No to war in Iraq
Washington witnesses massive anti-war protest
David Hillman, War on Want's Tobin Tax Network coordinator reports on the growing anti-war lobby in the USA.
Last Saturday I was part of a massive crowd marching against the war in Iraq. It was full of colourful banners and placards, drumming and chanting. I could have been in London some months ago, or in Florence where a million people marched against the war in November. But I was on the streets of Washington DC, capital city of the country at the helm of the drive to war.
As I left the station where a child held a placard reading: “Martin Luther King had a dream. Bush is a nightmare” and made my way to the assembly point, I had no idea what to expect - perhaps a few hundred protestors. Instead a huge cross-section of ordinary Americans of all ages, races and creeds began arriving from all directions on a day dazzling with a perfect blue sky. First they assembled for a rally with the dome of the famous Capitol building framing the back-drop close to the White House.
Estimates of attendance range from 100,000 to 500,000 people. Even splitting the difference there must have been over a quarter of a million US citizens on a day when, despite its beauty, temperatures never rose above minus 4ºC. But even in sub-zero temperatures the numbers of people and the atmosphere alone were enough to warm the heart (if not the feet).
All around me it was clear that people completely rejected the US Government’s propaganda that Iraq poses some kind of security threat. And that the battle against terror is anything more than a flimsy excuse to wage war to steal oil; and this “No blood for oil” theme ran through many of the placards. Speakers on the platform told of their shame of being American, knowing how this unwarranted military activity must appear to the eyes of the world. The Reverend Jesse Jackson, Hollywood film star Jessica Lange and the UK’s own Jeremy Corbyn MP gave rousing speeches to the boisterous crowd.
As the march set off, the diverse banners and slogans encapsulated the sentiments of the assembled mass: “Drop Bush not bombs”, “Regime change begins at home” and “This is not our war”.
I was particularly impressed by the placard with cut out heads of Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld bearing the message: “These are the real war-heads”. But the moment that struck me the most was the important chant of: “Peace is patriotic, peace is patriotic” as if words had finally been found to speak out against the manipulative language following September 11, which had turned a hideous crime into an act of war so long used to justify this military madness.
So I came away from the march and my few days in America (where I found no-one, including many cab drivers, in support of the war) knowing not to generalise about Americans or mistake the actions of the US administration for the will of the American people. Only on my return to the UK did I find out that massive numbers had also turned out for a simultaneous rally in San Francisco. A Time-CNN poll released on the day of the protests showed that the President’s approval rating is down to 53 per cent - the lowest in any survey since September 11 2001.
Protest is growing. Popular opinion is changing in the US. But all of us must keep the momentum going wherever we are in the world if we want to prevent the bloodshed that has been planned. Only if we do may war not be a foregone conclusion. My experience in Washington undoubtedly gives cause for hope. But with UK troops leaving in ever-increasing numbers to the Gulf, we have no time to lose. Our actions and voices have to register now with Bush and Blair. Because now only public opinion stands between war and peace.
As I left the station where a child held a placard reading: “Martin Luther King had a dream. Bush is a nightmare” and made my way to the assembly point, I had no idea what to expect - perhaps a few hundred protestors. Instead a huge cross-section of ordinary Americans of all ages, races and creeds began arriving from all directions on a day dazzling with a perfect blue sky. First they assembled for a rally with the dome of the famous Capitol building framing the back-drop close to the White House.
Estimates of attendance range from 100,000 to 500,000 people. Even splitting the difference there must have been over a quarter of a million US citizens on a day when, despite its beauty, temperatures never rose above minus 4ºC. But even in sub-zero temperatures the numbers of people and the atmosphere alone were enough to warm the heart (if not the feet).
All around me it was clear that people completely rejected the US Government’s propaganda that Iraq poses some kind of security threat. And that the battle against terror is anything more than a flimsy excuse to wage war to steal oil; and this “No blood for oil” theme ran through many of the placards. Speakers on the platform told of their shame of being American, knowing how this unwarranted military activity must appear to the eyes of the world. The Reverend Jesse Jackson, Hollywood film star Jessica Lange and the UK’s own Jeremy Corbyn MP gave rousing speeches to the boisterous crowd.
As the march set off, the diverse banners and slogans encapsulated the sentiments of the assembled mass: “Drop Bush not bombs”, “Regime change begins at home” and “This is not our war”.
I was particularly impressed by the placard with cut out heads of Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld bearing the message: “These are the real war-heads”. But the moment that struck me the most was the important chant of: “Peace is patriotic, peace is patriotic” as if words had finally been found to speak out against the manipulative language following September 11, which had turned a hideous crime into an act of war so long used to justify this military madness.
So I came away from the march and my few days in America (where I found no-one, including many cab drivers, in support of the war) knowing not to generalise about Americans or mistake the actions of the US administration for the will of the American people. Only on my return to the UK did I find out that massive numbers had also turned out for a simultaneous rally in San Francisco. A Time-CNN poll released on the day of the protests showed that the President’s approval rating is down to 53 per cent - the lowest in any survey since September 11 2001.
Protest is growing. Popular opinion is changing in the US. But all of us must keep the momentum going wherever we are in the world if we want to prevent the bloodshed that has been planned. Only if we do may war not be a foregone conclusion. My experience in Washington undoubtedly gives cause for hope. But with UK troops leaving in ever-increasing numbers to the Gulf, we have no time to lose. Our actions and voices have to register now with Bush and Blair. Because now only public opinion stands between war and peace.
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