Peace Movements

During a solemn 10 a.m. Mass at St. John's Cathedral on Sunday, Deacon Lester Mackenzie recited the names and ages of six Americans who had lost their lives in Iraq the previous week. Pray for them, he told the congregation, and for prisoners of war and those missing in action. Then Mackenzie, who is being ordained today as an Episcopal priest, called on parishioners "to pray for the Iraqi people who have died, whose names we do not know." St.

It did not take long for Rep. Nancy Boyda, a freshman Democrat from Kansas, to learn the price of defying her party's liberal base. After she said she would support President Bush if he proposed an increase in U.S. troop levels in Iraq, antiwar bloggers fumed and MoveOn.org, the liberal advocacy group, considered running a television ad attacking her. "If a member of Congress is wrong on Iraq, that is not what we voted for," said Tom Matzzie, MoveOn's Washington director.

Emboldened by the Democratic takeover of Congress and shrinking public support for the Iraq war, antiwar groups are planning what they hope will be a massive protest Saturday on the National Mall. Similar events are planned in dozens of cities around the country, with some of the largest expected in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Organizers said they aim to put pressure on both the White House and Congress to end the war. "The message will be 'Mr. President, bring our troops home,' " said Rep.

About 100,000 antiwar protesters from around the country converged Saturday on the National Mall, galvanized by opposition to President Bush's plan to increase the number of troops in Iraq. Protests attended by several thousand people also were held in Los Angeles, San Francisco and other cities. But the demonstration in the nation's capital was among the biggest since the war began.

Yolanda Izquierdo received death threats, but her pleas for police protection went unanswered. When she was killed last week, it delivered a devastating blow to Colombia's tortured peace process. Izquierdo, 44, was gunned down in daylight on the patio of her concrete-block house in the Mi Ranchito barrio in this torrid cattle-country town 300 miles northwest of the capital, Bogota.

Cindy Sheehan, the soldier's mother who galvanized an antiwar movement with her protests outside President Bush's ranch near Crawford, said she's had enough. "I've been wondering why I'm killing myself and wondering why the Democrats caved in to George Bush," Sheehan told the Associated Press. In what she described as a "resignation letter," Sheehan wrote in her Internet diary on the Daily Kos blog: "Good-bye America ...

Cindy Sheehan will return to her protest site near President Bush's ranch in Crawford this weekend to bid farewell to the peace movement -- but not with an antiwar rally. Instead, Sheehan will sell some camping items, gather with friends from previous demonstrations and celebrate her 50th birthday in Crawford, about 100 miles south of Fort Worth. Then she will hand over the deed of her 5-acre lot to its new owner, radio talk-show host Bree Walker.

Jon Soltz rapped his pen on a conference table as he ran through plans to take on politicians who back the war in Iraq. The former Army captain and Iraq war veteran demanded television ads. "I want a hit on Fox," he barked into a speakerphone. He wanted more e-mail blasts and more donors. "Do we have a target list?" he asked of the team gathered for a Monday morning conference call. "Let's go get those dollars." He seethed when the phone went dead during a discussion of an upcoming fundraiser.

In the first major antiwar demonstration in the nation's capital since January, several thousand protesters marched from the White House to the Capitol on Saturday, carrying signs and chanting slogans demanding an end to the Iraq war and the impeachment of President Bush. A smaller group conducted a counter-demonstration to support the president and the war, leading to some heated confrontations.

IT looked for a while as if MoveOn.org had become one of Hollywood's favorite liberal advocacy groups, especially for those looking for a place to express their antiwar sentiments without incurring a lot of unfavorable publicity. Directors and celebrities lined up to help the Internet-based organization formed in 1998 in the wake of President Clinton's impeachment. Oliver Stone directed an antiwar ad for the group, as did Rob Reiner.