WASHINGTON,
December 11 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Americans took to the
streets Tuesday, December 10, to protest a possible war on Iraq, with
100 people arrested during demonstrations.
Organizers
said marches and rallies were planned in about 100 towns and cities to
coincide with International Human Rights Day.
Although
polls show that a majority of Americans support military action against
Iraq if it refuses to disarm, the protesters said they believed their
message was beginning to be heard by President George W. Bush, MSNBC’s
online news service.
“I
really think this anti-war movement has slowed down the war machine. Now
we’ve got to ramp it up,“ said Medea Benjamin, a member of the
Women’s Peace Vigil at the Washington rally, which started outside an
Army recruitment center.
“Public
opinion is the only buffer keeping us from going to war,” she said.
“I
know that to keep my family as safe as possible, I have to try to stop
this war,” said Benjamin, a mother of two whose small group has
demonstrated daily outside the White House for weeks.
“This
war will be disastrous,” said one of the demonstrators, Pat Elder.
“Violence
is not the answer to violence. Peace can only be attained through
justice.”
Another
protester, Washington University instructor Karen Pomeranz, criticized
both Democrats and Republicans for having favored U.S. military budgets
at the expense of bettering public social programs.
“They
spent the last 20 years gutting public health, housing, welfare,
education and other programs that give us real security,” she said.
Sarah,
25, a Washington demonstrator who asked that her last name not be used,
said, “It’s cold out here, definitely, but I guess it shows people
we’re serious about it by being here.
“We
need to show people there are lots of Americans who don’t agree with
this, even if you don’t hear that message all that often,” she said.
“This
oil war has got to go,” chanted the demonstrators.
“Be
a patriot — question the war monsters,” said one.
World
War II veteran Ray Kaepplinger was among 40 people picketing outside a
Chicago federal office building as 20 others were being arrested in the
lobby for criminal trespass.
Kaepplinger,
84, said he had “been through the plume of hell in New Guinea” and
did not want to see another war erupt.
“As
far as I’m concerned, President George II is as bad as Saddam
Hussein,” he said.
About
half of the 200 protesters demonstrating outside the U.S. mission to the
United Nations in New York were arrested for disorderly conduct,
including clergy members.
Across
the country in Sacramento, California, nine were taken into custody for
blocking the entrance to a federal courthouse.
“It’s
my first time ever,” said Maria Cornejo, 41, a mother of four from
Dixon, California
“That’s
how important this is.”
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Cardboard coffins with children's pictures displayed during an anti-war demonstration in California
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The
group United for Peace counted more than 120 planned vigils, acts of
civil disobedience and marches in 37 states from Alaska to Florida.
Protests
were being organized by fax and over the Internet by anarchists and
Communists, evangelicals and Quakers.
In
the Mennonite community of Goshen, people gathered soap, bandages,
towels and other items to send to the poor of Iraq.
Sharon
Baker, 64, brought in three kits for shipment through the Mennonite
Central Committee.
“I’m
opposed to any war, any time, anywhere, any place because war doesn’t
solve anything,” she said.
Tuesday’s
protests, planned across the country from North Carolina to Alaska, were
organized by a range of religious, academic, business, human rights and
women’s groups.
Meanwhile,
about 100 U.S. television and film stars including Matt Damon, Anjelica
Huston and Martin Sheen signed a petition released Tuesday against a
possible U.S.-led war against Iraq, warning that “war talk in
Washington is alarming and unnecessary.”
Samuel
L. Jackson, Mia Farrow, Kim Basinger, Uma Thurman, Tim Robbins and
rockers REM also put their names on the list of those opposed to such a
U.S.-led strike, Agence France Presse (AFP) reported Wednesday.
Stars
delivered the petition to the press at a Hollywood restaurant frequented
by stars; on hand was Martin Sheen, who plays a fictional U.S. president
on the NBC television series “The West Wing.”
In
Washington “they made up their minds a long time ago about going to
war. (It’s a) personal feud, that’s part of it,” said Sheen
alluding to the Gulf War under then President George Bush, father of the
incumbent, which did not bring down Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
The
petition, also signed by retired admiral Eugene Carroll and Edward Peck,
a former U.S. ambassador to Iraq, was announced at a news conference
hosted by Mike Farrell, who is co-founder of a new group called Artists
United to Win Without War.
Mike
Farrell said “a tendency of this administration is to imply that
anyone who opposes them is somehow less loyal and patriotic. That’s
not right.”
“We
support rigorous U.N. weapons inspections to assure Iraq’s effective
disarmament.
“However,
a preemptive military invasion of Iraq will harm American national
interests,” said the signatories in their letter.
“Such
a war will increase human suffering, arouse animosity toward our
country, increase the likelihood of terrorist attacks, damage the
economy, and undermine our moral standing in the world. It will make us
less, not more, secure.
“We
reject the doctrine — a reversal of long-held American tradition that
our country, alone, has the right to launch first-strike attacks,”
read the letter.
The
signatories underlined that the “valid U.S. and U.N. objective of
disarming Saddam Hussein can be achieved through legal diplomatic means.
“There
is no need for war. Let us instead devote our resources to improving the
security and well-being of people here at home and around the world.”
