Actor Sean Penn, center, joins fellow anti-war activists as they march past the U.S. Supreme Court to protest the war in Iraq on Saturday.
Posted on 01/28/2007 4:30:10 AM PST by SkyPilot
Convinced this is their moment, tens of thousands marched Saturday in an anti-war demonstration linking military families, ordinary people and an icon of the Vietnam protest movement in a spirited call to get out of Iraq.
Actor Sean Penn, center, joins fellow anti-war activists as they march past the U.S. Supreme Court to protest the war in Iraq on Saturday.
Celebrities, a half-dozen lawmakers and protesters from distant states rallied in the capital under a sunny sky, seizing an opportunity to press their cause with a Congress restive on the war and a country that has turned against the conflict.
Jane Fonda, right, greets a fan as Penn stands to the left. Fonda was a lightning rod in the Vietnam era for her outspoken opposition to that war.
Marching with them was Jane Fonda, in what she said was her first anti-war demonstration in 34 years.
"Silence is no longer an option," Fonda said to cheers from the stage on the National Mall. The actress once derided as "Hanoi Jane" by conservatives for her stance on Vietnam said she had held back from activism so as not to be a distraction for the Iraq anti-war movement, but needed to speak out now.
Actresses and anti-war demonstrators Susan Sarandon, left, and Jane Fonda listen to speeches. "Silence is no longer an option," Fonda said.
The rally on the Mall unfolded peacefully, although about 300 protesters tried to rush the Capitol, running up the grassy lawn to the front of the building. Police on motorcycles tried to stop them, scuffling with some and barricading entrances.
Actor Tim Robbins
Protesters chanted "Our Congress" as their numbers grew and police faced off against them. Demonstrators later joined the masses marching from the Mall, around Capitol Hill and back.
United for Peace and Justice, a coalition group sponsoring the protest, hoped 100,000 would come. Police say the crowd was smaller than that.
About 50 demonstrators blocked a street near the Capitol for about 30 minutes, but they were dispersed without arrests.
The Reverend Jesse Jackson stands in front of a pair of soldier's boots resting on a flag-draped casket.
United for Peace and Justice, a coalition group sponsoring the protest, had hoped 100,000 would come. They claimed even more afterward, but police, who no longer give official estimates, said privately the crowd was smaller than 100,000.
A woman picks out a sign before the start of the protest in Washington. The rally unfolded peacefully, although some protesters tried to rush the Capitol.
In California, smaller rallies were held in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Sacramento.
At the rally, 12-year-old Moriah Arnold stood on her toes to reach the microphone and tell the crowd: "Now we know our leaders either lied to us or hid the truth. Because of our actions, the rest of the world sees us as a bully and a liar."
Demonstrators carry signs to the National Mall that say "Make hip-hop not War" and "The surge is a lie."
The sixth-grader from Harvard, Mass., organized a petition drive at her school against the war that has killed more than 3,000 U.S. service-members, including seven whose deaths were reported Saturday.
More Hollywood celebrities showed up at the demonstration than buttoned-down Washington typically sees in a month.
Female protesters representing U.S civilians, left, military personnel, center, and Iraqis killed in the invasion, stand in front of the U.S. Capitol.
Actor Sean Penn said lawmakers will pay a price in the 2008 elections if they do not take firmer action than to pass a nonbinding resolution against the war, the course Congress is now taking.
Geoff Millard marches with "Veterans Against the War", a group of Iraqi war veterans calling for U.S. troops to pull out of Iraq.
"If they don't stand up and make a resolution as binding as the death toll, we're not going to be behind those politicians," he said. Actors Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins also spoke.
Fonda was a lightning rod in the Vietnam era for her outspoken opposition to that war and her advocacy from Hanoi at the height of that conflict. Sensitive to the old wounds, she made it a point to thank the active-duty service-members, veterans and Gold Star mothers who attended the rally.
She drew parallels to the Vietnam War, citing "blindness to realities on the ground, hubris ... thoughtlessness in our approach to rebuilding a country we've destroyed." But she noted that this time, veterans, soldiers and their families increasingly and vocally are against the Iraq war.
The House Judiciary Committee chairman, Rep. John Conyers, threatened to use congressional spending power to try to stop the war. "George Bush has a habit of firing military leaders who tell him the Iraq war is failing," he said, looking out at the masses. "He can't fire you." Referring to Congress, the Michigan Democrat added: "He can't fire us.
"The founders of our country gave our Congress the power of the purse because they envisioned a scenario exactly like we find ourselves in today. Not only is it in our power, it is our obligation to stop Bush."
White House spokesman Trey Bohn responded that Conyers "needs to learn the difference between fact and fable, between a soundbite and a slur." He said Conyers' "assertion that the president fires generals with whom he disagrees is flat wrong."
