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Bush touts Iraq progress; protesters converge on D.C. |
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By Chris Good & Andy Barr
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Posted: 03/19/08 01:47 PM [ET] |
As protesters converged on Washington, D.C. to mark the fifth anniversary of the Iraq invasion, President Bush on Wednesday touted the “hard-fought” progress that has been made in the country and vowed not to give up.
“The answers are clear to me,” Bush said in a speech Wednesday morning. “Removing Saddam Hussein from power was the right decision, and this is a fight we can and must win.”
The president acknowledged “faltering” in the past, pointing to a time last year when “extremist elements were succeeding in their efforts to plunge Iraq into chaos.”
Bush said the troop surge he ordered last year has halted extremist progress and “has done more than turn the situation in Iraq around. It has opened the door to a major strategic victory in the broader war on terror.” The president vowed to “continue to fight the enemy wherever it makes its stand.”
Protesters in the nation’s capital had a different take on the situation in Iraq.
A woman’s voice singing “It’s another fascist day!” blared from loudspeakers in downtown Washington’s McPherson Square as hundreds of costumed protesters milled about the park, temporary headquarters to over 25 anti-war groups.
Organized under the umbrella group United for Peace and Justice, the protesters were set to hold 15 events between 7:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. Wednesday. The events will be spread around the city, from a gathering of cyclists at Dupont Circle to a march on the Democratic National Committee (DNC) on Capitol Hill.
“We want the Democrats to know,” the protesters’ coordinated website reads, “we hold them accountable for the death, destruction and lies, what kind of change and experience we want and that we will continue to take action and intervene in their business until our call for peace is honored and all of our troops come home.”
The Department of Homeland Security warned of traffic delays throughout the day, and by 9:30 a.m. at least one intersection had been closed.
Leslie Cagan, national coordinator for United for Peace and Justice, said she could not estimate how many protesters would attend.
“One of the challenges of organizing such a decentralized day of action like this is that we don’t always get all the precise numbers we’d like, but it’s hundreds of people, you know, when you add it all up,” Cagan said. “By the end of the day we should have a more accurate figure.”
The groups will march on the IRS, the American Petroleum Institute, the National Security Administration, ExxonMobil, Shell, Halliburton, Lockheed Martin, Bechtel, the World Bank, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the DNC. Demonstrations will also take place at the American Indian Museum and the Women’s Memorial at Arlington Cemetery.
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