Conway said he wants people to know that the Iraq war "was, is and until the day it is gloriously extinguished, a profit-driven fraud cavalierly conceived by the neo-conservatives of the Republican Party."

Northern Ute Tribe member Lacee Harris blessed the gathering and demonstrators heard from Iraq war veteran Chris Conway and high school junior Breanne Gratton of the Idaho Peace Coalition at the Utah State Capitol building before a loud and lively march down Salt Lake City's State Street to the rally at City Hall.

Larry Chadwick, a founder of Salt Lake City's chapter of the original Vietnam Veterans Against the War, George Muller of Veterans for Peace, Iraq Veteran Against the War's Jeff Key, and an Iraq War soldier's mother Carla Hitz of Military Families Speak Out led off the rally.

The speakers sought to show that their own passionate and powerful affirmations of their patriotism was starkly opposed to what many referred to as the unconstitutional aggressive war policies of the Bush administration.

Ashley Bledsoe, a student leader of the protests at Brigham Young University against commencement speaker Dick Cheney last spring, spoke for Mormons for Equality and Social Justice.

Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson made his concluding speech an indictment of news media dereliction, public apathy and presidential malfeasance.

"We have seen throughout history that the people can make their government listen to their demands and that time is now," said Breanne Gratton, a high school senior from Boise who made the trek. "We have to make our government listen to what we are saying and bring every soldier home now."

"It's time we bring an end to this madness before one more life is lost ... no longer are we a minority in this struggle, we are a majority," she said.

Salt Lake City resident Barton Tippetts, a 60-year-old Vietnam veteran, said nations should not rush to war. "We should have never attacked Iraq under preemptive war doctrine," he said.

William Van Wagenen, a 29-year-old Provo man who was kidnapped in Iraq earlier this year, said he closely watched the Iraq report presented by Gen. David Petraeus and questioned its accuracy. "General Petraeus is just exaggerating the success in Iraq," he said.

George Muller, a 65-year-old Vietnam veteran, drove to the demonstration from Ogden, towing a trailer with a pair of Army boots on it for each of the 21 Utah soldiers who have died in Iraq.

He encouraged the group of protesters to write their congressmen and demand they vote to bring the troops home.

We the People for Peace and Justice, the Utah umbrella coalition which organized Salt Lake's October 27 demonstration, and the Circle Dynamics Peacekeepers deserve much praise for a successful event in a red state. Music provided by Slickrock Stranger, Ask the Dust, Zion Tribe and members of Blue Haiku contributed to the upbeat atmosphere.

Yesterday, an amazing and powerful story unfolded in this country. We've all known for some time that most Americans want Bush's war and occupation in Iraq to end. For the first time, people from all walks of life had an opportunity to be counted as part of a national, public protest without having to travel to Washington, DC, or New York City. People responded with one voice to demand an end to this outrageous war. Here's a story about an Oklahoma City event too.