And thousands of protesters rallied around the country on Thursday in demonstrations organized by the group World Can’t Wait. Over 200 protests were scheduled.

• Jean Sara Rohe, the former New School student who criticized John McCain at the school’s graduation ceremonies: “I’m here today because I want to have a clean conscience. I want to have children one day, and I want to be able to look them in the eye and to tell them that I did all that I could do, that I did not stand idly by while some people with no regard for human life tortured other people under the banner of my flag, that I did not look on with bewilderment as my government sent an entire region of the world into chaos and war, that I did not just wait around as my government took away a woman’s right to choose. My strong optimism about our future is what brings me here today.”

Democratic Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney also spoke at the rally in New York. McKinney recently lost her re-election bid.

• Cynthia McKinney (D-GA): “Untold Iraqis are dead, thousands of Americans are dead, and tens of thousands are wounded. But what happens to any of us who question the White House and point out their shining lies? First of all, we’re targeted as enemies, then labeled “un-American,” accused of hating our country, and, one by one, we’re isolated.”