Click to play videoWashington: An anti-war rally in the US brought back memories of the Vietnam War that took place over thirty years ago. Anti-Vietnam war protestor Jane Fonda joined crowds to oppose US action in Iraq.
In addition to a celebrity-led march to the capitol, thousands of protesters turned out with banners in other centres, like Los Angeles and San Francisco protesting President Bush's plan to send additional American troops to Iraq.
If US President George Bush won't heed the call for peace, then Congress must, they demanded. "We've got to insist that the Democrats elected in November to end the war find a collective backbone and stop Bush," said Margaret Knapke, who travelled to Washington from Dayton, Ohio.
"Why would (Bush) listen to us? He hasn't listened to anyone else," said Rose Lynn Scott, a member of the anti-war women's group Code Pink from Fort Worth, Texas. "We're not marching for him. We're trying to get Congress to do the right thing."
Veterans and military families joined some politicians, peace groups and actors, including Vietnam war protester Jane Fonda, to urge Congress and President Bush to stop funding the war and pull troops from Iraq.
"I'm so sad we still have to do this that we did not learn the lessons from the Vietnam War," said Fonda.
"There's something they don't understand. Ho Chi Minh at his worst never thought he was going to send suicide bombers to America to kill American children. The people we're fighting in Iraq, they intend to do that,” said Clifford May at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
"If they don't stand up and make a resolution as binding as the death toll, we are not going to be behind those politicians" in 2008, vowed actor Sean Penn.
"I've been marching against wars since Vietnam. I know a quagmire when I see it," said Bob Goodman, 66, a retired legal secretary. "The difference from Vietnam is that the Middle East is full of oil. That might explain Bush's obstinacy in trying to expand a war he can't win."
Mr Goodman said the anti-war movement was ahead of where it was at this stage of the Vietnam War.
The Vietnam War was fought largely with draftees and the threat of induction loomed over those who did not go, he said, recalling that the peace movement was centred on college campuses and most of the protesters were young. With an all-volunteer military force, the sacrifice in the Iraq war is borne by a much smaller slice of the populace, he said.
For most young Americans, he said, the likelihood of fighting and dying in Iraq was remote.
According to one count, at least 73 US service members were killed so far this month.
Meanwhile, two suicide car bombs in Baghdad at the weekend left 15 people dead. The White House issued a statement saying of president bush "He understands that Americans want to see a conclusion to the war in Iraq and the new strategy is designed to do just that."
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