Several dozen protesters in Lihu‘e flashed signs decrying the cost of the Iraq war, yesterday evening, on the fifth anniversary of the U.S. invasion. The Kaua‘i group — which joined thousands of people across the nation in demonstrations, marches and
Several dozen protesters in Lihu‘e flashed signs decrying the cost of the Iraq war, yesterday evening, on the fifth anniversary of the U.S. invasion.
The Kaua‘i group — which joined thousands of people across the nation in demonstrations, marches and memorials — was greeted with honks of support from the pau hana crowd.
Gathered in front of the U.S. Army Recruiting Office on Kuhio Highway, about 60 people held posters contrasting the price of the war with services that the same amount could provide in Hawai‘i — from schools to health care to jobs to affordable housing.
Katy Rose, one of the event organizers, said the numbers and dollars message was a concerted effort to speak to the average Kaua‘i resident.
“There is a very real economic cost to us here in Hawai‘i,” Rose said. “Our social needs are not being met as a result of the money going into the war in Iraq.”
That message resonates with Puhi resident Raymond Catania, who says his family, like many others, struggles to make ends meet.
“We need to help Iraq rebuild and take care of (Hawai‘i’s) unmet needs,” said Catania, whose sign read: “Iraq War or 600,000 Hawai‘i people with health care.”
Protester and Kapa‘a resident Sandy Herndon said her main concern is the human cost.
“What if that one life was Gandhi or Martin Luther King Jr. — how much is that worth,” she asked. “We don’t know who’s being killed and who the world is being deprived of.”
From Alaska to Miami, the war was called into question across the country yesterday.
Protesters blocked traffic and government buildings in Washington, acted out a Baghdad street scene in upstate New York and banged drums in San Francisco.
In other, more somber observances, organizers set up a 2-mile display of about 4,000 T-shirts in Cincinnati, meant to symbolize the members of the U.S. military killed in Iraq, while in Louisville, Ky., demonstrators lined rows of military boots, sandals and children’s tennis shoes on the steps of a courthouse.
Laurie Wolberton of Louisville, Ky., whose son just finished an Army tour of duty in Iraq, said she fears the worsening U.S. economy has caused Americans to forget about the war.
“We’re not paying attention anymore,” she said. “My son has buried his friends. He’s given eulogies, he’s had to go through things no one should have to go through, and over here they’ve forgotten. They just go shopping instead.”
On previous anniversaries, tens of thousands of people marched through major U.S. cities, and more than 100,000 gathered on several occasions leading up to the invasion.
Only a few hundred mustered for one of Wednesday’s largest gatherings, in Washington, the crowds’ size perhaps kept in check by a late-winter storm system that stretched the length of the country.
Dozens of people were arrested, most of them at demonstrations in San Francisco, Washington and Syracuse, N.Y.
On the West Coast, San Francisco police arrested about 150 protesters by early afternoon for blocking traffic and chaining themselves to buildings, police said.
The rallies, which drew hundreds to the city’s busy financial district, were mostly peaceful, however. Black balloons were tied to trees along San Francisco’s main downtown thoroughfare, and protesters at a table offered coffee, oranges and “unhappy birthday cake” to passers-by.
In Anchorage, Alaska, vandals dumped a gallon of red paint on a war veterans memorial, police spokesman Lt. Paul Honeman said.
A pair of boots for every Minnesota soldier killed in Iraq stood in the state Capitol rotunda.
In New York City, women sang songs and counted out the war dead outside the military recruiting station in Times Square, which was recently the target of a bomb.
Half a dozen war protesters in Miami dressed in black placed flowers outside the U.S. Southern Command during rush hour Wednesday morning.
About 30 protesters gathered in San Antonio in front of the Alamo, a famous battle site.
“How can we have victory when there’s nothing to win?” James Berbiglin, a 73-year-old retired Army chaplain who served in Vietnam, said of Iraq.
Outside a military recruitment office in Washington, protesters were met by a handful of counterdemonstrators, one of several shows of support for the war and the troops.
Colby Dillard, who held a sign reading, “We support our brave military and their just mission,” pointed to some red paint that one of the war protesters had splattered on the sidewalk.
“The same blood was spilled to give you the right to do what you’re doing,” said Dillard, who said he served in Iraq in 2003.
Earlier, about 150 people, mostly with the group Veterans for Peace, marched down Independence Avenue. Many of them carried upside-down American flags, which they said symbolized a nation in distress.
The Iraq war has been unpopular both abroad and in the United States, although an Associated Press-Ipsos poll in December showed that growing numbers think the U.S. is making progress and will eventually be able to claim some success in Iraq.
• Associated Press writers in Washington, D.C.; Hartford, Conn.; Miami; Syracuse, N.Y.; San Francisco; Milwaukee; Springfield, Mass.; Louisville, Ky.; New York; San Antonio; and St. Paul, Minn contributed to this report.
