[Peace] CHAMPAIGN RALLY REPORT:IMPEACH BUSH/CHENEY/RUMSFELD/ASHCROFT!

[Danielle Chynoweth]

Peace rally on Quad protests U.S. action in Iraq

  Kimberly Bayley And Evan Mclaughlin
  The Daily Illini

  Law Professor Francis Boyle
  said President George W. Bush
  and Attorney General John
  Ashcroft are trying to make the
  United States into a police state
  with their intentions of going to
  war with Iraq.

  "I am today announcing the start
  of a national campaign to
  impeach Bush, Cheney,
  Rumsfeld and Ashcroft," Boyle
  said.

  Boyle spoke at a peace rally on
  the Quad to oppose war with
  Iraq. The rally took place on
  Monday, the one-year
  anniversary of the launch of
  Operation Enduring Freedom,
  or the war on terrorism.

  College Republicans internal  vice-president Leslie Go said she supports
Bush's decisions because he is the  nation's leader, but also said Boyle
does have every right to lead a campaign to impeach Bush.

  "I just hope (Boyle) is making this decision based on facts," said Go,
junior in LAS.  After Boyle spoke, members of Student Peace Action,
Progressive Resource/Action  Cooperative and a number of other organizations
urged students to march around the Quad. They were led by a student dressed
up as the Grim Reaper waving a "corporate flag," which was modeled after the
American flag with the stars were replaced by corporate logos.

  "The Cheney doctrine of pre-emptive war was rejected decisively by the
Nuremberg  tribunal of 1946," Boyle said. "This Nazi doctrine must be
repudiated by us just as  soundly as it was repudiated by us back in 1946."

  Student Peace Action members wore army camouflage shirts with the logo
"Make  Love, Not War." Protesters carried picket signs with messages like
"The War on Iraq Is  Terrorism" and "Peace Must Prevail."

  Matt Reichel, a senior in LAS and Student Peace Action president, said
polls have  shown the ratio of those against war with Iraq to those for the
war have been 5 to 1,  then 10 to 1, and in one case 99 percent against the
war.

  A Gallup Poll analysis released Oct. 1 shows basic support for using
American ground  troops to remove Hussein has remained steady with about 57
percent favoring the  action and 38 percent opposing it. Other polls found
similar or higher levels of support  in late September, ranging from 58
percent support in a Fox News poll to 68 percent in a CBS News poll,
according to the analysis.

  Joe Miller, professor and Vietnam Veterans Against War speaker, joined the
armed  forces at the age of 18. He said he realized how wrong the government
was about war  in 1964 when he was serving in the Gulf of Tonkin. He
emphasized the importance of  questioning the government's actions.

  "When Bush calls us to speak in one voice, that should piss us off,"
Miller said,  encouraging people to "challenge members of Congress to have
some guts this time  around."

  Green Party Congressional candidate Carl Estabrook, who is a visiting
scholar and  associate professor of sociology, said this demonstration of
war is to show other  countries that "anyone who stops following orders will
be dealt with severely."

  "Saddam Hussein is a monster, but he used to be our monster," Estabrook
said.

  Estabrook outlined what he feels the reasons are for the possible war,
concluding the  main reasons are for the war to serve as a distraction, to
draw national attention away  from problems such as the sagging economy and
the national deficit. The national  deficit has risen to "$3 trillion in 18
months," he added.

  Dan Bolin, a junior in LAS, College Republicans president and candidate
for  Champaign County Board, said before Bush's national address Monday
evening, "I  think a lot of the concerns that the protesters have will be
alleviated tonight."

Francis A. Boyle
Law Building
504 E. Pennsylvania Ave.
Champaign, IL 61820 USA
217-333-7954(voice)
217-244-1478(fax)
fboyle at law.uiuc.edu <mailto:fboyle at law.uiuc.edu>