Protesters hit the streets

From Germany to Bangladesh, Indonesia to Chile, South Korea to the United States, it was Vietnam redux as war protesters in the tens and hundreds of thousands filled streets and television screens around the globe. The antiwar demonstrations provided an emphatic alternative to media coverage of fighting and bombing as the first 11 days of the war in Iraq drew to a close.

And even though many protesters admitted at the outset of multiple peace rallies that they didn't think their actions would alter the Bush administration's policies or coalition war efforts, it was important their message be heard. Police estimated 25,000 antiwar protesters gathered on Boston's historic Common.

Germany saw the largest demonstrations in Europe. More than 100,000 people took part countrywide, with 50,000 estimated at a rally in Berlin. Some 30,000 Germans held hands along the 31 miles between the northwestern cities of Muenster and Osnabrueck, recalling their country's tortured history of war. Negotiators who brought the Thirty Years' War to an end in 1648 used the route.

Religiously conservative Yemen saw hundreds of veiled Muslim women march in protest in the city of San'a. Some carried placards declaring the United States and Britain "the axis of evil."

In Canada, prowar and antiwar demonstrators were active in several cities, including a crowd of 4,000 in Ottawa chanting "USA" in support of America's war effort. Protesters hung black banners from bridges in Rome. Riot police and barbed wire roadblocks kept thousands of Bangladeshi protesters away from the US Embassy in Dhaka. Demonstrators burned an American flag and an effigy of President Bush.

Poland and Hungary, countries whose governments support the war, also saw protests. Two thousand mostly young people marched to the US Embassy in Warsaw. Poland sent 200 soldiers to fight with coalition forces in Iraq. A similar number in Hungary marched past the US and British embassies in Budapest. Paris was the scene of an estimated 10,000 protesters. Five thousand police stood by to make sure things didn't get out of hand. Some 8,000 people marched in Dublin to protest the Irish government's decision to grant US forces refueling and stopover rights. Three thousand people staged a peaceful march in Santiago, Chile, while police in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, used tear gas to break up a protest outside the Australian Embassy. Australia has 2,000 troops fighting with the coalition.

What this all means is too early to tell. Commentators from the left and right say it is far too early to predict the influence protests will have on the war. Former Colorado Senator Gary Hart cautions against a rear-view take on war protesters. Speaking with Fox News on TV Saturday night, he took strong umbrage at the point of view that protesting the war or disagreeing with administration policy "was unpatriotic." Like an overwhelming majority of Americans he says, he supports the troops, now that they have been deployed in harm's way.

Recent polls in the US cast a wider lens on attitudes about the war than that conveyed by protesters. A new poll by Newsweek finds that 74 percent of Americans credit the Bush administration with a well-thought-out military plan. That same poll indicates that 49 percent of Americans would support the war even if it were to "last more than a year." It found that President Bush's job-approval rating climbed 15 points to 68 percent since its previous poll two weeks ago. The Washington Post-ABC News survey found 74 percent support the decision to go to war. The support came despite the fact that 82 percent of respondents expect a "significant number of additional US casualties." A CBS poll on the other hand, found more than half, 55 percent, think the US underestimated Iraqi resistance to the invasion.

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