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Rousing, Emotional Start for War Protest
In a cold rain, organizers with a Gathering of Eagles, a counterprotest group, assemble a stage on the Mall near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
(By Gerald Martineau -- The Washington Post)
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"They are doing everything possible to continue to come," said Brian Becker, national coordinator for the ANSWER Coalition, the march's main sponsor.
Other contingents are coming from such places as New Orleans, Tucson, Houston, Salt Lake City and Florida and California, organizers said.
Yesterday's cold rain did not stop a small group of people from gathering on the sodden, muddy ground of the Mall's Constitution Gardens to preview their countermarch activities.
Members of the Gathering of Eagles group said they plan to voice support for the war and for the troops in Iraq and make sure that the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, near the war protest's starting place, is not desecrated. Antiwar demonstrators said that they, too, respect the memorial.
Organizers with Gathering of Eagles said they also will demonstrate against the protest along the march route. Many with Gathering of Eagles are Vietnam veterans or relatives of soldiers killed in Iraq.
"I've got some friends over there," said Rod Linkous of El Paso, gesturing toward the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. He served two tours in Vietnam in the 1960s and '70s.
"We defended their right to say whatever they want," Linkous, 59, said of war protesters past and present. "They have the freedom of speech. We gave that freedom by fighting and dying for it."
The rain prompted organizers of the war protest to move a news conference scheduled for their assembly grounds at 23rd Street and Constitution Avenue to George Washington University Law School.
Speakers, including the parents of a Marine killed in Iraq, denounced the war and called for the impeachment of President Bush.
Mike Marceau, a disabled Army veteran who served in Vietnam and is vice president of the D.C. chapter of Veterans for Peace, criticized the administration over recent reports of poor conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
"That is unconscionable, and we can't allow that to happen," said Marceau, who said he spent eight months at Walter Reed during 1970 and 1971 recuperating from wounds. "It's time to stop spending money on hurting people and start spending money on healing people."
Carlos Arredondo, who brought to the podium the boots his son Alex wore before he was killed in Iraq in 2004, said the march will honor service members and others who have died in the war. He echoed Marceau's comments about Walter Reed: "The veterans deserve much better."
Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson said Bush and Vice President Cheney should be removed from office for what he described as crimes against the Constitution.
Eugene Puryear, a student at Howard University who has coordinated the participation of college students from across the country, predicted a large showing of youths. We're seeing new people, new energy, new blood," Puryear said. "People who never have been to a demonstration before are now organizing buses."
Staff writers Michael E. Ruane and Martin Weil contributed to this report.