Last-Ditch Anti-War Demos

Some thought war is inevitable, others clung to hope they could slow or stop it. Either way, people in Washington and around the world joined Saturday in an outpouring of dissent no less persistent than the buildup of forces ready to strike Iraq.

The cries against war were summarized on the swarming grounds of the National Mall by Sally Baker, a teacher from Albany, N.Y.: "It's not right. It's not just. It's not going to make us any safer."

Tens of thousands rallied worldwide, in some cases pressing close to the symbols of American power: the Washington Monument and the White House in Washington, the U.S. air base in Frankfurt, Germany, and U.S. embassies in Greece and Cyprus. They also took to the streets throughout Europe, Asia, South America, and the Middle East.

The outpouring of anti-war sentiment comes one month after millions turned out for some of the biggest demonstrations in decades in capitals around the world.

In Baghdad, where the reality of U.S. power could arrive any day, hundreds of thousands protested against the policies of the country poised to invade them.

Whether fatalistic or feeling they could still make a difference, Americans came from great distances to challenge the march toward war and President Bush's justifications for it. They said they were restless.

"The only thing I can do is get out in the street and say 'You're not doing this in my name,"' said Judy Ripley, 50, in Washington from Fort Myers, Fla. Don Ballinger, 42, brought his family from Berea, Ky. "I could make more of a difference here than I could at home right now," he said.

Judy Robbins, 54, of Sedgwick, Maine, came on an 18-hour bus trip with her daughter Zoe, a nurse. "The alternative to being here," she said, "is just to stay home and give up."

Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, a Washington attorney, planned to join the protests.

"Iraq doesn't pose a threat to the United States," she said. "Everyone knows they have nothing to do with Sept. 11. The threat that the world is feeling right now is coming from the Bush administration."

Organizers of the Washington event - a rally near the monument followed by a march around the White House and back - asked people to leave their jobs, their homes or whatever they are doing on the day that war starts, and walk outside.

U.S. Park Police, which no longer estimates the size of rallies, said permits were issued for 20,000 to march but the gathering seemed much larger.

Protest organizers estimated the crowd was in the tens of thousands. It was smaller than some previous demonstrations in the capital against war with Iraq, in part because the date was changed and people had less time to prepare.

A companion rally in San Francisco also drew a smaller crowd of lively participants, including a group called Queers for Palestine and a trio of young women wearing see-through dresses and carrying signs reading, "War is not sexy."

Although Mr. Bush has not been swayed by demonstrations, Gary Sellani, 46, said "the protests around the world have given him great pain in the U.N. and given the U.N. backbone. That will probably be his downfall in 2004."

D.C. police said 20 or more protesters, among about 100 who broke away from the rally, rushed inside the World Bank headquarters, where six were arrested for unlawful entry and others escaped by smashing a window.

CBS News correspondent Stephanie Lambidakis says even though the Washington protest was smaller and quieter than expected, it did represent a broad slice of the electorate, including plenty of stroller-pushing moms, a group the White House has been aggressively courting.

Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., told the Washington rally: "We need a regime change in the United States." But he added that Saddam should be tried for war crimes.

Lewis Wheeler, who came off of one of seven buses that drove to Washington from Boston, said Mr. Bush appears all too eager to unleash the troops.

"It seems like there is momentum building to use these soldiers," he said. "It's more glamorous to go to war than to hang in there with inspections for months and months and do the hard work."

Teri Marche of Madison, Wis., carried an American flag and asserted: "Saddam Hussein is not a threat to us. This is a problem that doesn't need a solution."

Several dozen people stood on a Pennsylvania Avenue corner to challenge the antiwar activists. "We've got to take action," said Ainsley Hargus, 18, of Rockville, Md., a college freshman. "Sitting in a circle singing Kumbaya isn't going to change anything."

In Moundsville, W. Va., several hundred people marched in support of Mr. Bush and the more than 2,500 West Virginian National Guard and reserve members called to active duty.

In Jackson, Mich., where people rallied in a park, Jann Krupa, 54, dared hope the peace mobilization would make a difference. "I think it's pretty obvious that the president is going to do this," she said.

But each week brings more protesters out, she said. "There is still a shred of hope."

Tony Murphy from International Answer, organizer of the protests, said the antiwar movement has encouraged leaders in other countries to resist Mr. Bush's attempt to win broad international sanction for a war.

"The Bush administration wanted to start this a while ago and we think the only reason they haven't is because of the millions of people that have been demonstrating worldwide and in the United States," he said.

Peace vigils were planned Sunday evening in hundreds of cities.

Thousands turned out for rallies in places as far-flung as Australia and New Zealand, Chile, Athens, Bucharest, Moscow and the Philippines.

Hundreds of thousands of protesters wrapped in rainbow peace flags flooded Milan, Italy. Union organizers said the marchers opposed a war even with a second U.N. resolution.

"I'm here to express my opposition to war, to every war," said metalworker Alberto Cislaghi.

Similar sentiments were expressed in Spain, where tens of thousands marched in dozens of cities, including Moron de la Frontera, which houses a military base used by the U.S. Air Force in its war preparations.

"To start a war is hopeless," former Danish Prime Minister Anker Joergensen told 6,000 at a rally in Copenhagen. "It's important to remove the dictatorship (in Iraq) but not through war."

In Brussels, Belgium, cartoons of Mr. Bush were held alongside signs saying "No war for oil."

Hundreds of mostly young Germans blocked the main entrance to the U.S. military's Rhine-Main Air Base near Frankfurt, blowing whistles and brandishing signs such as "no blood for oil."

After a couple of hours, German riot police began picking up those who refused to leave and took them to police headquarters in Frankfurt, where they were to be detained until the protest was over, said police spokesman Peter Liebeck.

Some 50,000 demonstrators gathered in Paris' Place de la Nation under a huge American flag with a Nazi swastika painted over the stars and the words "killers and criminals" written over the stripes.

There was a heavy Muslim element to the Paris march, with many people holding signs written in Arabic and Palestinian flags outnumbering blue U.N. banners.

Hundreds of British Muslims staged their own march in London calling on Islamic countries not to offer bases or logistical support for a war on Iraq.

In the Middle East, most of the protests were directed against the United States and its allies - including Israel. There were protests in Jordan and Lebanon, among other places.

About 7,500 activists chanted "Yankee go home!" in the Turkish port city of Iskenderun, where the U.S. military has been unloading transport equipment.

Asia saw large demonstrations as well, including 10,000 in Tokyo - double the turnout of a month ago.

In Hiroshima, about 2,500 people held candles outside the city's peace monument to spell out "No War" and "No Nukes."

Two thousand South Koreans threw paper doves into the evening sky in downtown Seoul, while some of the 300 protesters in Hong Kong wore mock oil barrels - suggesting that oil, not Iraqi disarmament, is behind the war drive.

In Thailand, about 1,000 people protested outside a U.N. office in Bangkok, listening to speeches from a makeshift stage that was later turned over for karaoke singing.