1000+ March For Peace in ABQ; Sea of Crosses Honor Troop Deaths in Santa Fe

UPDATE 3/20/06: Kathy F. posted a link in the comments section to some photos she took at the London protest and posted on her blog What Do I Know?. Go take a look.

There were Iraq War protests all over the world yesterday, including a red rose show of solidarity with Iraqi women in Istanbul, Turkey (above). According to the Albuquerque Journal, more than 1,000 people joined the antiwar protest in the Duke City yesterday. Excerpts:

With the same refrain that echoed through Albuquerque three years ago - chants, songs and pleas such as "Stop the War," "Impeach Bush and Cheney," "Give Peace a Chance" - more than 1,000 anti-war protesters marched from the University of New Mexico to Downtown to mark the third anniversary of the start of the Iraq War.

"Why have we created this destruction?" Travis McKenzie, an 18-year-old UNM student, asked in the midst of the long line of people that stretched to the west on Central Avenue. "You still to this day cannot get a good answer. And it's all propaganda when they do give you the (expletive) on the news, in the media."

... they came from all walks of life. From the "Raging Grannies" to middle-aged dads pushing baby strollers, people with dogs, spiked-haired, saggy-jean-wearing teens and a band of bicyclists.

Outside the UNM bookstore, words that read "spying," "fear," "no peace with occupation" and "chicken hawk recruiting" were scrawled on the sidewalk.

... Part-time waitress Mary Kraft of Albuquerque held up a sign, "Bring My Grandson Home Now." He was recruited by the Army while at Eldorado High School. He's been in Iraq for six months.

"I'm doing it (protesting) for everybody," she said. "I think it's just criminal that they have their recruiters all over our high schools. Because at the age of 17 that was not a good decision for him to make."

Laura Berg, a government employee who was investigated for possible sedition after writing a newspaper letter to the editor criticizing President Bush, was a featured speaker, as was Anthony Garcia, a former Marine who served in Iraq for seven months at the start of the war.

He talked of Iraqi women and children being used as shields and troops being forced shoot them. He said a "little boy" he killed returns to him in his dreams all the time. "He tells me, 'I'm OK,' '' he said.

Protesters at Trevi Fountain, Rome

Another article in the Albuquerque Journal describes an observance in Santa Fe called "2 Days at Arlington West" organized by Veterans for Peace to honor the troops who have given their lives in the Iraq War:

The 276-foot long banner with its photos of U.S. service members killed since the war in Iraq began three years ago tells the story better than any words could.

So does the sea of white crosses, each one gently pressed into the earth outside the College of Santa Fe.

The message: Here is what the war in Iraq has cost, measured in the lives of servicemen and women. Veterans for Peace, the group organizing the two-day memorial dubbed "2 Days at Arlington West," said the event wasn't a protest.

Each cross bore the name of a soldier killed in Iraq. Members of Veterans for Peace and other volunteers planned to install 1,000 crosses for the temporary memorial in an open field in front of the College of Santa Fe. Other Veterans for Peace groups will be setting up crosses in California; there will be more than 2,000 crosses set up in the Western part of the country. The number of dead in Iraq so far totals more than 2,300.