Anti-War Protests in the States

*"We're a strong military family," said Larry Syverson, a Chesterfield County, Virginia resident and member of Military Families Speak Out, an organization of about 3,000 military families in the U.S. against the war. "Having two sons getting ready to go (to Iraq), I really wanted to support it and I kept looking at it ... but nothing added up to make me support it." The 57-year-old environmental engineer has never protested a war. Syverson believes there are two reasons for the war: access to Iraqi oil and settling an old vendetta between the Bush family and Saddam Hussein.

*Vietnam veteran Gary May, 57, co-chairman of the Veterans for Peace chapter in Evansville, Indianapolis attended the rally in his wheelchair. He said the Iraq war "resonates with those from the Vietnam generation" because it has no clear objective or sign of when it will end.

*"I'm just terribly opposed to the administration and what they've been doing. I think (Bush) lied about why we went in."
-Martha Newton, 77, Melbourne, Florida

*In Eugene, Oregon Sara Rich, who said her daughter went AWOL from the military rather than go back to Iraq for a second tour, stressed the day's theme: Bring the troops home now. "A moment of silence is not enough," she said.

*"I saw what happened during the protests for Vietnam, because when there was enough of them on the street, the government started to pay attention," said Donna Spangler, of Chalfont, Pa. "I lost my brother in Vietnam. I know what it does to families."

*Ed Snyder, 48, of Pennington, Pa. called the Bush administration's decision to invade Iraq "immoral." "The real reason for the war is revenge for 9/11, so it's misguided revenge," Snyder said while sitting in a pew at a church that was a stop on the march. "I totally disagree with it."

*"I don't look it, but I'm very angry about what we're doing," Duluth, Minnesota marcher Lynn Goerdt, carrying a sign reading "Bring the Troops Home Now" said. "We're dying, they're dying, and it isn't changing anything."

Carlos Arredondo of Roslindale, Mass., a neighborhood of Boston, holds up a photo of his son Marine Lance Cpl. Alex Arredondo during an Iraq war protest, Saturday, March 18, 2006 in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston. Arredondo was killed in Iraq in 2004. (AP Photo/Lisa Poole)

Sisters, from left, Anna Peay, of Indianapolis, Mary Jane Mesner, of Indianapolis, Susan Coleman, of Brownsburg, Ind., and Sara Federle, of Indianapolis, cheer a speaker during an anti-war protest on Monument Circle in Indianapolis on Saturday, March 18, 2006. The peace rally was sponsored by Progressive Indiana and the Indianapolis Peace and Justice Center. (AP Photo/Tom Strickland)

Noah Ruona, 5, of Proctor, Minnesota holds a sign while sitting on the shoulders of his father, Matt, during a rally for peace sponsored by the Northland Anti-War Coalition and Students Against War Saturday afternoon. (Clint Auston/News Tribune)

Demonstrators gather in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater during an anti-war protest organized by A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition-L.A. in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles, Saturday, March 18, 2006. The war on Iraq was started three years ago. (AP Photo/Ann Johansson)

Protesters march down 42nd Street in New York during an anti-war protest. Thousands of Americans took to the streets in nationwide protests against the US-led war in Iraq, a light turnout despite rising public opposition to the war. (AFP/Nicholas Roberts)

Protesters portraying US President George W. Bush(front) and Vice President Dick Cheney demonstrate during an anti-war protest in New York's Times Square. Thousands of people marched in several US cities against the US-led war in Iraq. (AFP/Nicholas Roberts)

Anti-war demonstrators protest on the third anniversary of the invasion of Iraq in San Francisco, California, March 18, 2006. Anti-war protesters marched through cities across the world on Sunday, three years after the invasion of Iraq, calling for U.S. and British troops to pull out. (REUTERS/Kimberly White)