Demonstrations were set to continue across the United States to mark the third anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq, but without the numbers or passion many had expected. Sentiment has been growing across America in favor of a withdrawal of US troops, with more than 500 protests scheduled this weekend opposing the US military presence in Iraq.
But that disfavor made itself felt in only a limited way on the street Saturday, with most acts of public mobilization measured in the hundreds, rather than the thousands, as had been the case ahead of the war.
Speaking to the Washington Post, one organizer stressed, however, that the success of this weekend's protests would be measured by the size of collective efforts around the globe, rather than in any one locale.
"This is a decentralized effort that is happening all across the United States and internationally," Mo Allem of DC Resistance Media Collective told the daily. "Today there are hundreds of thousands of people in the streets all over the place."
Among Sunday's planned protests, organizers in St. Louis, Missouri anticipate some 800 people at a rally at the World's Fair Pavilion.
In New York, activists planned a mournful procession in mid-town Manhattan, ending at Times Square. In New Orleans, a morning rally and brass funeral band caravan led by veterans was scheduled.
In Chicago, in one of the biggest US protests on Saturday, some 7,000 demonstrators clanged bells and blew whistles in support of an immediate withdrawal of US troops.
At a rally Saturday near New York's Times Square, sponsored by a group called "Troops Out Now," some 1,000 protestors called for an immediate US military withdrawal from Iraq.
In Washington, some 1,000 demonstrators rallied outside Vice President Dick Cheney's home. "This racist war has to go," they chanted, some carrying signs reading "Bush Step Down," "Impeachment Now" and "Hands Off Iran."
Anti-war protests were also held in San Francisco and other cities but they failed to draw large crowds.
Although voters have failed to register their displeasure on the street en masse, some observers are predicting a much more palpable show of unhappiness at the ballot box this fall in mid-term congressional elections.
A recent Fox News poll suggested the war will be a key voting issue.
When voters were asked what issue would determine whom they supported for Congress, Iraq ranked second, just behind spending and taxes.
At least one anti-war group, "Voters for Peace" is seeking five million signatures by November on a petition designed to underscore the link between the election and the Iraq war.
"I will not vote for or support any candidate for president or Congress who does not make a speedy end to the war in Iraq, and preventing any future war of aggression, a public position in his or her campaign," the text reads.
Meanwhile 65 percent of those Americans answering a Newsweek magazine poll said President George W. Bush has not handled the war properly.
A poll released last week by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center for the People and the Press showed that two of three Americans disapprove of the way Bush is handling the war, but are not certain of the way forward.
"The sense you get in this poll is that people don't see a lot of good options or a lot of good strategies," said Carroll Doherty, the Pew Center's associate director.
