They Walk the Line: Bush, the Protesters Are Coming

MoveOn.org, along with seven other activist groups, announced this past Thursday that they are implementing and launching a major campaign to protest President Bush's plan to send over 20,000 more troops to Iraq.

The groups have organized rallies in all of the fifty states starting this past Thursday evening. to voice their opposition to Bush's plan. The estimated starting budget for these events is between 7 million and 9 million dollars. But this price tag pales in comparison to the hundreds of millions of dollars spent since the start of the Iraq War.

These activist organizations are obviously willing to spend millions if they can help stop the dispatching of more American soldiers. The rallies will culminate into an even larger demonstration in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, January 27, 2007.

Even groups who do not usually take up the antiwar banner have surprisingly joined in the movement to protest the war escalation. "Major organizations, traditionally focused on domestic issues, are joining the effort to stop the president from deepening the Iraq fiasco," said Washington Director of MoveOn.org, Tom Matzzie, "We're going to create a firestorm."

The heat is definitely on now. These activists are moving beyond the usual picket line arena. These organizations are heading into the political arena. Antiwar activists are strongly pressing congressional Democrats to block Bush's plans. The antiwar organizers are not afraid to remind the Democrats of how short their stay in political office could be if drastic changes aren't made. "The bottom line is that when voters elected the Democrats, they did that on the promise that the Democrats would lead the country out of the war," said Eli Pariser, director of the MoveOn political action committee. "Democrats need to fulfill on that promise, and they're going to."