About 5000 anti-war protesters from the US, Britain, France, and Germany braved the dangers to assemble in Baghdad yesterday to protest ongoing Al Quaida activities against the people of Baghdad.
"As long as Al Quaida and Iran continue to create mayhem in Iraq, there can be no peace or security. The good people of Iraq do not deserve this," said a press statement issued by the organizers of the march.
It went on to state "We urge the Islamic terrorists to lay down their arms and bombs and to get a job, get married, open an Individual Retirement Account, and help build the economy of this fine country so all can have happy, normal, peaceful lives."
Carrying placards reading such things as "Stop the war," "Al Quaida sucks," "Nice people aren't suicide bombers," "Iran Go Home," "Al Sadr is a Nerd,"and "Guys with bombs won't get dates," the marchers followed a route through the main thoroughfares of downtown Baghdad for about five hours yesterday, and will hold a press conference this morning before returning to their homes.
The march was entirely peaceful, and thousands of curious but supportive Iraqis emerged from their homes and shops to watch the marchers as they banged on pots and pans and chanted "Bombs aren't cool - let peace rule," "Don't be a fool - freedom is cool," and "One, two, three four - we don't want your Jihad war."
As the marchers broke into John Lennon's deeply moving hymn "All we are saying...is give peace a chance," we asked Omar, a bread merchant whose shop was along the route, for his reaction. "Veddy nice hats," he observed.
Photo of the Baghdad peace march borrowed from Dr. Sanity's piece on the peace movement.
