I was in San Francisco last Wednesday when I saw an elderly man walking around holding a tree branch with a President Bush doll hanging from it by a noose. This was his way of protesting the war in Iraq on its five year anniversary.
I had been in San Francisco for spring break and had lost track of the days. As the taxi driver dropped me off on Market Street, I noticed a group of seven police officers standing against a building with their hands placed firmly on their guns. I immediately hesitated to move forward for fear of something going on around me.
I crossed the pedestrian walkway towards the other side of Market Street when I noticed a huge hub of people swarmed in front of a department store. For a moment I thought they were shooting a movie. Then I thought it might be a street performer.
I made my way through the crowd and closer to the action. I started to see picket signs with the words “education” and “health care” plastered on them.
After prying my way through more of the crowd I got to the frontlines. It was an anti-war protest.
A woman grabbed a foghorn and began reading a piece of paper. Picketers were chanting, observers were pointing, and I was lost in the middle.
I kept wondering why the protest was going on today. What was so special about today that there had to be a huge swarm of people boisterously vocalizing their stance on the war?
I took out my cell phone and checked the date. It had been five years to the date.
I looked up and read “Invest in Education Not War in Iraq.” Then the man with the noose around President Bush bumped into me.
Five years had passed and the anger was still very much present. After walking through the streets of San Francisco and seeing large protests such as this, I kept wondering when all of this was going to stop. Not just the protests and the anti-war and anti-Bush statements, but the war itself. It’s been five years and there’s still no end in sight.
A poll on the Pew Research Center’s website about the public’s outlook on the war in Iraq was updated on March 7. It shows that 54 percent of individuals polled said the decision to go to war was wrong.
A Gallup Poll taken from Feb. 21- 24 concluded that 59 percent of Americans thought the United States made a mistake in sending troops to Iraq.
With numbers like these the only resolution that can bring peace would be a positive step towards the withdrawal of troops from a war most Americans didn’t sign up for.
It is apparent that these changes will not come from the current administration. Our hopes and futures rest on the commandeering skills of the forthcoming president, whether it is a Republican or Democrat.
Regardless of which senator takes the stage next January as the 44th president, one item should be permanently on their agenda from now: a plan to get American forces out of Iraq.
Standing in the middle of the protest last Wednesday brought all the events of the past five years into focus for myself. I had gone through high school, graduated and am now finishing up my third year in college and this war is still going on. My life has moved on, but the war hasn’t.
As Americans we keep saying we want an end, but what are we really doing to open people’s eyes and make them stop in the middle of the street and think about this?
