Around the world hundreds of thousands joined similar protests as the bombs and missiles rained down on Iraq.

Patriotic demonstrations supporting the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq also took place in several U.S. cities--the biggest such rallies since the launching of the war.

"I believe the war is unnecessary and I doubt what the government says," said Sara Chaudry, 18, a student at Walt Whitman High School in Long Island who joined the New York march. "I believe this is a war for domination of the Middle East and for control of oil. I’m also concerned about the human cost."

Chaudry described the pressure that has been coming down on students who openly oppose the war. "Some teachers are fine with our views," she said. But other teachers and pro-war students have threatened her and other classmates.

"I was saying that it’s not unpatriotic to oppose the war. I said that not everything should be done just for self interest. That’s when one teacher really went crazy," Chaudry stated, "He told me if I think that way I should leave the country and shut up."

Most contingents throughout the march carried signs and banners and chanted various "peace" slogans such as--"What do we want? Peace!" and "Give peace a chance." Slogans and signs aimed at U.S. president George Bush, such as "Drop Bush, not bombs!", were also prominent. A group of about 100 students from several area universities marched down Manhattan’s 34th Street and fed into the demonstration chanting, "Hell no, we won’t go, we won’t fight for Texaco!" Others took up the popular chant "No blood for oil!"

As in previous demonstrations, support for the French government’s stance on the U.S.-led war against Iraq was expressed on several occasions by some of those marching and along the parade’s route.

At one point a group began singing the French national anthem. A contingent organized by the Young Socialists and Socialist Workers Party countered by chanting, "French troops out of Ivory Coast!" provoking a debate among some at the demonstration about the role of French imperialism.

The daily bloodletting against the Palestinian people by the Israeli army in the occupied territories drew a number of individuals and contingents with Palestinian flags to the action. Chants in support of the Palestinian struggle by these groups were joined a few times by others in the crowd.

United for Peace and Justice and other groups that called the large peace demonstrations leading up to the war have argued that these protests could stop the war. Most organizations within these coalitions hoped that bourgeois political forces-- Democratic party officials, liberal figures in the Bush administration like Colin Powell, the French government or other imperialist powers, or the United Nations--could stay Washington’s hand.

Since Washington launched the slaughter, those who advanced these views have less and less to say.

Unlike all the recent peace demonstrations, the organizers did not plan a rally for either end of the March 22 parade.

The groups that called the previous peace demonstrations over the last few months have not set a date for another national mobilization either.

Instead of a closing rally, a New York Police Department (NYPD) tape recording announcing that "the march is now over" greeted the successive waves of tens of thousands who arrived at Washington Square Park, the end point of the demonstration. Many did not take the NYPD advice and stayed for a while in the park, where political organizations set up literature tables, while musicians and street-theater groups entertained the crowds.

The police presence around the park continued to grow. The situation remained largely peaceful, unlike the February 22 march during which cops were very provocative. In the evening, riot-gear-clad police closed in on the crowd, rounding up and arresting 91 protesters.  
 
Rallies to ‘Support our troops’
A small number of individuals held pro-war signs and yelled pro-war messages at points along the route of the March 22 New York rally. A group of about 50 supporters of Washington’s slaughter formed a counter demonstration at Washington Square Park.

The following day, 1,000 assembled at Times Square in Manhattan for a pro-war rally to answer the antiwar protest.

Reflecting the deepening polarization around the war, patriotic pro-war demonstrations drew large crowds in a number of other cities around the United States.

A group called "Rally for America" has organized a several-city tour featuring pro-war rallies. The group, headed by Glenn Beck, a right-wing radio commentator in Philadelphia, drew 10,000 to a March 23 rally in Glen Allen, Virginia, and thousands to a rally in Fort Wayne, Indiana, the day before.

On March 23, a flag-waving crowd estimated at nearly 17,000 gathered at the state capitol in St. Paul, Minnesota, for a rally "to support our troops." The demonstration was organized by a group headed by a retired army colonel. "Prevent Terrorism! Bomb Saddam" signs were sprinkled through the crowd, which repeatedly erupted in chants of "U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!"

At the same time, an antiwar protest drew some 5,000 people in St. Paul.  
 
Antiwar actions span the globe
In countries around the world hundreds of thousands of antiwar protesters filled the streets as U.S. and British tanks and troops rolled into Iraq.

In Puerto Rico, 10,000 rallied in the capital, San Juan, March 24 against the war.

Rolling protests in Spain brought hundreds of thousands into the streets each day the first three days of the war. These built up on March 22 to demonstrations of several hundred thousand in Barcelona and another of 100,000 in Madrid against the Spanish government’s involvement in the imperialist assault. A quarter of a million marched in London the same day.

In Athens, Greece, some 150,000 protested against the war March 21. In Germany, whose government is part of the same imperialist bloc as Paris and Athens, protests spread to Berlin and other cities.

U.S. embassies and diplomatic offices in some Arab-Persian Gulf countries remained closed March 23, a day after three protesters were fatally shot by the police in Yemen at a demonstration of 30,000 who clashed with cops in front of the U.S. embassy. Over 15,000 students protested at four Egyptian universities March 23.

In Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, demonstrators threw stones and empty bottles at the U.S. embassy and thousands marched to a United Nations office. In Jordan police repeatedly clashed with thousands of angry students lambasting the U.S. slaughter next door.

With a U.S.-led occupation army still fighting in their country, about 1,000 antiwar protesters took to the streets in Mehtar Lam, Afghanistan.Other protests spread in New Zealand, Vietnam, Thailand, and South Korea. In Australia, whose government has sent 2,000 troops to join the "coalition of the willing," tens of thousands joined protests March 23. About 100,000 marched in Lahore, Pakistan, the same day. Thousands rallied in several Japanese cities, including Hiroshima, at a memorial for the 250,000 killed by the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki by Washington--the only government that has ever used nuclear weapons.  
 
 
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