ROUNDUP: Anti-war protests cap week of Iraq debate in Washington

Anti-war protestors Saturday punctuated a week of political debate in Washington, marching from the White House to Capitol Hill while war supporters held their own rallies. The protests followed a week of testimony from the top US commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, and ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, who were optimistic that the recent troop surge had improved security conditions despite their own descriptions of continuing violence and dysfunction. The anti-war march in Washington started within a block of the White House, the presidential residence, and followed Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol. Later, police reported about 190 arrests around the building, mostly as protestors seeking to be taken into custody forced their way into cordoned off areas. There were some reports of pepper spray being used to subdue people being arrested. Semi-official estimates put the anti-war rally at around 10,000 people. Marchers carried placards with slogans such as "Out of Iraq" and "End the War Now." There were smaller rallies by supporters of US Iraq policy. As the anti-war marchers massed near the White House, a handful of people on the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and 11th Street waved red, white and blue flags, and one woman held a sign that said "Win the War or Lose to Jihad." On Thursday, US President George W Bush told the nation that by summer 2008 he would withdraw the extra 30,000 troops used in the surge, leaving about US 130,000 soldiers in Iraq. On Friday, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates raised the possibility of cutting the troop commitment even more to reduce the US presence to about 100,000 by January 2009. But Bush also outlined a longer military and financial commitment to Iraq that he conceded would extend into the term of his successor, who will take office in January 2009. Congress is frustrated that the Iraqi government has not made use of the upswing in troops to negotiate political compromises among Iraq's sectarian and ethnic groups. The anti-war left has been particularly vocal that the new Democratic majority that took over Congress in January should take a tougher stand against the Bush administration, with demands ranging from a binding timetable for withdrawal to removing the president from office for invading Iraq under false pretences. Some of Saturday's protestors carried signs criticizing Congress' ineffectiveness and accusing Bush of "war crimes." One sign had a picture of the president and a peach below the word "chimpeach." The anti-war protests are to kick off a week of demonstrations. Scores of Iraq war veterans who have turned against the war participated Saturday along with numerous parents of soldiers killed in Iraq. Vietnam War veterans also had an organized presence. "Drop Bush, not bombs," said one sign. The anti-war demonstrations were organized by the ANSWER Coalition, an acronym for Act Now to Stop War and End Racism. The group itself, which has widely alleged links to fringe Marxist- Leninist groups, is largely ignored by other anti-war groups on the political left, including mainstream activists within the centre-left Democratic Party. On Monday, the activist group moveon.org - among the leftwing groups that avoid Saturday's ANSWER Coalition march - provoked controversy and denunciation with a full-page ad in The New York Times playing on General Petraeus' name. "General Betray-us," the ad charged, claiming that the military leader would only tell Congress what the White House directed him to. As Petraeus testified in Congress, Republican legislators voiced outrage at the attack on a field commander of US troops in combat. Petraeus read a statement saying he had written his own testimony without vetting by the White House. At other sites Saturday on Washington's National Mall, parents of children serving in Iraq waved American flags and demonstrated in support of the war, comparing the rising opposition to the war to the movement against the Vietnam War in the 1960s and '70s. "Traitors go to Hell," said one of their signs. dpa pr bve ff