SWOPblogger

Hundreds of anti-war activists zig-zagged through the streets of Downtown Albuquerque on Saturday, calling for an end to the Iraqi conflict, hoping a clash with Iran isn't imminent and craving the impeachment of President
Bush.

"I think we are just wrong," Pauline Sargent, 62, said of the country's war in Iraq. "We've made a terrible mistake, and we need to admit it and get out.

"That's all there is to it."

The local demonstration was one of many held across the country, the largest one centering on Washington, D.C.

It comes as the four-year anniversary of the start of the Iraq War nears and as public sentiment about America's involvement sours.

Newsweek on Saturday released the results of a poll that showed President Bush's job approval rating at an all-time low of 30 percent. The survey was conducted after the State of the Union.

"Sixty-seven percent of those polled believe Bush's decision about policy in Iraq and other major areas are influenced more by his personal beliefs regardless of the facts," the magazine announced.

"Public sentiment has changed so much," said Robby Rodriguez of the SouthWest Organizing Project. "I really feel like the country is behind all the demonstrations."

He said the administration has been dishonest about the reasons for the occupation and Congress should be weighing impeachment of the president. The midterm elections, and the subsequent shift of congressional control from the Republicans to the Democrats, sent a clear mandate to withdraw from Iraq, Rodriguez said. That makes Bush's announcement to order more troops into the war zone baffling, he said.

"It's completely divisive," the 31-year-old Albuquerque resident said. "It's not real leadership. It's not what this country wants right now."