shamsery
20-01-03, 10:40 AM
Tens of thousands of antiwar demonstrators converged on Washington yesterday, making a thunderous presence in the bitter cold and assembling in the shadow of the Capitol dome to oppose a U.S. military strike against Iraq.
Throughout a morning rally on the Mall and an afternoon march to the Washington Navy Yard in Southeast, activists criticized the Bush administration for rushing into a war that they claimed would kill thousands of Iraqi civilians, spell disaster for the national economy and set a dangerous and unjustified first-strike precedent for U.S. foreign policy.
They delivered that message on a day when being outdoors tested everyone's endurance. Men, women and children fought off temperatures no higher than 24 degrees in ski masks and goggles, stashes of hot soup in containers in their backpacks. Many sneaked away momentarily to warm up on an idling bus or to grab a cup of coffee...
Organizers of the demonstration, the activist coalition International ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism), said the protest was larger than one they sponsored in Washington in October. District police officials suggested then that about 100,000 attended, and although some organizers agreed, they have since put the number closer to 200,000. This time, they said, the turnout was 500,000. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey would not provide an estimate but said it was bigger than October's. "It's one of the biggest ones we've had, certainly in recent times," he said...
Throughout a morning rally on the Mall and an afternoon march to the Washington Navy Yard in Southeast, activists criticized the Bush administration for rushing into a war that they claimed would kill thousands of Iraqi civilians, spell disaster for the national economy and set a dangerous and unjustified first-strike precedent for U.S. foreign policy.
They delivered that message on a day when being outdoors tested everyone's endurance. Men, women and children fought off temperatures no higher than 24 degrees in ski masks and goggles, stashes of hot soup in containers in their backpacks. Many sneaked away momentarily to warm up on an idling bus or to grab a cup of coffee...
Organizers of the demonstration, the activist coalition International ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism), said the protest was larger than one they sponsored in Washington in October. District police officials suggested then that about 100,000 attended, and although some organizers agreed, they have since put the number closer to 200,000. This time, they said, the turnout was 500,000. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey would not provide an estimate but said it was bigger than October's. "It's one of the biggest ones we've had, certainly in recent times," he said...