131 US Veterans and Peace Activists Arrested for Peaceful Protest

About five hundred American war veterans and other peace activisits braved the cold yesterday to attend a peaceful protest outside the White House in Washington, DC. The event coincided with the release of a government progress report on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. 131 people involved in the protest, including members of Veterans for Peace (VfP) and CODE PINK, a women's peace group, were arrested.

Among those clipped into plastic handcuffs, photographed, and herded into a police bus for transport was Vietnam whistleblower and VfP board member Daniel Ellsberg, the man who released the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times in 1971. Others included VfP board members Chris Hedges (a journalist), Ray McGovern (a retired CIA officer), and Coleen Rowley (a former FBI agent), and several Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans.

The results of an ABC News/Washington Post poll indicate that about 60% of Americans believe that the war in Afghanistan is no longer worth the damage it is causing. Those present at the peace rally carried banners bearing statements such as "Peace on Earth? Mr. Obama: End These Wars. Not Tomorrow. Not Next Year. NOW!"

Secretary of State Hillary ClintonHillary Clinton expressed sympathy for "the stresses that this war causes," but also declared that the US government cannot make critical "national security" decisions based on polls. This statement may appear to fly in the face of the government's widely-recognized mandate to represent the American people.

When asked why he was speaking out, one young veteran explained that he "can't sit by anymore and let these atrocities continue."

Another veteran infantryman who did a tour in Iraq in 2004-2005 expressed similar views on the war: "I knew there was nothing true or noble about that war when I went over, and I did things that I can never forgive myself for doing... I knew that those were people just trying to defend their homes and we were in the wrong [for] being there."

After police ordered the protest to break up, some participants attempted to chain themselves to the fence of the White House. No charges have been been placed against any of the protesters.