Pacific Views

Follow Up on Portland's Protest

Yesterday, Raed Jarrar spoke at the Portland stop-the-war protest. According to NPR this morning, Portland had a largely peaceful crowd and very few ant-anti-war protestors. Whole families came to express their views including families whose loved ones were in Iraq or about to deploy to Iraq. Here's the Oregonian's take:

Marching to the solemn cadence of church bells in downtown Portland, thousands of anti-war protesters marked four years of war in Iraq on Sunday with rage, lamentation and demands for President Bush to bring U.S. troops home.

Under a sky of drifting silver clouds, the marchers, many carrying signs with slogans such as "Jail to the Chief," "Bring My Sister Home," and "Jesus Hates War," moved peacefully along the 24-block route.

And here's the AP's take:

The Portland protest was one of several around the country over the weekend and one of the larger ones, with the crowd numbering in the thousands. Organizers said there might have been as many as 15,000 people at the staging point for the march. Police did not give a crowd estimate.

Families, students and older citizens participated in the demonstration, with scores of officers on bicycles and afoot keeping watch.

The protest started with a rally at Portland's South Park Blocks. Raed Jarrar, an Iraqi and human rights activist, told the crowd that only a few Iraqis collaborate with U.S. forces, so the war is now between the occupiers and almost everyone else in the country.

The war "is happening because of the occupation, not in spite of it," said Jarrar, who left Iraq after Saddam Hussein was toppled and now lives in the United States.

"There are Iraqis who can rebuild their country," he said. "They don't need someone to come from thousands of miles away to tell them how to treat their neighbor. They are the only ones who can end this violence."

Steve Weiss of Salem accompanied a group of people with children who are in the military and said his 18-year-old son will leave for Iraq April 11.

"Kids go in for all sorts of reasons," he said. "I think physically he's really well trained, but mentally, I think he has no idea what he is getting into."

The Oregonian says that 15 people were arrested. That's a pretty small group of people when you realize that the number of people who marched was close to 15,000.

It would have been nice to take part in that march. Maybe next year unless we can finally bring this horrible war to an end before then.