Thousands of protesters marched against the Iraq war and the government of President George W. Bush on Saturday in Los Angeles and San Francisco, just days ahead of crucial congressional elections.
In Los Angeles, some 2,000 demonstrators rallied in Hollywood chanting anti-war slogans such as "Give peace a chance" and "The war is over if you want it," in references to hit protest songs by the late Beatle John Lennon.
More standard chants included "US out of Iraq" and "Endless war means endless profits."
Speakers at the event included anti-war activists Cindy Sheehan, whose son was killed in Iraq, and Ron Kovic, a Vietnam war veteran whose story was immortalized on the screen by actor Tom Cruise in the movie "Born on the Fourth of July."
Several hundred people also marched in San Francisco, a bastion of liberal anti-war sentiment, local news media reported.
In Chicago, a group of anti-war demonstrators fanned out across the city with bull horns, banners, leaflets and petitions.
The protests come just ahead of crucial November 7 midterm elections, in which opposition Democrats may take control of the US Congress from the governing Republicans.
A majority of US voters have turned against the war in Iraq, with a poll by the Pew Research Center out Thursday showing that support for the war at 37 percent, down ten points from just one month earlier.
The growing opposition to the US presence in Iraq has yet to translate into massive street protests.
Source: AFP
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