Home > Protesters outside White House demand troop pullout from Iraq - Thu Jan 11
Protesters outside White House demand troop pullout from Iraq - Thu Jan 11
by Open-Publishing - Thursday 11 January 20072 comments
Demos-Actions Movement Wars and conflicts USA
Protesters rally in front of the White House. About 40 protesters staged a noisy protest outside the White House demanding withdrawal of US troops from Iraq as President George W. Bush unveiled a plan that would add 20,000 more (Photo: Brendan Smialowski)
WASHINGTON - About 40 protesters staged a noisy protest outside the White House demanding withdrawal of US troops from Iraq as President George W. Bush unveiled a plan that would add 20,000 more.
"Stop the war! Troops home now!" the demonstrators yelled in a non-stop chant at the property gates under the watch of security officers.
Bush had just finished delivering a televised address to the nation in which he said 20,000 more US troops were needed in Iraq to quell the violence but warned the bloodshed would not end any time soon. More than 3,000 US troops have died since the March 2003 US-led invasion.
Protesters carried signs reading "My brother is in Iraq. Bring him home now" and "Send the twins. Send George," a reference to Bush’s adult twin daughters.
Tambourines and a large brass bell added to the deafening thunder of a man banging on a soup kettle as the protesters doggedly kept up their shouts.
Sam Crook, of nearby Maryland, held aloft a huge placard reading: "Lying is not leadership. Impeach Bush and Cheney."
Crook said he heard part of Bush’s speech on a radio in the crowd. "Mostly a crock of lies, anyway," said the middle-aged protester.
The president "is doing this to save face. The next guy who comes (to the presidency) will be stuck cleaning up the mess," he said.
Jay Mason of The World Can’t Wait organization, which wants to impeach Bush for war crimes, condemned the president’s decision to deploy more troops, saying then-president
Richard Nixon had "made the same mistake in Vietnam."
Voters put Democrats in charge of Congress in the November elections mainly because they opposed the Iraq war, Mason said, and if the Democrats back Bush’s proposal, "it’s betrayal."
The Washington resident likened the current situation in the United States to Germany under the Nazis, citing concentration of power in the executive, anti-immigration acts and "mass patriotic appeals."
According to a newly released USA Today/Gallup Poll, 61 percent of Americans surveyed said they opposed a US troop increase in Iraq, compared with 26 percent who supported it.
Anti-war protesters demonstrate in front of the White House, Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2007, as President Bush was making his address to the nation about his new policy dealing with the Iraq war. Bush said he will send 21,500 additional U.S. troops to Iraq to quell its near-anarchy and for the first time acknowledged he had erred by failing to order a military buildup last year. (Photo: Ron Edmonds)
An anti-war protester shouts slogans as she holds a banner outside the White House in Washington January 10, 2007, after U.S. President George W. Bush delivered a live television address on U.S. military strategy and the situation in Iraq. Several dozen protesters led a demonstration against the U.S.-led war in Iraq. (Photo: Jason Reed)
Forum posts
11 January 2007, 17:51
Mr Bush is still behaving arrogantly, in spite of his loss in the last election. The new majority in congress and that of the American people are against increasing the troops in Iraq. However, Mr Bush is behaving like the losing gambler, who bids for higher money as he loses more.
The problem in Iraq has been initiated by the occupation, and then started to turn into civil war by the action of militias belonging to Abdulaziz Al-Hakim and muktada Al-Sader. The USA troops in Iraq did not bother to take any action against these militias, and let them kill tens of Iraqis everyday in Baghdad. The only thing that bother Mr Bush administration is the people who reject his policies in Iraq, and those who ask for timetable for withdrawal. Those people are being harsened, imprisoned, and even killed by USA troops under various acquisitions such as being insurgents. The bombing of Haifa street in Baghdad a couple of days ago is one example. How any body can justify bombing a residential area at the center of Baghdad. Who can justify killing civilians; women and children buy destructing their homes on their heads?. The Iraqis know that only Mr Bush administration can do that, because it has being doing that. Thus Mr Bush policies in Iraq have led to the killing of much more Iraqis than the former regime did. Moreover it has killed more than 3000 of the American troops, and yet that policy is hungry for more blood in Iraq.
Now it is time to stand and prevent the recent policy of Mr Bush, in order to safeguard both Iraqis and USA troops.
13 January 2007, 15:46
The protesters looked cold!