Posted on 03/20/2008 2:11:28 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
Gleefully adapting the "direct action" tactics that their parents used to help stop the Vietnam War, thousands of activists disrupted traffic and both government and corporate business Wednesday in Washington to protest the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq.
At the headquarters of the Internal Revenue Service, at least 32 protesters were arrested trying to block access to the building that they said symbolizes the taxes that are being used to fund the war.
In addition to a traditional march to the Capitol and a demonstration across from the White House, bands of protesters roamed the "K Street Corridor," targeting military contractors, oil companies, political organizations and news media outlets as "pillars of the war."
Protesters also descended on Democratic National Committee headquarters - charging that the Democratic congressional majority has not stopped the war that President Bush's Republican administration started.
'March of the Dead'
Wearing white masks and black hoodies, silent walkers began in Arlington National Cemetery and proceeded throughout the District of Columbia on a "March of the Dead." Each marcher carried the name of an American or Iraqi killed in the war.
Drummers pounded plastic buckets on a dozen corners. Anti-torture demonstrators staged a "waterboarding torture" in Lafayette Park, across from the White House. College students shouted "Hell, no, we won't go!" outside an Army recruiting office.
Students for a Democratic Society - the successor generation to the SDS that sparked protests in the Vietnam era - sponsored a street dance for students who spent their spring break at the protests.
"It is decentralized," said Lisa Fithian, an organizer from Austin, Texas. "It's all over the place, and it lasts all day long.
"Mass marches are important, as they show the numbers of opponents to the war. But today, we're doing more than 600 direct actions in cities all over the country. It's a different way to get more people out."
In Syracuse, N.Y., police arrested 20 protesters who blocked traffic by creating a mock Baghdad street scene.
One person dressed in camouflage lay on the ground; another was covered in a white sheet with red markings and a woman leaned over, as if grieving. They were from a group of more than 100 demonstrators who marched downtown in a steady rain over the lunch hour.
In Chicopee, Mass., eight people were arrested when they blocked a gate at Westover Air Reserve Base, police said.
Five people were arrested in Hartford, Conn., on accusations of blocking the front door of a federal courthouse.
'Unhappy birthday'
On the West Coast, police arrested a handful of protesters outside the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, Sgt. Steve Manina said. Black balloons were tied to trees along San Francisco's main downtown thoroughfare, and protesters at a table offered coffee, oranges and "unhappy birthday cake" to passers-by.
In Cincinnati, organizers set up a 2-mile display of about 4,000 T-shirts, meant to symbolize members of the U.S. military killed in Iraq.
In Louisville, Ky., demonstrators lined rows of military boots, sandals and children's tennis shoes on the steps of a courthouse.
Laurie Wolberton of Louisville, whose son just finished an Army tour of duty in Iraq, said she feared the worsening economy has caused Americans to forget about the war.
"We're not paying attention anymore," she said.
"My son has buried his friends. He's given eulogies, he's had to go through things no one should have to go through, and over here, they've forgotten. They just go shopping instead."
Sorry the antiwar movement had no effect on ending Vietnam. By the time the war ended in 1975. Most smelly hippies had bathed, got jobs, and were doing the “Hustle”. The only affect these scumbags had was toward losing, by encouraging the NVA to fight on because of our dissension at home. Today's traitors are only hurting America too...but its a moonbat’s right to engage in pointless protests. These people are an embarrassment.
Nope, not their parents. It's the same old tired, wornout, dessicated, decrepit hippies that were there during the Summer of Love. The Magic Bus just never quite got where it was going ...
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