Anti-war activists kick off a weekend of protests

About 150 people clustered around a handful of speakers in a federal plaza, as commuters headed for the trains home to the suburbs for the Easter weekend.

Some in the crowd were old hands at this, but Denis Clifford and Naomi Puro just stumbled on the event and paused to listen.

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The California couple nodded enthusiastically as Fran Johns, an advertising executive turned anti-war activist, read the Bush administration the riot act.

"We will not sacrifice one more life for this irresponsible war," she said "...this war that has turned our troops into invaders and occupiers ... this war that has divided our country."

"Last year," she went on "George Bush got dressed up and stood on an aircraft carrier and said mission accomplished. I would like to ask him what mission we've accomplished."

Johns pointed out that more than 600 US soldiers and hundreds more Iraqis have died since President George W. Bush declared the end of "major combat" on May 1, 2003, from the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln off the coast of California.

"Iraq is beginning to look like another Vietnam," she concluded.

The nation's growing unease over the US mission in Iraq, fueled by te rising tide of US casualties from a week of fierce fighting was evident in the remarks of many in the crowd, even those who originally saw some merit in the military campaign.