"BRING THE TROOPS HOME!" MOOD GROWS HOSTILE TO BUSH'S ENDLESS WAR

"BRING THE TROOPS HOME!" MOOD GROWS HOSTILE TO BUSH'S ENDLESS WAR

By John Catalinotto

August 28, 2003--Another GI was killed in Baghdad on Aug. 26--the 139th since President George W. Bush declared the war over on May 1. As many news reports noted the next morning, this is more than were killed during the U.S. invasion.

The same day Bush promised American Legionnaires in St. Louis "no retreat" from Iraq and an endless war between "civilization and chaos." He claimed to represent civilization.

The next morning two more GIs died while fighting the Iraqi resistance.

Meanwhile, the U.S. people, on a collision course with Bush, were finding ways to express their dissatisfaction with the continuing occupation of Iraq.

A Newsweek poll released Aug. 23 found that about 70 percent of the U.S. population thought the U.S. would be "bogged down" in Iraq for years. More wanted troops out than wanted them kept in. And for the first time, more people wanted Bush replaced in 2004 than wanted him to stay.

Articles in this issue of Workers World show that polls weren't the only area where people showed their opposition to the occupation.

At the commemorative civil rights rally held in Washington on Aug. 23, anti-war statements drew the most enthusiastic applause and cheers.

A packed meeting at a Black church in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Aug. 19 showed strong support for parents of GIs in Iraq who wanted their children back with them, and for war resisters.

The same week protesters hit the streets of Chicago and of Richmond, Va., to protest war and occupation; they confronted Attorney General John Ashcroft in Detroit to oppose the "Patriot Act"; and they marched outside Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's home in Taos, N.M, as the unpopular warmaker was meeting with equally unpopular Vice President Dick Cheney.

The media took notice of the new developments. On Aug. 22, Financial Times reporter James Harding used the Chicago demonstration as an example of "a new season of anti-war protest with a fresh message: 'Bring the troops home now!'"

The ANSWER coalition, which led many of last year's anti-war actions, has called for local protests against the occupation of Iraq and Palestine for the Sept. 25-28 period, followed by a national march on Washington on Oct. 25. The major slogan for Washington: "Bring the troops home now!"