Annie
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Itsthetruth said:Peace Rally Attracts about 3,000 Near Fort Bragg
The Associated Press
(03/19/05 - FAYETTEVILLE)
An anti-war rally organized in part by veterans and military families drew about 3,000 people to a park near Fort Bragg -- home to more than 40,000 soldiers and thousands of other dependents.
Demonstrators attending the rally on the second anniversary of the United States' invasion of Iraq said they hoped it would build pressure to bring troops home.
"I can't remain silent on these issues, slap a yellow ribbon on my car and call it supporting our troops," said Kara Hollingsworth, the wife of a soldier serving his second tour of duty in Iraq. "I support our troops by making sure they are not put in harm's way unless absolutely necessary."
Michael Hoffman, a co-Founder of Iraq Veterans Against the War who invaded Iraq in 2003 with the Marines, be didn't think anti-war protests undermine the morale of troops facing danger, Hoffman said.
"I've been in Iraq, I've been shot at, you're not thinking about the protests, you're not thinking about yellow ribbons, you're thinking about 'how am I going to get out of this?"' he said.
http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/news/031905_APlocal_peacerally.html
Interesting coming from the Times, catch the headline!
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/20/national/20protests.html?th
March 20, 2005
Two Years After Iraq Invasion, Protesters Hold Small Rallies
By ROBERT D. McFADDEN
wo years after the American-led invasion of Iraq, relatively small crowds of demonstrators - the home guard of the antiwar movement - mobilized yesterday in New York, San Francisco and cities and towns across the nation to condemn the war and demand the withdrawal of allied forces.
Thousands joined similar protests in European cities. On both sides of the Atlantic, the protests were passionate but largely peaceful, and nowhere near as big as those in February 2003, just before the war, when millions around the world marched to urge President Bush not to attack.
The American crowds ranged from about 350 in Times Square to several thousand in San Francisco. And in contrast to the vociferous rage of demonstrations two years ago, yesterday's protests were mostly somber and low-key, with marchers carrying cardboard coffins in silence to the beat of funereal drums, with rally speakers alluding often to the war dead and subdued crowds keeping behind police barriers.
Still, defiant resolution swirled in the afternoon air. "I don't like it," Ed Hedemann, 60, of Brooklyn, said of his impending arrest at a Flatbush Avenue recruiting station. "But there comes a time when, with the killing that's going on now, people have to stand up and say no. If that means getting arrested, that's a small sacrifice to make."
No serious injuries or clashes between demonstrators and the police were reported, although insults were exchanged by protesters and counterprotesters. Three dozen people were arrested in New York for blocking traffic or doorways at military recruiting centers, but these were choreographed with the time-honored rituals of civil disobedience, and restraint on all sides seemed to be the order of the day.
It was the last day of winter, but in many parts of America spring was in the air. In New York, the trees were bare silhouettes and the wind that scythed up from the rivers was cold. But a brilliant sun gilded the proceedings, and by midafternoon protesters were basking in temperatures in the high 40's.
Beyond New York and San Francisco, protests unfolded in Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, San Diego and what organizers said were 725 other cities and towns, places like Evergreen, Colo., where 13 people turned out to confront their neighbors with peace signs, and Algoma, Wis., where 8 people attended a "Bring Home the Troops" demonstration.
"We had no police problems," said Jill Bussiere, the protest leader in Algoma, population 3,353. "I called the police about a week ago, letting them know we would be there on the sidewalk, not blocking traffic. We were quite well received - many waves, some peace signs and thumbs up, a few beeps."
In communities large and small, the message was the same: End an unjust war that has killed more than 1,500 Americans and thousands of Iraqis, that has cost hundreds of billions of dollars and left America with frayed alliances and ugly images as occupiers and torturers.
In New York, the protesters carried simulated coffins draped in black shrouds and American flags. They taunted President Bush for the never-found weapons of mass destruction that were one of his stated justifications for war. They ridiculed his administration's color-coded barometer of terrorism threats and mocked its military recruiting slogans - the "Army of One," and "The Few, the Proud, the Marines."
Several thousand protesters marched from Harlem to Central Park for a rally where Representative Charles B. Rangel declared, "What we are doing here today is not popular, but it's the right thing to do." In Brooklyn, 300 people from two rallies that began miles apart converged on a military recruiting station at Flatbush Avenue near Lafayette Avenue. And in the Bronx, a vigil was held at a recruiting office.
In Midtown Manhattan, 350 protesters rallied at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza near the United Nations and, carrying simulated coffins to the beat of a snare drum, marched in silence to Times Square. More than two dozen - apparently volunteers for arrest - kneeled outside the recruiting station, then moved into the middle of Broadway between 43rd and 44th Streets and blocked traffic.
The police ordered them to move. In response, the protesters went limp, sprawling in the roadway. They were handcuffed with plastic strips and lifted onto a police truck, which took them away. Traffic was blocked for about five minutes. The police said later that 36 people had been arrested for disorderly conduct - 27 in Times Square, 8 in Brooklyn and one in Harlem.
Under the banners of a broad coalition of antiwar groups, including United for Peace and Justice and the War Resisters League, the protests were part of a weekend of marches, rallies, prayer gatherings, candlelight vigils, hip-hop concerts and other events to mark the second anniversary of the war's start.
The protesters included families with small children, students, professional and working people, veterans and families of service personnel, religious groups and many middle-aged and older people. Numbers were hard to gauge, but it seemed likely that tens of thousands took part across America.
In Europe, the gatherings were also modest compared to the 2003 protests. But 45,000 people marched in London in the day's largest protest. In Istanbul, Turkey, 15,000 demonstrated. In Spain, protests unfolded in nine cities, including Madrid and Barcelona. About 3,000 demonstrators halted traffic in Athens, and there were protests in Rome, Oslo, Stockholm and other cities.
President Bush did not comment on the protests, which seemed unlikely to have any significant effect on national policy or on the glacial movement of public opinion in America. But Mr. Bush, in his weekly radio address, defended the invasion of Iraq, noting that Saddam Hussein had been captured and an elected National Assembly installed in Baghdad to write a new constitution.
"On this day two years ago, we launched Operation Iraqi Freedom to disarm a brutal regime, free its people and defend the world from a grave danger," the president said.
Those missions, he said, have been accomplished.
Mr. Bush concluded, "Because of our actions, freedom is taking root in Iraq, and the American people are more secure."
In San Francisco, several thousand people marched through intermittent rain from a park to a rally at the Civic Center, carrying signs proclaiming "College Not Combat," and "Military Recruiters Lie." In Fayetteville, N.C., near Fort Bragg, the home of the 82nd Airborne Division and many of the special-forces units fighting in Iraq, 2,000 people, including veterans and families of service members, rallied in a park to hear speeches against the war. About 100 simulated coffins covered with American flags were on the ground. The tenor of the day was somber, with many references to the war dead.
In Chicago, about 1,000 protesters marched, watched by hundreds of police officers. At least two were arrested for refusing to move from Michigan Avenue, which had not been designated for the protest. Officers pushed others away and herded them into a park. Some protesters were indignant.
"It's not the 60's any more," said Erin Stephens, 23. "No one's putting daisies in the guns. It is a constitutional protected right to do this, and there's way too many police out here."
