Rocky to speak at anti-war rallies

As Americans prepare to mark the fourth anniversary of the March 20, 2003, invasion of Iraq, rallies and marches nationwide will call for the war's end. Two of those events will feature Rocky Anderson.

The Salt Lake City mayor will speak at a Washington, D.C., rally Saturday and at a Salt Lake rally Monday.

Anderson had already planned on being in the nation's capital when he was invited to participate in the Washington rally. The mayor flew to the district Thursday, on a trip paid for by the George Washington University Law School to speak at the 17th annual National Association of Environmental Law Societies Conference.

That conference will run through Sunday. On Saturday, the mayor will take a break from the conference to join the March on the Pentagon, which organizers say marks not only the fourth anniversary of the war's start, but also the 40th anniversary of the October 1967 March on the Pentagon to protest the Vietnam War.

"The 58,000 U.S. soldiers who lost their lives in Vietnam and the millions of Vietnamese who were killed, died in a criminal war," according to the Web site marchonpentagon.org. "The connection between Vietnam and Iraq could not be more clear. Iraq is also a criminal war of aggression. The central issue today, just as it was in 1967, is to bring the war to an end."

The march Saturday will begin near the Vietnam Memorial at 10 a.m. Utah time. Once it makes its way to the Pentagon in Arlington, Va., Anderson and other speakers, including anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan, will speak. The rally will be broadcast live in CSPAN.

On Monday, We the People for Justice & Peace will host an anti-war march and rally in Salt Lake City. Participants will gather at Pioneer Park at 11 a.m., and the march will start at 11:30 a.m. It will make its way down 400 South to Washington Square, on the west side of the City-County Building, 450 S. State.

There, Anderson, along with an Iraq veteran and family of service members, will speak against the war.

We the People for Peace & Justice is a citizens' coalition that formed around two previous anti-war rallies in Salt Lake City. Those rallies each coincided with visits by President Bush to Utah.

Crystal Young-Otterstrom, a spokeswoman for the group, said she hopes Monday's march will draw a diverse group of participants, including people who have never participated in a protest before.

"We invite Utahns from all across the spectrum," she said. "Being advocates for peace is not something that's limited to the political left. It's a moral and ethical issue that should appeal to people across the political spectrum."