Love In Times Square

The oddly disturbing calm of the night was shattered the next morning—dubbed Day X by the millions of Americans against this war. They created "absolute anarchy" on the streets. Thousands staged sit-ins, die-ins, bike jams, walkouts, car dharnas, bridge blockades and disrupted life to say, "Not in my name."

High school students, with principals conniving and teachers joining, created mini-protests, walking out of classes into the cold rain and "seizing control" of auditoria to exercise their freedom of speech. "What would Gandhi do?" asked one soaked T-shirt. A visit to the local high school revealed democracy in action—about 150 students shivering in the rain, chanting into a megaphone. Lydia Riley, a 63-year-old, came out in Washington to mark her name in the roster. "There’s been nothing but lies and misrepresentations by the Bush administration," she said as she marched with others from the White House to the house of defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld, a prime mover of this war.

More than 2,000 people were arrested on the first day of the war in San Francisco, the epicentre of the gathering storm. Marchers linked themselves with metal chains, smashed police cars and set afire bales of hay outside Bechtel headquarters to denounce the future profits the corporation is set to make from rebuilding contracts. In New York, several thousand simply lay down in Times Square. In the capital, nearly 200 drenched-but-defiant protesters, with red dye on their faces, gathered in the elbow of the White House whose security perimeter was recently increased. People responded in nearly 500 US cities—from the intellectual hubs on the East Coast where professors and students abandoned classrooms at Harvard, to small towns in the Midwest where old church-going ladies in scarves came out to say it was an unjust war. Far-sighted activists, with a nudge from the Democrats, inserted messages about a "regime change" in the White House, come November 2004.

But lurking underneath was some unease—a conflicted mind looking for a fine balance between moral outrage and patriotic resolve. How can you protest this war and not insult US troops risking their lives? Families of soldiers came out with US flags for pro-war or, more correctly, "pro-US troops" rallies, organised by conservative talk radio stations, hardline Christian groups and Republican supporters. A Washington Post-abc News survey indicated that 66 per cent support Bush’s decision to attack after the 48-hour ultimatum. A rally in support of Bush and US troops drew thousands to downtown Atlanta, Georgia. Glenn Beck, a nationally-syndicated radio talk show host, has addressed half-a-dozen pro-troops rallies in the past three weeks from the East Coast to Texas and the Midwest. "They don’t want the nation to be ripped apart the way it was over the Vietnam War," he says. The US Congress too rallied behind the flag with both Houses voting unanimously to approve Bush’s decision and to show support for the troops. Politicians who dared to criticise were immediately dubbed unpatriotic.

But more street action is likely to unfold with citizen soldiers coming out as the US military might overwhelms Iraq—live on television, complete with explosions and guided weapons. With J-Dams and moabs or Joint Direct Attack Munition and Massive Ordnance Air Blast, a.k.a. mother of all bombs. The strategy can fluctuate between the relentless "shock and awe" bombings and selective use of force to separate regime leaders from their forces.

The spin machine at the Pentagon and the White House was working full-time, flooding reporters with militaryspeak. Officials, meanwhile, provided shifting numbers for its "coalition of the willing"—anywhere from 44 to 30, depending on which official spokesman was talking. Even though it’s clear the war is a US-UK operation with contributions from Australia, officials insist it is a broad coalition. Even Spain, Italy and Bulgaria, who openly supported US, declined to provide troops in the face of strong public opposition. The eclectic list includes Afghanistan, Albania, Azerbaijan, Colombia, El Salvador, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Georgia, Hungary, Honduras, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia and Uzbekistan among others. Rwanda and the Solomon Islands are also lending "moral support".