WASHINGTON -- What ought to have been the most massive protest ever in Washington, DC Saturday turned into a 1960s love fest, with leftover agendas and slogans from an earlier war. The long-planned march in Washington by the Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER) antiwar coalition, petered out with a skimpy crowd of 25,000 protesters.

Organizers of the protest claim nearly 100,000 people marcheda from the White House to the Capitol to demand an immediate end to the occupation of Iraq. The march concluded with a dramatic "die-in" of 5,000 people surrounding the Capitol. Protesters surged onto the Capitol's south lawn and up the steps, where they were met by a police line. There, Iraq veterans conducted a solemn ceremony to memorialize the US soldiers and Iraqis killed in the war.

One-hundred-and-ninety-seven people, including dozens of veterans and activists, were arrested when they tried to deliver their anti-war message to Congress and were stopped by the police.

Among the arrested were Adam Kokesh, Liam Madden, Jeff Millard, and Garrett Reppenhagen of Iraq Veterans Against the War, ANSWER coalition national coordinator Brian Becker, former US Army colonel Ann Wright, and Michael Prysner, Iraq war veteran and ANSWER activist in Florida.

Nearly 4,000 US soldiers and, possibly, up-to-1-million Iraqis have died since the US invasion in March 2003.

The protest began in Lafayette Park, directly across from the White House, ironically the site of a war memorial, with military monuments from the past. One monument celebrates military instruction, hardly the right venue for a protest against President George W. Bush's attempt to reshape the Middle East.

By noon, the crowd was minimal, perhaps a few thousand people in the center of the park, listening to a variety of antiwar activists, including young Autumn Ashanti, a child who read her antiwar poems. Though half the protesters appeared to be university students attending the first march, the motley crowd of 1960s peaceniks was definitely gray.

Typical of earlier protests were the hangers-on: the animal rights people, labor activists, the Hare Krishnas, and others, too many of them hawking tee-shirts, pamphlets for their causes, and stickers and lapel buttons - the usual entrepreneurs who want to make a quick buck, no matter what the event or what side of the issue is being protested.

Somewhat more impressive were the placards and the attire of hundreds of protesters who took the time and effort to create a unique poster or statement about the war. "Who Would Jesus Torture?" read one sign.

Other signs included: "Iran Is My Next Victim," "Death Thanks George Bush for All the Overtime," "Troops Home Before Christmas," and one decorated with a picture of Osama Bin Laden, accompanied by the words "He's Free, Are We?" Hundreds of machine-printed posters proclaimed the need to impeach George Bush and end the war.

The march from Lafayette Park to the US Capitol led by "Veterans against the War" was colorful, though marked by minor disturbances and pro-war activists standing on the sidelines. Musicians, bikers, and Rolling Thunder veterans accompanied the movement through the streets.

Why so few people?

Many of the demonstrators said they were disillusioned with much of what has been going on in America during the past six-and-a-half years of George Bush's term in the White House.

The left, in particular, points not simply to the war, but environmental degradation, a collapsing infrastructure, economic stagnation that has reduced purchasing power (except for the very rich), an irrational foreign policy, and a government that appears to be unwilling to implement significant change on any major issue.

Source: Middle Est Times