Antiwar Protest Rocks the Capitol

The WaPo reports that the Capitol was a setting today for “hundreds sprawled on the ground in a symbolic "die-in." Police arrested 189 people, including 10 who organizers said were veterans of the war.”

The kind of protest not seen since the Vietnam War took Washington by surprise as the Answer Coalition and Code Pink launched an aggressive act of civil disobedience near the legislative center of the nation. For the first time since half a million people jammed the streets of New York City in advance of the invasion of Iraq, the mainstream media began to cover the antiwar movement as a major force in American politics, beyond the impact it has on the electoral strategies of the Democratic Party.

It seems clear that the theater of the Petraeus Report and a Presidential speech to the nation have not quieted the sentiment of opponents of the occupation of Iraq.