PARIS — Antiwar demonstrators turned out across the globe Saturday to protest a U.S. military buildup in the Middle East widely seen as a prelude to an invasion of Iraq.
Thousands marched in Europe, the Middle East and Asia to denounce the prospect of war. They heaped abuse on the Bush administration, voicing the anti-American sentiment that has been ignited by the Iraq issue.
A German protester wore a sign branding President George W. Bush a terrorist, a refrain repeated throughout the day and around the world. A banner outside the U.S. Embassy in Moscow declared: “Iraq isn’t your ranch, Mr. Bush.”
The demonstrations could be just a taste of street action to come if the confrontation with the regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein escalates.
The crowds had a cheerful air in countries such as Japan, where about 4,000 marchers in Tokyo’s Ginza shopping district included students who wore Bush masks and playfully pulled the triggers of toy guns. The mood in the Middle East, however, was darker. In Damascus, Syria, there were shouts of “Our beloved Saddam, strike Tel Aviv!”
A crowd of marchers in Cairo, Egypt, estimated at between several hundred and 1,000 gathered in the square outside Sayeda Zeinab Mosque in a working-class area not far from the city’s historical center. A massive deployment of black-clad riot police surrounded the protest, and a few students complained that police had roughed them up and kept some protesters from joining the event.
Egypt is one of the strongest U.S. allies in the region. But the demonstration, like the public psyche in Egypt, blended anger toward America’s threat to Iraq with the hostility Egyptians generally feel for U.S. support of Israel in its conflict with the Palestinians. Both cases are seen in the Middle East as proof of an anti-Arab bias.
Marches in France, Britain, Germany, Sweden and Italy reflected profound resentment of U.S. muscle-flexing. The ideological chasm between Europe and the United States has widened dramatically as many Europeans accuse Washington, D.C., of embarking on a cynical war intended to ensure U.S. access to oil. The fervent displays of sympathy for Americans that filled the streets of Europe after the Sept. 11 attacks seem a distant memory.
The worldwide rallies were not massive. And the participants tended to be leftists, nationalists, trade union members and other traditional critics of the United States. But just as Iraq has stirred opposition in unlikely sectors of the U.S. public, such as World War II veterans, the international antiwar camp has attracted unexpected activists as well.
The French newspaper Le Monde published a front-page essay Saturday in which John Le Carre, the British espionage author, delivered a scornful assault on Bush. He said the U.S. administration’s policies are “madness” on a scale surpassing McCarthyism and the Vietnam War.