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WASHINGTON - Anti-war activists took to the streets of US cities on Thursday for the first of what organisers promised would be thousands of protests against President Bush's plan to send more US troops to Iraq.
Angered by what they described as Bush's defiance of a public that has turned against the Iraq war, activists said they also planned a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign on the airwaves and the internet to pressure Congress to deny funding for the planned troop increase.
"Last night's speech is clearly fuelling a surge of anti-war sentiment and activism," said Tom Andrews, a former Maine congressman who heads the anti-war group Win Without War.
Activists scheduled 1000 protests for Thursday night in all 50 US states, before a January 27 march around the US Capitol that organisers expect to draw hundreds of thousands of participants.
A couple of hundred noisy protesters gathered in New York's Times Square on Thursday evening.
"There's no way to make good on a war that was illegitimate and illegal to begin with," said Sunsara Taylor, spokeswoman for the "World Can't Wait - Drive out the Bush Regime" campaign. "The only thing that's just is to end the war now."
Carrying placards reading: "You can bomb the world to pieces but not to peace," "Troops home now," and "No more blood for oil," the protesters booed when footage of Bush appeared on one of the large television screens in Times Square.
In Washington, several hundred demonstrators holding candles rallied on Pennsylvania Avenue across from the White House.
In Chicago, a joint protest against the war and the US military prison for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, drew a few hundred demonstrators on a blustery evening.
Retired nursing school administrator Jane Mortenson, 75, said, "I come out to as many of these anti-war protests as I can, but the speech last night, I'm just sick about it."
The liberal grass-roots organisation MoveOn plans to fund television ads criticizing Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, a backer of the troop increase and likely presidential candidate, in Iowa and New Hampshire, where the first contests of the 2008 presidential race will take place.
The group will also fund anti-war bus advertisements in Washington, executive director Eli Pariser said.
Organizers said the entire campaign would initially cost US$7 million to US$9 million.
Another anti-war group, International ANSWER, plans an anti-war march to the Pentagon on March 17.
An ABC News-Washington Post poll taken after Bush's Wednesday night speech found that 61 per cent of Americans opposed his plan to send 21,500 extra troops to Iraq, while 36 per cent supported it.
Public anger with a war that has killed more than 3,000 Americans and tens of thousands of Iraqis helped Democrats win control of Congress in November's elections.
Democratic leaders plan nonbinding votes opposing the troop increase, but appear reluctant to cut off funding for the plan.
Anti-war activists said they would lobby Democrats to take that step with thousands of phone calls, emails and letters to the editor.
"Members of Congress may not always be able to see the light, but they can always feel the heat," Andrews said.
- REUTERS
