREE AND INDEPENDENT PRESS, nothing will ever change.

      The USA in which I grew up no longer exists. My choice, for now, has been to commit continuous quiet acts of resistance. Fortunately, for me, at least, I don’t live in New Orleans or Texas where all choice has been eliminated. Soon, I will no longer be able to resist quietly. Soon, and maybe even today, the choice will have to be made between FIGHT or FLIGHT. Right now, I’m leaning towards FLIGHT, as fighting a well-established enemy with no opposition is folly.

      The America I loved is no more. It is devolving into a 2nd-rate state, and like the leaders who have discarded the values of freedom and democracy, I too shall discard its hollow shell.

    • Well said and oh so true. Thankyou! Its hard not to be depressed, especially when Americans think that all they have to do is wait until the next election to make positive change happen. Its hard for me to find anyone who is willing to indulge in any kind of dialogue on the subject of New World Order, or Zionism, nevermind the subject of weather wars. They refuse to believe that their government could be responsible for the insurgency in Iraq. I was hopeful when I saw all those people show up in Washington for the peace march but my hope turned to despair when I saw how lame the coverage was on corporate media.
      I’ve been living in Mexico for several years and last year we witnessed, for the first time, flocks of Americans looking to buy and/or buying property in an effort to get out of the U.S. Their disgust is palpable. But moving won’t help because it won’t be long before Canada, Mexico and the U.S. become one entity under U.S. control. So far, Mexico has been pretty much a cash society but
      for the past year the banking institutions here have been pushing hard to enourage Mexicans to acquire credit cards, I’m sure in an attempt to turn Mexico into another cashless, controllable society. And I’m sure that poor Mexicans will be only too willing to serve in the U.S. military so they can put food on the table. The U.S. military won’t need to institute the draft.
      I wish someone could offer me some hope for the future.

    • That’s an interesting idea about Mexicans serving in the U.S. military. Rome’s ultimate decline was hastened by the use of auxiliary troops to a point in time where most "Roman" legionnaires were Germanic and could not speak a word of Latin. "Heil Kaiser!"

    • Hey 66**206***

      You know what? The founding fathers predicted this sort of corruption was entirely possible, indeed likely, and they proposed a solution. "We the people" are the last line of defense to protect the Constitution, unlike all those crooks who actually took an oath to do so. There is another saying "If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem." So, even though it’s disheartening, don’t give up. What can you do to be part of the solution? Go to the next rally, write a letter to the editor, contact your own senators and congressperson and tell them we should get the fuck out of Iraq, talk to anyone you know who is pro War and practice staying calm, visualize peace, pray, read more and find out about just how atrociious it really is, don’t give up on the american public. Yes, our culture breeds self centeredness, aquisitiveness, and lazy, hypnotized T.V drones, but the people are realizing just what a mess we have gotten into, and the georgie boy is at the center of the shitstorm.

      Our county is around 300 million people. I’ll give you 5 million Americans as powerhungy, rich capitalist greedy bastards who would step on their own mother to advance, and I think I’m being generous here, there probably aren’t that many. So that still leaves about 300 million of the rest of us "we the people." We got the numbers on our side. Each of us that is awakened to the truth must work to awaken others. The tipping point is near and the momentum is growing. One rally with 150.000 to 200,000 people won’t do it. I read that there were over a million gathering near the end of the Vietnam saga and they were doing it regularly. When is the next one being planned?

      So when you are through whining, please get to work. We need everyone on board, we need to keep the faith, and we need to act with commitment so that there can be democracy. It has declined because "we the people" haven’t been doing our job, to stay informed and keep our employees (i.e the government) in line.

      Personally I find singing that George Harrison song can make me feel better.

      Give us love. Give us love. Give us peace on earth
      Give us life, Give us light
      KEEP US FILLED WITH HOPE
      HELP US COPE
      WITH THIS HEAVY LOAD. . .