On the stage rested a coffin covered with a U.S. flag and a pair of military boots, symbolizing American war dead. On the Mall stood a large bin filled with tags bearing the names of Iraqis who have died.
A small contingent of active-duty service members attended the rally, wearing civilian clothes because military rules forbid them from protesting in uniform.
Air Force Staff Sgt. Tassi McKee, 26, an intelligence specialist at Fort Meade, Md., said she joined the Air Force because of patriotism, travel and money for college. "After we went to Iraq, I began to see through the lies," she said.
In the crowd, signs recalled the November elections that defeated the Republican congressional majority in part because of President Bush's Iraq policy. "I voted for peace," one said.
"I've just gotten tired of seeing widows, tired of seeing dead Marines," said Vincent DiMezza, 32, wearing a dress Marine uniform from his years as a sergeant. A Marine aircraft mechanic from 1997 to 2002, he did not serve in Iraq or Afghanistan.
About 40 people staged a counter-protest, including Army Cpl. Joshua Sparling, 25, who lost his leg to a bomb in Iraq.
He said the anti-war protesters, especially those who are veterans or who are on active duty, "need to remember the sacrifice we have made and what our fallen comrades would say if they were alive."
Jane Fonda is exhilarated by the crowd.
Bush reaffirmed his commitment to his planned troop increase in a phone conversation Saturday with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The president was in Washington for the weekend. He is often is out of town during big protest days.
"He understands that Americans want to see a conclusion to the war in Iraq and the new strategy is designed to do just that," said Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the National Security Council.
Protest organizers said the crowd included people who came on 300 buses from 40 states.
The same old Tokyo Rose type propaganda and rhetoric ("This War is Illegal, President is Lying, You Cannot Win!".
The same complicit New Media coverage.
Last night I heard Rev. Charles Stanley speak about the "hatred of America around the globe" that the protesters like to refer to. Obviously, our enemies around the globe hate us, because America is the one nation on earth that stands against the tide of evil and is the only true friend of Israel on earth.
Stanley said there is some jealousy because our blessings as a nation, and our riches. What the evil people and nations in this world hate about the goodness of America is we are the last, final defense against all out Evil on earth.
But what really struck me was his message that although we have been blessed, and we have a greater freedom to embrace God (the real one) than almost any nation on earth, we don't do a very good job sometimes. Too many in our nation reject Him. We have punished the innocent (abortion) and celebrate the guilty.
These protesters are the worst of America, and they also represent a faction of what a terrible future lies in wait for our nation unless we turn back to God.
We have called "Good" - - Evil, and "Evil" - - Good.
Woe to us if we continue to let that happen. Our nation can be judged and swept away just as Israel was by the ancient Babylonians.
I wonder which path we will choose.
Satan walks the streets of Hollywood.
They need better celebs...not the former cast of Hollywood Squares....who else..Jamie Farr?
I'd say it was less then 10,000
Also couldn't help but notice many cropped photo shots of the protest
It was billions....:-)
So AP is no longer saying 'tens of thousands'?
Billions did not march. They went to work, ran chores, raised kids, helped with homework, visited libraries, museums, internetted, counterprotested the protestors, skied, shovelled snow, gave medicine, performed surgeries, ran pharmacies, skied, shopped, prayed, paid bills, cooked meals, fixed the plumbing, patrolled streets, answered 911 calls, caught burglers, caught rapists, caught terrorists, caught insurgents and their caches.
Guess this explains where all the young slacker "anarchist" panhandlers on the streets of my town went this weekend.
oops .. my mistake .. I forgot to add zero's like liberals do
You can get free signs?
And Jane Fonda - did she find an IED she could straddle for a publicity shot?
The BBC still is. Typical inflation of the number of anti-war protesters.
Since it was a pristine Paradise under its previous government.
Yeah, I saw that too.
:^>
I was wondering who else would catch that. Look at how many signs are stacked up. I wonder how much George Soros paid for them?
Wow, what luminaries. Fonda, Penn, Sarandon, Robbins..., It would have been news if these people had NOT shown up. If it got to a point where Robert Duvall, James Woods, Chuck Norris, Lee Greenwood, and Elizabeth Hasselback were demonstrating against the war, then we would be in trouble!
Interesting too that except for the annual pro life march we almost never see right of center gatherings that are as big as this. It can't be that there are more of them than us. Either they just have more time on their hands or they are motivated by an ugly anger that can't be good for one's emotional or physical health.
My favorite all time photo qualifies for this thread.
"Also couldn't help but notice many cropped photo shots of the protest"
I noticed that the TV shots were so, so tight. Always an indication of a small crowd. Of course, there were a few interviews with aging hippy peaceniks and Jesse J. to spice up the piece.
It was so predictable.
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