Thousands Protest Bush Policy

A raucous and colorful multitude of protesters, led by some of the aging activists of the past, staged a series of rallies and a march on the Capitol yesterday to demand that the United States end its war in Iraq.

Under a blue sky with a pale midday moon, tens of thousands of people angry about the war and other policies of the Bush administration danced, sang, shouted and chanted their opposition.

Here are some of them in their own words:

Barbara Abrams, 78, Catholic worker from Rochester, N.Y.
"I think we should pull out of Iraq. I think the 20,000 soldiers should be sent, with all the money, to New Orleans."

Mary Alexander, 56, retired school psychologist from Lynchburg
"There's going to be more bloodshed in Iraq whether we stay there or don't stay there. ... I care a lot about what happens to the Iraqis, but I don't trust the person who's making the decisions, so I can't follow his lead."

Mark Ballard, 30, of New York
"I don't do much protesting. I guess I came to this one because I've been complaining for four years. It's time to sacrifice a Saturday."

Kim Brenegar, 46, of Washington
"I've become very numb to the front-page reporting of deaths. ... We've all become so used to it, it's the norm. I hope today's event will wake up a lot of people and demonstrate that this doesn't have to go on, we can stop this."

Chris Dols, 24, senior at the University of Wisconsin
"I hope that some enlisted person sees this protest on TV and has the courage to stand up and resist deployment to this awful war. That's the only way it's going to end."

Richard Edmonds, 46, bond trader from Chesterfield, Va., viewing exhibits inside the National Gallery of Art during the protest
"I really think the country has forgotten about 9/11 pretty quickly. [But] it's damned if you do, damned if you don't. I think we went in there on very bad information, and [Bush] doesn't know how to get out."

James Fiorentino, 25, senior at the University of Massachussetts
"We're here to say that without us, without the young people, they can't fight this war. They ripped our history away from us, but we will take it back."

Grady Fitzgerald, 52, postal worker from Jersey City
"I've got two children, 21 and 23, and it's now a civil war and our troops are just being targets. I think one of the reasons I'm here today is because the president is not listening to 75 percent of the people."

Bill Henning, vice president of Communications Workers of America Local 1180 in New York
"It's unprecedented for U.S. labor to be against U.S. foreign policy while a war is going on. We never had that [with] Vietnam. Now you can't find anybody in organized labor that supports the war."

Myra Holiday, 47, mail clerk in a Buffalo health care facility
"It seemed like in the beginning they were ... looking [for] weapons of mass destruction and then they found Saddam Hussein and you would think the journey ended, but they still didn't find any weapons. ... And I just ... started thinking our troops should come home."

Joe May, 29, former specialist with the Army's 1st Cavalry Divison in Iraq
"The war as a whole ... is unnecessary and based on lies. If it's an unnecessary war based on lies, and the right mission is unseeable, then the answer is to bring them home now."

Sacha Mercier, 23, a recent graduate from Long Island, N.Y.
"I don't think there's any way to make a clean cut out ... It's probably going to be a civil war for the next few years. But, in all honesty, we've done that to so many other countries that it wouldn't be anything substantial in the history of the U.S."

Cindy Price, 44, of Washington
"I very much support our armed forces. It breaks my heart to see these people coming home dismembered and disabled, or in body bags and caskets. I'm opposed to people dying, Americans and Iraqis."

Memphis Rudder, 21, organizer for World Can't Wait from Paragold, Ark.
"We are trying to get Bush impeached so that every president after this will not think it's okay to commit war crimes. ... It's going to take a massive upheaval from the bottom to make this happen."

Keeanga Taylor, 34, student at Northeastern Illinois University
"We know students are against this war, so it's up to us to build a movement. We have to take this sentiment back to our campuses to build an antiwar movement that can stop the bloodshed."

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tag: Bush, Iraq war, protests