Iraq war foes mass on Mall

Tens of thousands of anti-war protesters led by several Hollywood celebrities converged on Capitol Hill yesterday and railed against President Bush and his plan to send thousands of additional troops to Iraq.

The demonstrators descended on the Mall for one of the largest demonstrations since the Iraq war began in March 2003.

Organizers said they exceeded their goal of 100,000 attendees. Police do not give official crowd estimates, but some officers said privately that the crowd appeared smaller.

Dozens of politicians, civil rights leaders, military family members and celebrities spoke in opposition to the Bush administration’s policy in Iraq and the president’s recent decision to deploy 21,500 additional troops to Iraq.

Among the speakers was Jane Fonda, the actress and Vietnam-era protester, who participated in her first anti-war demonstration in 34 years.

“Thank you so much for the courage to stand up against this mean-spirited, vengeful administration,” Miss Fonda said. “Your ongoing commitment to ending this war allows people in other parts of the world to remain hopeful that America has the stuff to become again a country that they can love and respect.”

In addition to Miss Fonda, Hollywood liberals at the forefront of the event included Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon and Rhea Perlman.

“I’m so sad that we still have to do this, that we did not learn the lessons from the Vietnam War,” said Miss Fonda, whose public protest of the Vietnam War included a trip to Hanoi in 1972, during which she was photographed seated on an anti-aircraft battery.

Miss Fonda, 69, said she had been silent on the subject of the Iraq war because she thought she would be a distraction to the anti-war cause.

“Silence is no longer an option,” she said to cheers.

Her presence at an earlier demonstration at Seventh Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW prompted jeers from a few dozen counterdemonstrators, some of whom held signs that expressed support for the troops in Iraq and disparaged Miss Fonda personally. Some objected to her presence at the site of the Navy Memorial. The sides exchanged hostile and obscenity-laced taunts, but police kept the groups separate.

Among the participants were soldiers being treated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Army Cpl. Joshua Sparling, who lost a leg to a roadside bomb in November 2005 in Ramadi, Iraq, said the anti-war protesters, especially those who are veterans or who are currently on active duty, “need to remember the sacrifice we have made and what our fallen comrades would say if they were alive.”

Cpl. Sparling, 25, is based at Fort Bragg, N.C.

Meanwhile at the White House, spokesman Gordon Johndroe gave Mr. Bush’s reaction to the protest: “The president … understands that Americans want to see a conclusion to the war in Iraq and the new strategy is designed to do just that.”

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