WASHINGTON, Jan 19 (IPS) - As the U.S. government pours troops into the
Persian Gulf region, opposition to the administration's policy of
''pre-emptive war'' against Iraq is growing, with at least half a million
demonstrators turning out in cities across the U.S. and abroad Saturday to
press their case for peace.
Hundreds of thousands of protesters braved freezing temperatures in the
nation's capital to march the five-kilometre route from the Capitol Building
to Washington's Navy Yard, in what organisers said was the largest rally in
recent years at a military base on U.S. soil.
"It really breaks any claim that there's a consensus in this country to go
to war," said Chuck Kaufman, a member of the steering committee for the New
York-based group International Answer, which organised the Washington march.
Saturday's gathering was the second mass mobilisation in Washington
against an Iraq war since October. Simultaneous protests were held in
Canada, Britain, Germany, Italy, Japan, Pakistan, Syria, Egypt, France,
Mexico, the Netherlands, the Philippines, South Korea and Spain.
