Posted on: Sunday, March 20, 2005
Protesters march at Ala Moana Center
By Karen Blakeman
Advertiser Staff Writer
More than 250 peace demonstrators marched around Ala Moana Center yesterday to mark the second anniversary of the Iraq War before settling in for entertainment and speakers at Ala Moana park.
Ann Wright, a retired Army officer and former career diplomat who quit her job to protest the attack on Iraq, spoke at the rally in the park and also helped read the names of the dead at the Capitol.
At the rally, she said Iraq would never have peace so long as the U.S. mission continued. "The United States is the target," she said. "Supporting the troops means bringing them home."
Wright said she thought an international coalition, most likely through the United Nations or North Atlantic Treaty Organization, would step in if the United States got out but provided financial assistance.
Wright, who reopened the U.S. Embassy in Kabul after the war in Afghanistan, said she had been supported by her former colleagues in the State Department and in the military when she, along with two other career diplomats, resigned to protest the war.
At the state Capitol, a ceremony honored those who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan. Military officials and relatives of the fallen spoke at the solemn event, which was organized by the Democratic Party.
Ann Wright
