Rocky fires salvos at Bush as he readies for protest

WASHINGTON — Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson cannot imagine why anyone would not want to attend another Iraq war protest, such as the one he will speak at in Washington Saturday that runs from the National Mall to the Pentagon.

The march, initiated by the Act Now to Stop War and End Racism Coalition, better known as the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition, and sponsored by 1,500 organizations, marks the fourth anniversary of the Iraq invasion and the 40th anniversary of the October 1967 March on the Pentagon to protest the Vietnam War. Protesters are determined to get their message — or messages — across.

They want to end the war, bring troops home, and while the president and vice president only have a little more than a year and a half left in office, Anderson and other protesters want nothing more than to see Congress impeach President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

"Never has there been a time in our nation's history when impeachment was more appropriate, more called for, more compelled than when we see a president of the United States who has so horrifically abused his power to the injury of our county," Anderson said Friday at a press conference previewing Saturday's event.

"This president believes that because of his so-called war on terror he is beyond the law," Anderson said. "(Bush) has been converting — transforming — this country into the sort of country, the sort of government which we have always been so proud to distinguish ourselves from."

Although some Utah and Salt Lake residents find Anderson's opposition to the president embarrassing or insulting, based on comments on his past speeches against the president, Anderson has been on the impeachment speech circuit urging the same thing at the Washington state Senate earlier this month.

"Impeaching the president tells the people of this world that this is not who we are as a country or as a people," Anderson said Friday.

The A.N.S.W.E.R Coalition formed on Sept. 14, 2001, and has held thousands of anti-war events throughout the country. Anderson spoke at similar anti-war rally in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 27 and wonders how people can not speak out when the country is in the middle of a "constitutional moral crisis."

But why another protest?

"This is unbelievable to me that anybody would ask why after one demonstration or after a series do you keep it up," Anderson said, who asked why the media isn't doing more to get the truth out.