The march and rally, which grew to around 3,000, was led by a group carrying 100 cardboard coffins draped in the U.S. flag. Organizers said the coffins symbolized U.S. troops killed in Iraq, which now exceed 1,500. U.S. authorities and the succession of U.S.-backed Iraqi administrations have not provided information on the number of Iraqi deaths. Iraq Body Count, a database run by a group of academics and peace activists, has placed Iraqi civilian deaths at between 17,000 and 20,000.
Placards and banners throughout the crowd expressed patriotic opposition to the war. “Peace is Patriotic,” read some. “Real support for the troops! Bring them home now!” read a large banner over the stage. Other signs and banners were directed at President George Bush and top officials of his administration.
Speakers consisted mostly of veterans of the 1991 and 2003 wars against Iraq and family members of soldiers who are currently deployed in Iraq or died in the war. The largest applause was given to Camilo Mejia, a former Florida National Guard staff sergeant who refused to rejoin his unit in Iraq after returning home on a two-week leave in October 2003. Mejia filed an application for a discharge as a conscientious objector from the military in March 2004. He was sentenced in May by a military court to one year in prison on the charge of desertion. “I don’t stand before you today to say the war in Iraq is criminal and immoral. I have learned that all wars are criminal and immoral,” Mejia said. He was released from prison in February.
Michael Hoffman, a former Marine corporal during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, was cheered by the crowd when he called for immediate and unconditional withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. “As soldiers we were trained to kill, we were not taught how to rebuild anything,” said Hoffman, one of the founders of Iraq Veterans Against the War.
A few busses each came to the rally from Atlanta, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and Knoxville, Tennessee. People also car pooled from North and South Carolina.
Two high school students, Abby Guinane and Katie Hamelin, from Schodack, New York, came with their parents to the Central Park peace rally. Both had attended the antiwar demonstration in Albany, the state capital, the Wednesday before. “I don’t like war, and we are killing people and it’s not their fault,” said Abby. “We are there under false pretenses,” Katie told the Militant. “Now that Saddam is gone, I don’t see why we are still over there.”
Addressing the rally, Charles Rangel, Democratic congressman from the 15th district in Harlem, said, “It’s one thing to go to war, it’s another thing to mislead the American people. If they had been in combat, or their children would have had to fight in the war, there never would have been this war.” Rangel had introduced a bill in Congress prior to the invasion to reinstate the military draft on that “patriotic” premise.
“They are trying to put me away for 30 years,” said Lynne Stewart, another speaker. The lawyer was convicted in February on five charges of “conspiracy to provide material support to terrorist activity” for the way she defended Sheik Abdel Rahman. “I am part of the war here at home, the war against democratic rights. I intend to fight this conviction,” she said. Stewart will be sentenced in September.
Other speakers included Larry Holmes, who represented Troops Out Now; Brian Becker of ANSWER; Chris Silvera of the Million Worker March; former U.S. attorney general Ramsey Clark; Pam Afrika of the Mumia Abu-Jamal defense campaign; and Teresa Gutierrez of the New York Committee to Free the Cuban Five.
Holding the flags of countries invaded by the United States armed forces, a group of about 15 counterdemonstrators heckled antiwar protesters in Central Park.
Protesters targeted military recruitment centers for civil disobedience. Police arrested 27 at the center near Times Square.