      Justis Suffram
      Peace, love, end the Bush Administration

    • only about 40k was at the rally at the most.

    • Peace Sign
      The signal "actually began as a symbol of Satanic benediction during the rituals.’’ This sign has been used by Yasser Arafat, Richard Nixon, Winston Churchill, and Stewart Meacham, Co-Chairman of Reds’ New Mobilisation Committee." Churchill said that the sign stood for victory but remember that Churchill was one of the insider "elite" and a Mason. He most likely knew the evil significance of this symbol but tried to give it a facelift.

      The "v sign" has a colourful history. "V" is the Roman sign for the number five and Adam Weishaupt used it in the Illuminati to symbolise the "Law of Fives,’’ but there’s more. In the Cabala:

      "the meaning for the Hebrew letter for V (Van) is ’Nail.’ Now, ’The Nail’ is one of the secret titles of Satan within the Brotherhood of Satanism. Satan is letting us know that this is one of his favourite signs. Why else does he like the PENTA-gram (Penta = five!) and the FIVE-fold salute used in Masonry and Witchcraft?’’

      http://www.nisbett.com/symbols/peace_sign.htm

  • Of course Bushco is just laughing at the serfs, Congress could care less because they know they aren’t really elected by the people. The only good reason I can see for the protest is that it helped to empower people that were not already, and perhaps they will take that energy back home with them. At least no one got beat up, they are still letting us pretend we have a democracy.

    protest5en.jpg

    • The Hippies were at the forefront of the people who helped to end the Vietnam war...they were the young people, the students, who had the most to lose...their lives and those of the ones they loved, the draft was the motivator, thousands and thousands of their friends being slaughtered, millions of Vietnemese civilians annahilated, they had the music and the counter culture....then the average mom and pop, anyone with a brain, then churches and until no one liked the war. Tricky Dick said he would end it if elected, it took him four years and by then we had already lost anyway, they didn’t even try to save face, they insisted they were winning until the day they said they were "cutting and running". The Chinese communists won that war, and all the lies Johnson and Nixon told about the commies coming to get us and the domino theory was total bullshit just like the "terrorists" horseshit. And now without the Chinese communists loaning us money, we would be a bankrupt country unable to pay our crushing debts for the phony war/war profiteers. But why try to learn anything as we go, its more profitable to our leaders to keep us at war, any reason will do.

      Throughout history, all of the changes to failed governments, like ours, came through the young people. There is no draft today to motivate the young people. Today’s youth are content to sit in front of their game boys, etc., knowing nothing of the world’s problems, or political decisions that determine their future, they seem oblivious to what is happening to their world.

    • What a beautiful sight....peace

    • Watch your stereotypes, there were plenty of young people at the rally too

    • peace sign is the crows feet, look it up.

      :)

    • Today you have catch 22........all that love has create a young person that does not care, the older hippes (which I can not stand) made a new hippie of today.

      They just dont care,,,100k or even 500k out of 300 million is a long way from doing any thing.

  • The peace movement was responsible for the ending of the Vietnam war.
    Will it also claim responsibility for the MILLIONS that died after we left?

    • What you say is so true, and I wonder if any of the previous posters even thought about what would happen if the US left Iraq. When the US left Vietnam, the government of South Vietnam was stupid enough to break the cease fire. Then the communists started the real killing and purging. The communists not only purged and killed in Vietnam, but they also did the same in Cambodia and Laos.

    • You need to go check into the Republican insane assylum. The United States government carpet bombed Cambodia while lying to the American public, they also carpet bombed Laos while lying to the American public. They went into pesants villages and murdered women and children and then there was all of that agent orange they saturated the jungles with killing every living thing that it touched. When we lost the war, the gentle people there under those "nasty communists", forgave us for our sins....you need to ask for some forgiveness for what you want our troops to do in Iraq and Afghanistan before you meet your maker.....provided you think you are a Christian. Do some research before you come here with your pro military talking points. Shame on you and shame on our troops and shame on us Americans for letting this happen.

