Protesters mark war anniversary [Archive] - Marine Corps

thedrifter

03-18-07, 09:24 AM

Posted on Sun, Mar. 18, 2007
Anger reigns as opposing groups protest

BY STEVE VOGEL and MICHAEL ALISON CHANDLER
Washington Post

WASHINGTON — Thousands of anti-war demonstrators calling attention to the fourth anniversary of the war in Iraq marched on the Pentagon Saturday, jeered along the way by large numbers of angry counter-protesters.

Organizers billed the anti-war rally as marking the 40th anniversary of the 1967 march on the Pentagon. At times, verbal clashes during the day demonstrated that the bitter divisions of four decades ago sparked by Vietnam are very much alive in the debate over Iraq.

The march, part of a weekend of protests that included smaller demonstrations in other U.S. cities and abroad, comes as the Bush administration sends more troops to Iraq in an attempt to regain control of Baghdad and Congress considers measures to bring U.S. troops home.

Paul Miller, 72, a Korean War-era Marine Corps veteran who flew from California for the march with his brother, was making his first appearance at an anti-war rally. "I was like everybody else. I trusted the people who ran the country, and I'm tired of being lied to," Miller said, a beret with a Marine Corps pin on his head. "I feel so bad for the young Marines who are getting their legs blown off and losing their lives."

Organizers said Saturday's march on the Pentagon reflected a sense of betrayal in the public over the escalation of the war. As some speakers called for the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, others denounced Congress in equally bitter terms for not cutting off funding for the war. Yet attendance at Saturday's march was noticeably smaller than one held in Washington in January, police said.

Much of the passion Saturday was supplied by thousands of counter-demonstrators, many of them veterans who mobilized from across the country to gather around the Vietnam Memorial. Some said they came in response to appeals on the Internet to protect the Wall against what they feared would be acts of vandalism; no such acts were reported.

Others said they were tired of anti-war protesters claiming to speak for the country. "I'm here because I think we need to commit to our troops in the field," said Guy Rocca, 63, a veteran who drove nine hours from Detroit.

Some counter-protesters yelled obscenities and mocked the marchers as traitors. Anti-war protesters responded with angry words of their own, and police intervened at times to prevent shouting matches from escalating.

A group of protesters who tried to reach the Pentagon by charging toward the south parking lot ended up in a tense standoff with police. Five arrests were made in the incident. But beyond shoving matches, no violence was reported.

Anti-war protest leaders said a large winter storm that hit the Northeast hurt turnout. It was quickly apparent that the weather had not prevented counter-demonstrators, many in black leather motorcycle jackets, from showing up in force and surrounding all sides of the Wall.

Organizers, who had predicted tens of thousands of anti-war marchers would demonstrate, gave estimates ranging from 15,000 to 30,000.

he counter-demonstrators ringed the Lincoln Memorial and continued along portions of Memorial Bridge. "You've got no pride and no honor," yelled Kenneth Murpy, a Vietnam veteran from North Carolina.

When marchers reached the Virginia side of the bridge, they were greeted by more protesters at the traffic circle in front of Arlington National Cemetery, along with a banner that read in part: "You dishonor our dead on Hallowed ground." The anti-war protesters might have found the warmest reception of the day at the Pentagon, where police had the building blocked off, but no counter-demonstrators were waiting.

"It's strange to say, but welcome to the Pentagon," said protest leader Mara Veheyden-Hilliard, speaking on a stage in the north parking lot as the first streams of marchers began arriving.

A group of protesters who tried to reach the Pentagon by charging toward the south parking lot ended up in a tense standoff with police. Five arrests were made in the incident. But beyond shoving matches, no violence was reported.

Organizers, who had predicted tens of thousands of anti-war marchers would demonstrate, gave estimates ranging from 15,000 to 30,000.

Anti-war protest leaders said a large winter storm that hit the Northeast hurt turnout. It was quickly apparent that the weather had not prevented counter-demonstrators, many in black, leather motorcycle jackets, from showing up in force and surrounding all sides of the Wall.

At one point before the march started, counter-demonstrators formed a gantlet along an asphalt walkway on Constitution Avenue and heaped verbal abuse at protesters who walked through on their way to the assembly area. One Vietnam veteran in a wheelchair yelled obscenities at demonstrators.

Still, many of the demonstrators took a respectful attitude toward police and military.

Among those marching on a day of cold, whipping wind was Maureen Dooley of Melfa, Va., who first marched on the Pentagon when she was 18; now she is 58. "I came, as I did today, to be quietly counted among the people opposed to this war," she said.

Dooley said she wished she could "apologize for my generation" for the way the antiwar movement treated Vietnam veterans on their return home. "This time we're with our young men and women," she said.

Ellie