A Day For Marching excellent article

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A9611-2004Mar19?language=printer

washingtonpost.com
A Day For Marching


By Medea Benjamin

Saturday, March 20, 2004; Page A23


Thousands of Americans today will mark the first anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq by marching against the war. Why, if the war is officially over and Saddam Hussein has been captured, will residents of some 200 American cities join others around the world and take to the streets? Those of us who have traveled to Iraq to witness firsthand the effects of this occupation have returned with some profound reasons.



"Iraq didn't have weapons of mass destruction and wasn't connected to the September 11 tragedy. George Bush lied, and my son died," said a tearful Fernando Suarez at an unofficial memorial for the fallen soldiers outside Dover Air Force Base, where the bodies of U.S. soldiers are brought home and which is off limits to scrutiny by the media.


We are marching because more than 10,000 innocent Iraqis have died since the U.S. invasion and many thousands more have been wounded, and because we believe the U.S. government must count, acknowledge and provide assistance to them.


We are marching for our children and our families, who have been put at risk by the growing anti-American sentiment stemming from George W. Bush's doctrine of preemptive strikes, his arrogant use of force and his contempt for international law. We are marching because we don't want to continue to squander billions of our tax dollars on war when the funds are needed to provide the public with health care, decent schools and new forms of energy that can eliminate our dependence on other nations' oil.

Finally, we are marching to say that come November, the American people must hold their leaders accountable for taking us into this illegal, unnecessary and disastrous war.

A righteous activist if there ever was one.