    • If I am not mistaken, that responsibility was and is still the United States government that commited the crimes and has never taken responsibility, never appologized, and obviously never learned anything from their mistakes....are you really that stupid?

    • Your ability to couple hostility and ignorance is astounding; that you are able to do that with every post and without embarassment is beyond understanding.

      It is true that the US carpet bombed Laos, but they bombed the Ho Chi Minh trail that by now had been extended through Laos and Cambodia.

      The North Vietnamese had encroached into Laos and were claiming Laotian land as part of Vietnam and was destabilising an already weak Laotian gov’t. The Pathet Lao, trained by the North Vietnamese, took hold of the country while the government was a mess. The Hmong put up early and continued resistance and the pathet lao intended to wipe them out and drove them out. Once the pathet lao completed taking control of the rest of Laos, they proceded to kill all who opposed them while hundred and thousands ran and left the country to become refugees. Thousands were put into "reeducation centers" and few came out.

      As for Cambodia, the story is similar. Communist forces were trained and supported by the North Vietnamese and became the Khmer Rouge. Once they took control of Cambodia, those Cambodians who haven’t escaped to become refugees, were forced by the commies to abandon the urban centers and become farmers; many thousands of people died of starvation and disease during the evacuation and many more thousands died of starvation because they were placed in ill equipped newly created villages that lacked the necessary tools to farm effectively much less knowledgably. The Khmer Rouge killed indiscriminately.

      I think it is reprehensible that you would support those killers because of your hatred for the US. That you talk without knowledge is truly appalling. You should be the last person calling other people stupid. Point the finger at yourself.

    • You are so correct the "killig Fields’,,,where were the hippies then?

    • You are correct also we did bomb them, but not enough, the A bomb should have been used like the Dems (LIBS) did in WW2.

      The hippie lose the war and kill so many good GI’s in the name of peace.

    • Fuck you....where was the greatest generation??? Starting wars everywhere and developing and using the atom bomb on innocent citizens, drinking themselves into a stupor and beating their wives and kids, discriminating against the blacks and acting like fascist pigs....where is the X generation now that our country is going to hell? sucking their thumbs and playing with themselves....too selfish to even care about their world, they are about to inherit a world wide bag of shit and they are in la la land....so fuck you and your fucked up generation.

    • What a bunch of government propaganda.....you are an ignorant brainwashed sycophant and nothing more...so shove it.

    • Again you counter facts with namecalling. It is so apparent how little you know. Now that I have confirmed that, I don’t have to bother with you in the future.

    • Hey 4..76,

      You got to be kidding...LOL

      Do you know the meaning of the F word...LOL

      X what, I think the other posters gets and A, I love to turn this site into a rigth wing site, we can do it, by getting the left wing mad like this...LOL

      This one is a joke....but its fun,,,when are when going to get some more pictures to talk about here, this is boring stuff now..

      Lets talk about Rita and the stock market,,,LOL]

      Better yet the French!!!!!!!!!!!!!

      4...76 get a job, and stop collect them goverment checks I been giving you...

      LOL :)

  • the natives are restless. Ask yourself why the US gov. supplied technology and equipment "paid for by your tax dollars" to Russia who then sold it to the Vietnam. Who then used it to kill american soldiers. This is a documented fact. LBJ lied about the gulf of Tonkin to get america to support a war for the elite. Just like bush orchestrated 911 to get his new pearl harbor to launch his middle east policies for the elite. ie. Rockafeller, Rothchilds ect. Now is the time for ameicans to get high powered rifles and take these fuckers out.

    • The French where one of the main supply chains of weapons to the VC back then.

      911 opps what happen, the left is worry and believe it or not, look,,, they are talking about killing people..

      LOL not very peace like...???

      I love the wine they make the R’s taste like water a real good bottle will.

      :)

      911 :(

      peace who needs it, it always causes war any way.