Protesters decry Iraq war

[pictures from the demonstration]

By FRANZISKA CASTILLO
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: March 21, 2004)

NEW YORK — Tens of thousands of war protesters crowded Madison Avenue yesterday in a vehement yet peaceful display of anger at the Bush administration, a year after the president ordered the invasion of Iraq. The protest was one of 250 held nationwide, including a vigil in Scarsdale later in the evening that drew 15 people.

Pounding drums and carrying effigies, the marchers in New York City included scarred Vietnam veterans and teenagers with pierced faces, elderly women in sensible shoes and earnest Howard Dean fans, many waving signs reading "Bush Lies — Who Dies," and "Iraq — Mother of All Quagmires," among other slogans.

Many criticized both the motive for the Iraq war and its outcome, and said the country had not done enough to stop worldwide terrorism since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. They urged Americans to vote President Bush out of office in November.

"It's really important to send a message to Bush that the American people are tired of being misled," said Melissa Rosen, 45, a Dobbs Ferry bookkeeper and member of Concerned Families of Westchester, a local group marching yesterday. "Instead of going after terrorists, we went into Iraq, which had nothing to do with Sept. 11," Rosen said.

The march, which kicked off at about 1:20 p.m. after an hour of speeches, was coordinated by United for Peace and Justice, an anti-war coalition that also organized most of the other protests yesterday in the United States. Similar marches swept through cities in Italy, England, Australia, Japan and India, among other countries.

In Manhattan, protesters from the northern suburbs joined a diverse and often colorful crowd, which, judging from placards, included "Vegans Against Violence," "Flight Attendants Against the War" and "Staten Islanders Still Against the War."

A delegation of at least 100 Haitian-Americans waved banners in protest of current U.S. involvement in their strife-torn homeland, while a group of Muslim women bearing Palestinian flags urged the government to spend more money on schools, not war.

"We are here for peace, not just in Iraq, not just in Palestine, but all over the world," said Hana Esa, 14, a Yemeni eighth-grader from Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.

Though many causes were represented, the focus yesterday was clearly on Iraq and Bush.

Lisa Aaron, 48, a Hastings-on-Hudson child psychologist, worried about American casualties in Iraq and the war's effect on her patients, some of whom are children with siblings in the military. "I came here to bring the troops home," Aaron said.

Marching at Aaron's side, Naseem Jamali, 59, a Pakistani-American book wholesaler also from Hastings, said he was concerned that the Iraq war could embitter Muslims even in countries considered American allies. On a recent trip to Pakistan, he said, he noticed that even the educated middle class has turned against the United States after the war.

"The people who are quite upset, I could imagine them going to volunteer for a suicide bombing," Jamali said. "They have seething resentments."

"I am despairing that we have gotten into this," said Jean St. George, 76, of Dobbs Ferry. She worried that pulling out of Iraq now would leave the country in chaos, but added that she didn't want to see more American or Iraqi deaths. "We need a new government to rethink this," she said.

When the rally in New York ended, Mary Ellen Singsen, 86, returned to Scarsdale with her daughter, Sarah Nevin, to join 13 other Westchester residents at a second protest held in a light rain outside the Friends Meeting House on Popham Road.

"The message is, 'We don't belong there,' " said Nevin, 56, a therapist from Martha's Vineyard, Mass. "The message is, 'The Iraqis should have self-rule.'"

The small group lined up single-file along a sidewalk outside the building and, huddled under golf umbrellas and holding candles in plastic cups and glass jars, read names from a list of the 568 Americans killed in the war by the weekend. Hank Elkins, a 67-year-old Scarsdale resident, read several of the names while his wife, Nancy, held a flashlight on the list.

Back