Eyewitness:Thousands March in DC, Call on Obama to End Occupation

[happy_liberal]

Washington,D.C. - It's not much of a surprise that Arlington Police and over 1300 Anti-war organizations would differ on the turnout numbers for the ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) Coalition led anti-war protest, but if police presence was any indication (as well as careful examination of my pictures), it certainly looked like authorities were more prepared to deal with between 6 and 8 thousand marchers a opposed to the lowballed 2,500 estimate offered by official sources.

At approximately noon on Sat. Mar 21, clearly a few thousand had gathered at 23rd and Constitution (under the shadow of the Washington Monument) to inicate dissatisfaction that the Iraq War (or occupation, depending on who's legal definition one accepts) begins it's 7th year.

The range of expression varied between reason, concern, and anger. A well organized platform of speakers included delegations from Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW), Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW),TheWorldCantWait.Org, Muslim American Society Freedom (MASF), the National Council of Arab Americans (NCA), Veterans For Peace-National (VFP) as well as pro-Palestinian, Filipino, Muslim clerics and an Iraqi poet and dozens of others who sought to express common ground on their basic disappointments in what they percieve as the new Obama administration's failure to correctly reframe the War on Terror. Their immediate concerns include increasing apprehension over plans for a surge in Afghanistan and recent forays across the Pakistani border.

Protesters, representing hundreds of organizations, bussed in from all four corners of the United States and Canada to attend what was essentially the first mass mobilization since Barack Obama won the presidency on Nov.4,2008.

The speeches were not dominated by simple invective against the Obama administration, however. Many people, such as Elaine Johnson, an African American mother who lost her son in Iraq, said "I'm happy to have an African American president, but it doesn't matter who's in office--we need to end the war in Afghanistan."

http://www.nowpublic.com/world/eyewitness-thousands-march-dc-call-obama-end-occupation

[BeFree]

1. The bushco legacy

Bushco led us down this path with lies and cheating and the only people happy are the contractors who are making a killing from all the killing.

Obama is not to blame, and he did promise to get us out of there, but he's fighting the contractors and the pentagon to make it happen.

[happy_liberal]

2. he's fighting the contractors and the pentagon to make it happen.

I pray you are right.

[upi402]

8. One executive order and it's overwith n/t

[musical_soul]

13. Agreed.....

but honestly, it's irresponsible to just pull out. We need to help prepare the Iraqis. Obama said
this before he was elected.

[upi402]

17. You're right, and I agree with Obama

I think we're there soon. Just don't want that fallacy to be foisted. I think he's doing well with the drones as well, not easy choices at all.

[Nikki Stone1]

3. Nothing will stop until Iran is taken down (the original goal) and then there will

be US occupation of the ME in its entirety. That's the goal and it goes beyond any specific president, who is just there as the PR guy to sell it.

[happy_liberal]

4. or as a cop tells Cindy

“The wars will stop when we nuke them and take their oil.”
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8025882

[Nikki Stone1]

6. Wow. An honest cop. (Joking, only joking)

But that is the plan. This strategy has had the trifold goal of surrounding Russia, threatening China on its border, and taking Iran. Once you look at a map, it all becomes very clear.

[Odin2005]

10. Oh please, don't be hysterical.

[Nikki Stone1]

14. Look at a map.

And then talk to anyone you know in the military or the Pentagon. That's what I did.

[Odin2005]

19. Just because the Pentagon has plans doesn't mean they will use them.

We have plans for an invasion of Canada, too, or so I've heard, but I don't think we will be invading Canada. People here were screaming for years that DimSon was going to invade Iran and nothing happened, you guys cried wolf too many time.

[earth mom]

11. I think you're right. Iran is the end goal. nt.

[Nikki Stone1]

15. One of them, yes.

The other is to reduce Russia's power over its immediate border nations.

[scheming daemons]

5. He's working on it....

....sorry it isn't fast enough for some.... but it's happening.

[happy_liberal]

7. it is not fast enough for the millions that have been killed in Iraq

It is not fast enough for the innocent people being killed by drones every day.

You are right. It is not fast enough. When we went into Iraq, Rumsfeld said it would be two weeks...now 7 years later...and don't get me started on Afghanistan....



"What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?" Gandhi

[Odin2005]

9. ANSWER? FAIL!

ANSWER's presence just reinforces the ability for the PTB to dismiss the protest as "a bunch of loonies".

[earth mom]

12. I remember when a thread like this would be kicked to the top of the greatest

and have tons of photos of the protest posted too.

DU has seriously gone off the rails to the dark side. :(

[Nikki Stone1]

16. Glad you said it.

If I had said it, I'd be accused of all kinds of nefarious deeds. But I do agree.

[Individualist]

18. +1

[Odin2005]

20. Or maybe being against the Iraq War doesn't mean one is a pacifist fool?

I think some people mistook opposition to idiot-son's invasion of Iraq to support for pacifism.