Getting off the metro at Faragut North and walking down toward the Ellipse, it was hard to get a feel for how many people were in DC for this huge antiwar march. But once I got down to the Ellipse and could see half the Ellipse, most of 15 street, and huge areas of the Washington Monument grounds and western end of the Mall filled with protestors and the tents for the weekend long peace and justice festival, I knew this was an amazingly huge gathering.

With people from all over the country here, the speakers taking the stage included Cindy Sheehan, Ramsey Clark, leaders of United for Peace and Justice, ANSWER, Black Voices for Peace, and many other groups. Each speaker gave any number of great reasons to be out here on this cool and overcasst day to demand an end to war in Iraq, and wars elsewhere, including Palestine, Afghanistan, Haiti, the Sudan. Together, the openiing speakers linked the occupation of Iraq not just fo foreign policy, but to American domestic crises, including the abysmally disorganized Katrina relief effort, civil rights and poverty, and the rights of women.

The parade of speakers was occasionally interrupted by calls to begin marching immediately, but those who tried to set out soon discovered that, despite the sea of people at the Ellipse, the march had in fact already begun, and 15th Street was packed shoulder to shoulder to at least Lafayette Park.

Along with lots of great signs and puppets, the highlights for me were the street theater groups spread out along the march route. You could (for a campaign contribution, I'm sure) have your picture taken with a bloody-handed George Bush next to the south entrace to the White House and Treasury grounds. Across from the Treasury entrance, Billionaires for Bush lined Pennsylvania Avenue heading into Lafayette Park. Condolezza Rice made shady deals with a Halliburton rep, while at least two chain gangs of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, George HW Bush, Saddam Hussein, and Osama bin Laden figures marched along with the rest of us (one group in orange jumpsuits, the other in stripes and chains). In my opinion though, one of the most effective was the scene where a grim reaper tallied the number of Iraqi and American dead as an offcial took phone calls and alternated informing an American and an Iraqi widow. (see video)

About 100-200 counter protesters lined one single block along Pennsylvania. What's 200 when the organizers announced that they were now estimating attendance at 200,000, double what had been predicted? Media and police were still saying 100k, but anyone starting from the beginning would agree that there were more people here than ahad originally been projected.

Finally winding back to the still crowded Ellipse and Washingto Monument, the echoes from the rest of the march could be heard coming down 14th street and Pennsylvania headed toward the Capitol. I had walked through most of the tables earlier and wasn't planning on staying for the concert or panel discussions (which I hope will be covered by others here!), so I headed back to the metro amid thousands of other sweaty, tired protesters.

I'm looking forward to seeing what effect this gathering of a huge portion of the American peace movement will have down the road. In both the mainstream and alternative media, much has been made of the fact that this was the first peace demonstration for many people; hopefully it won't wind up being the last.