Meet Bush's latest enemy in the war on Iraq (Guardian)

[struggle4progress]

Meet Bush's latest enemy in the war on Iraq: the Raging Grannies of Tucson, Arizona

· 'Peace grannies' part of growing anti-war network
· Elderly women tried to enlist in place of young

Oliver Burkeman and Emma Brockes in New York
Saturday April 29, 2006
The Guardian

Three years after the start of the Iraq war, one thing New York police do not lack is experience in dealing with protesters - so when they were called to a disturbance at the military recruitment centre in Times Square last October, it sounded like just another routine demonstration.

Instead, they found 18 elderly women, many in their 80s and one aged 90, blocking the entrance and demanding to enlist in place of young men. They called themselves Grandmothers Against The War, and after they ignored polite requests to move on, police had no option but to arrest them, making sure the handcuffs weren't too tight, and cart them off - complete with canes and walking frames - to the holding cells.

They were finally acquitted yesterday, after a trial that caught New Yorkers' imagination, even as it seemed to agonise the prosecutors saddled with the job of arguing that the "peace grannies", as they became known, should be jailed. At the height of the proceedings, Cindy Sheehan, the anti-war activist who became a celebrity for camping for months outside George Bush's Texas ranch after her son was killed in Iraq, showed up to lend her support.

The women are part of a growing network of American anti-war groups made up of senior citizens, including the Raging Grannies of Tucson, Arizona, and Grandmothers for Peace International, who use the positive social stereotype attaching to grandmothers - and the reluctance of the authorities to come down too hard on them - to further their cause. Banners held by sympathisers outside the Manhattan courtroom read "Arrest Bush, Free the Grannies" and "Can't whip the insurgents? Whip Grannies!" <snip>

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1764087,00.html

[cliss]

1. It's not just grannies -

it's everyone now. In the check out line at the grocery story, shoppers take turns criticizing Bush. Outside the local library, there are people standing outside, getting signatures for a petition to impeach Bush.

It's everywhere - on every street corner now. (it's about time)