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WASHINGTON - Thousands of anti-war demonstrators, some carrying yellow and black signs reading "US out of Iraq now!" marched toward the Pentagon on Saturday, one of a number of protests held or planned around the country and the world.
The march, on a cold and cloudy St Patrick's
Day, comes just before the fourth anniversary of the start of the Iraq war on Tuesday and 40 years after a similar protest at the Pentagon over the Vietnam Var.
The march began near the Vietnam War Memorial, just a few blocks from the White House, and proceeded across the Potomac River toward the Pentagon. One sign near the front read, "The worst tyrants ever: Napoleon, Hitler and Bush."
Frustration over the Iraq war cost President George W Bush's Republicans control of Congress in elections last year and is the main reason his poll numbers are stuck near 30 per cent, the lowest of his presidency.
Bush also faces other problems, including complaints of poor health care for US veterans, the perjury conviction of a former top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney and an uproar over the firing of US prosecutors that has prompted calls for the ouster of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
Bush unveiled a plan in January to send 21,500 additional troops to Iraq, further stoking anger over the war. The number of extra troops being sent has climbed to around 30,000 with the addition of support troops. His plan aims to quell violence in Baghdad and the western province of Anbar.
The march marked the latest protest in Washington against the war in which more than 3200 US troops have died.
On January 27, tens of thousands of protesters gathered in front of the US Capitol to pressure the US government to get out of Iraq.
Police reported that about two dozen protesters had been arrested late on Friday night in front of the White House. Bush had already left for the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland, where he is spending the weekend.
Several hundred supporters of the war held their own nearby counter-demonstration and carried signs stating: "Win the war or lose to jihad," "Our troops are shedding their blood to keep terrorists from America," and "St Patrick: Drive the Democrats from our land."
Organisers of the protest march said the turnout had been hurt by a winter snow storm on Friday that moved up the East Coast from Washington into New England, disrupting travel.
Police in Los Angeles said they were expecting 5000-10,000 protesters to turn out for an anti-war rally there, while other demonstrations were planned in Austin, Texas. Protests were also staged or planned in Australia, Britain, and Canada.
Democrats in Congress are wrestling with legislation to set deadlines on the US military presence in Iraq. A proposal to be debated soon in the House of Representatives would tie approval of US$124 billion ($180.65 billion) in emergency war funds to a troop pullout by September 2008.
Warning that a US withdrawal would worsen the violence in Iraq, Bush has labelled such proposals an attempt by lawmakers to "micromanage" the war and has threatened a veto.
"The consequences of imposing such an artificial timetable would be disastrous," Bush said in his weekly radio address on Saturday.
- REUTERS