CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARBULLETIN.COM Tiare Schiller of the Radical Cheerleaders rooted on the Anti-War March yesterday, which started at Ala Moana Beach Park and worked its way around Ala Moana Center. "We're dressed like this to get the crowd riled and the media's attention," Schiller said. "We can look them straight in the eye and say, 'Hey! This is what's going on in the world."

300 marchers protest
U.S. invasion

Rally participants say they see
no reason for continued occupation

About 300 people marched and rallied in Honolulu yesterday to mark the second anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq and to urge an end to the war.

The event at Ala Moana Beach Park and on nearby streets echoed similar protests yesterday across the country and in Europe.

"It's very important that we're here, not just in Hawaii, but in all 50 states and around the world, to voice opposition to what the Bush Administration has done," said Jason Ward, a member of Hawaii Labor for Peace and Justice, who brought his wife and 8-month-old daughter to the rally.

The war in Iraq is spending resources that could be better spent on education, health care and other domestic needs for working Americans, Ward said.

No weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq, Ward noted. "I don't think the majority of people in Iraq appreciate being occupied by a foreign power," he added. "It's time for the U.S. to get out and rebuild our relationship with the international community."

In the march along Piikoi Street, Kapiolani Boulevard and Atkinson Drive, marchers showed a variety of anti-war signs, beat on drums and chanted phrases such as "U.S. military, get the hell out" and "This is what democracy looks like."

CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARBULLETIN.COM Anti-war protesters marched past the Ala Moana Center's Keeaumoku Street entrance.

Bream said he believes that if the United States pulls out of Iraq that a coalition of Iraqi leaders will pull together to govern the country.

Marcher David Moxley of Pearl Harbor, who described himself as "not anti-war, but pro-peace," also advocates leaving Iraq "if that's what they want us to do." He said he hopes that the United States will provide aid to repair some of the war's destruction there.

The National Guard and Reserve troops in Iraq "didn't sign up for years and years of warfare," said marcher Ralph Wheelock of Manoa.

Bystander reaction to the march varied.

Jeannette Techur called the protest march "pretty powerful," and said she agreed that the United States should leave Iraq. "It's nice to know that people are exercising their rights," she said.

But as Ala Moana shopper Hussain Khan watched the march go by, he said, "I am for the Iraqi war."

Khan, who was born in the United States but has family from India, said America was right to remove Saddam Hussein from power. He said he didn't think the protesters should be voicing their opinions.

Ann Wright, a former career diplomat with the U.S. State Department, quit her job two years ago in protest of the invasion of Iraq.

Speaking at the rally yesterday, Wright called Iraq "not a situation we can be proud of at all."

With more than 1,500 Americans killed, estimates of Iraqi dead ranging from 10,000 to 100,000, and utility and water service in Iraq worse now than before the war started, "we're involved in a horrible predicament," Wright said.

"People all over the world today are standing up to this illegal, unjust and horrible war, which is tearing up Iraq, the Middle East and all of the world," Wright said.

Wright, a former Army colonel, helped re-establish the U.S. Embassy in Kabul from 2001 to 2002 and was working as U.S. deputy chief of mission to Mongolia when she resigned. She praised those attending the rally for "protesting something the world is protesting," and urged them to continue speaking out.

Across Europe, tens of thousands of protesters packed streets and public parks to protest the war. In England, 45,000 people marched from London's Hyde Park past the American Embassy to Trafalgar Square, while an estimated 15,000 people -- some carrying signs reading "Murderer Bush, get out" -- marched in Turkey.

Demonstrations were also held throughout the United States.

Hundreds in New York listened to anti-war speeches at the United Nations, then marched along 42nd Street across Manhattan to Times Square, where police penned them in on a sidewalk.

A small contingent of protesters then knelt in front of a military recruiting station and lay down on Broadway next to the flag-draped coffins. Traffic was stopped for about five minutes before police moved in and arrested 27 protesters.

Thousands of anti-war demonstrators also rallied in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chicago.