WASHINGTON, 21 March 2003 — Anti-war protesters blocked morning rush-hour traffic in Washington and San Francisco and chanted “no blood for oil” outside the White House yesterday in reaction to US military strikes against Iraq.

As many as 150 demonstrators temporarily shut down the inbound travel lanes of one of the Potomac River crossings, snarling rush-hour traffic. Some 50 demonstrators bicycled through downtown Washington carrying signs that said, “Bikes not Bombs.” Three people were arrested.

“There are many, many people here and around the world that are opposed to this war,” said Dana Hubbard, 54, of Washington.

But others said they supported the military action, saying it was time to remove Saddam from power.

“We have lived in a dark future ever since Saddam has come to power,” said Ahmed Al-Mahana, who deserted from the Iraqi Army in 1991. “Our morning is very near. We are waiting for this minute.” Al-Mahana, an Iraqi native living in Everett, Wash., said he considers getting rid of Saddam a worthy goal, though it led to American Tomahawk missiles raining down on his homeland Wednesday night.

Outside the White House, about 50 anti-war protesters gathered in the chilly rain, shouting “no blood for oil!” Police blocked the approach to Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House to protesters and pedestrians.

In San Francisco, dozens of protesters were arrested after blocking streets in the city’s financial district, snarling traffic. Police and firefighters used power saws to separate protesters linked with metal pipes.

The call for protests, walkouts and marches yesterday followed a day of intense anti-war rallying by people in small towns, big cities and rural outposts decrying war just hours before the United States began its attack.

“I am very ashamed to be an American right now,” Lydia Riley, 63, of Washington said Wednesday at a protest in Washington. “There’s been nothing but lies and misrepresentations by the Bush administration.”

Riley joined about 200 demonstrators, some wearing red dye on their faces and clothes to represent anticipated Iraqi civilian casualties, blocking rush hour traffic as they marched from a park near the White House to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld’s house in Northwest Washington.

John Parrish, 44, of Silver Spring, Md., called the president’s stance on Iraq “absurd.”

“Making a pre-emptive strike sets a bad example to the rest of the world,” said Parrish. “What if Pakistan did a pre-emptive strike against India? They can say, ‘the United States does it, why can’t we?’”

Demonstrators were arrested after sitting down on the street in front of the White House and blocking entrances to government buildings in other cities.

Other protests were staged in New York, Boston, Utah, Chicago, Minneapolis, Ohio, Delaware, Maryland, Detroit, Wisconsin, Arkansas and Nevada.

Outside Rumsfeld’s house, the crowd pleaded “Show your Face,” and held bloodstained baby-size coffins in the air while chanting, “You have blood on your hands.”

In Carson City, Nev., hundreds of flag-waving veterans and others gathered outside the state’s legislative building to back US military personnel poised to attack Iraq.

“We must not, we cannot, we will not allow the voice of dissent to tear our nation apart again,” said Ray Alcorn, a retired US Navy captain who spent seven years as a POW in North Vietnam. “The silent majority must become the vocal majority.”

Also Wednesday, following a prayer vigil, 27 protesters were arrested after climbing over a temporary metal fence separating the park from Pennsylvania Avenue.

In New York City, protests in downtown Manhattan Wednesday drew about 300 people. Calling it a “Code Pink” emergency, nine women wearing nothing but pink masks protested the war against Iraq on Wednesday.

The women, who carried a banner that read “Women of the World Say No War” and with the words “No War” painted in pink on their backs, stopped traffic. The women also had pink paint covering their private parts.

Many of the protests were part of nonviolent anti-war demonstrations around the nation by the Iraq Pledge of Resistance, a coalition of 55 peace groups in the United States.

In Atlanta, about 30 people gathered in heavy rain just before midnight, quietly holding signs that read, “War is not the answer.” In Washington state, several hundred people showed up at peace demonstrations in Seattle and Olympia. Eleven protests were arrested when they refused to leave a mall at closing time.

In Salt Lake City, protests gathered outside the federal building following the initial strike on Baghdad and said they plan to camp out there indefinitely. In Raleigh, N.C., about 50 people gathered outside the state capital to protest in a chilly rain.

Americans’ Reactions Mixed

as War Begins

Two war veterans sat at a Rhode Island tavern offering a toast as Iraqis awoke to falling American bombs. “Here’s to very few fatalities and a very quick victory,” Ken Sullivan and Harry Church said from Art’s Tavern in Portsmouth.

Other Americans had a different focus: that the country was making a mistake.

“We’ll win this, it’s no contest ... but the final outcome is not going to be a good one for us in the international community,” said the Rev. Chet Guinn, a retired Methodist minister in Des Moines, Iowa.

Americans were glued to television sets showing the first moments of war Wednesday night. Some prayed, while others sobbed. There was a lot of anger directed at Saddam Hussein, and some at President Bush as well.