That “We” is bracketed because not all of us who oppose the Bush policies in Iraq were there. Corrente was represented by Riggsveda, and I’m sure we’ll hear more first-hand reporting from her when the pain subsides from her broken toe, (not sure if this was a result of demonstrating, but as all who read her know, she is nothing if not intense, particularly about this demonstration).

I should admit right up front that I was somewhat skeptical of this demonstration. First, I have a real problem with ANSWER, even though I agree that it is outrageous only the left is ever called upon to renounce its idiot contingent; compare the actual power in the world of a Ramsey Clark to that of a Dr. Dobson, or a Pat Buchanan, who has a permanent berth of sorts at MSNBC, and I’m not even mentioning all those certifiable racist loons who are waiting for the confederate South to rise again, and who show up all over the place where Republicans gather.

Second, I always worry about lack of focus, as well as a dangerous sort of moral superiority that can develop in demonstrators, a topic for a later post. In spite of all that, had I not been a full continent away from Washington, I would have been there.

Max speaks, and able to report first-hand what he saw, makes short shrift of my compunctions. In addition, he has a joyous discussion, including pictures, of who was there that convinces me something real was happening.

Tom Englhardt was there, too, the man behind TomDispatch. Wow was he there. Don’t miss his extended report on who and what he saw at the anti-war demonstration.

Even though the march, while loud and energetic, had an air of relaxed calmness to it, the words that seemed to come most quickly to people’s lips were: infuriated, enraged, outraged, had it, had enough, fed up. In every sense, in fact, this was a demonstration of words.

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Here’s just a modest sample of those that caught my eye, reflecting as they did humor, determination, and more than anything else, outrage: “Yeeha is not a foreign policy”; “Making a killing”; “Ex-Republican. Ask me why”; “Blind Faith in Bad Leadership is not Patriotism”; “Bush is a disaster!” (with the President’s face in the eye of a hurricane); “He’s a sick nut my Grandma says” (with a photo of an old woman in blue with halo-like rays emanating from her); “Osama bin Forgotten”; “Cindy speaks for me”; “Make levees not war”; “W’s the Devil, One Degree of Separation”; “Dick Cheney Eats Kittens” (with a photo of five kittens); “Bush busy creating business for morticians worldwide”; “Liar, born liar, born-again liar”; “Dude — There’s a War Criminal in My White House!!!”; “Motivated moderates against Bush”; “Bored with Empire”; “Pro Whose Life?”; “War is Terrorism with a Bigger Budget.”

Wow! Pretty damn good, if you ask me.

Here’s a bit of Englehardt’s analysis of what who was there means:

This was, you might say, the “connection demonstration.” In the previous month, two hurricanes, one of them human, had blown through American life; and between them, they had, for many people, linked the previously unconnected — Bush administration policies and the war in Iraq to their own lives. So, in a sense, this might be thought of as the demonstration created by Hurricanes Cindy Sheehan and Katrina. It was, finally, a protest that, not just in its staggering turnout but in its make-up, reflected the changing opinion-polling figures in this country. This was a majority demonstration and the commonest statement I heard in the six hours I spent talking to as many protesters as I could was: “This is my first demonstration.”

In addition, there were sizeable contingents of military veterans and of the families of soldiers in Iraq, or of those who were killed in Iraq. No less important, scattered through the crowd were many, as I would discover, whose lives had been affected deeply by George Bush’s wars.

Englehardt then goes on to interview specific protestors, including pictures of each with whom he spoke. A don’t-miss, for sure, so click here, and then tell us what you think about all this.