Protests : As Word Spreads, Demonstrators Intensify Actions

As the conflict in the Persian Gulf escalated into a shooting war Wednesday, so did the activities and arguments from Orange County’s peace activists.

They held a vigil at the Federal Building in Santa Ana and hoisted placards urging President Bush to pull “U.S. Troops Out of the Middle East.” They gathered at UC Irvine, playing news broadcasts over loudspeakers and singing “Give Peace a Chance.” They met on the sands of Laguna Beach, some calling for an immediate troop withdrawal, others for a lightning blitz of Iraq and a quick end to the war.

And everywhere, they voiced their fears.

“It was so strange--I guess it’s almost like a death when you know it’s coming, yet when it comes it’s shocking to the system,” said Rosemary Gould, who was among the protesters already conducting a demonstration near Leisure World in Laguna Hills when word of the attack began to spread.

“People would drive up to us and say it’s started,” said Gould, a member of the Concerned Citizens for Peace, which was staging the protest.

“You could watch people almost contract. . . . It is so sad, and there’s some anger too. What we (did) first was go home in groups to talk some of it out, like you would if you were grieving.”

Others who said they were against the war changed their positions in the moments after the conflict broke out. In Laguna Beach, where about 25 protesters gathered at Coast Highway and Broadway for an impromptu demonstration, Vietnam veteran Gene Stone, 43, said that despite his anti-war stance, he believes that a quick, forceful strike against Iraq should be carried out.

“As a veteran, I don’t want to see them playing games like in Vietnam,” Stone said as the demonstrators chanted, “No blood for oil!” and held placards reading “Stop Oil Addiction” and “Which Way to the Kinder, Gentler Nation?”

“I’m anti-war, but now that they’re doing it, I think they better get (Iraqi President Saddam) Hussein and get this thing over as soon as possible,” Stone said.

Arlene Corvino, chairwoman of the county chapter of the Military Families Support Network and mother of Marine Lance Cpl. Alex Corvino, 21, said that while she had worked hard to organize anti-war protests, including a demonstration in Santa Ana on Monday, she believes that now that hostilities have erupted, Bush should “do anything he can to stop it as soon as he can.”

“I don’t want to hear any talk about saving the (Iraqi) civilian population,” Corvino said. “I want them to do whatever they have to do to get us out of there--even if they need to use limited tactical nuclear weapons.

“My heart goes out for the Kuwaitis and the Iraqis, but if life has to be lost, I hope it’s theirs and not Americans’,” she added. “It’s a horrible situation, and a pox on George Bush for bringing it on us.”

But other military veterans and relatives of soldiers deployed in the Middle East said the way for U.S. troops to return home safely is pull them out and resume negotiations.

Christine Eaton, 21, a UC Irvine senior from Los Altos, Calif., who joined about 100 protesters near the campus’ Cornerstone Cafe, said she wanted the war to stop because her brother, Army Capt. Paul Eaton, has received orders to ship out from Kentucky to Saudi Arabia.

“He will be in charge of a tank division, and he will be in charge of killing other human beings, and he has the possibility of dying,” she said. “I do not want any Americans, Kuwaitis, Iraqis, Iranians--I do not want anybody to die.”

Alexandria Weber, 5, who stood outside the Federal Building in Santa Ana with her mother, Michele, 24, of Yorba Linda, also expressed her fear of war’s death and destruction.

“I don’t like war,” the girl said, her eyes reflecting her fear. “Wars shoot people. War scares me.”

Just five protesters, including Michele Weber, stood outside the Federal Building in the moments after the war news broke. Within hours, the crowd had grown to nearly 20 demonstrators, who conducted a candlelight vigil. Members of the Coalition for Peace in the Middle East said the crowd was expected to swell even more during the night. At 9:30 p.m., about 100 people remained, but the group then began to break up. Protesters were also planning a large noon demonstration for today, and demonstrators Wednesday night were given instructions about how to react if they are arrested today.

“People started calling and said they wanted to go (protest) right away,” coalition coordinator Shirley Cereseto said. “We should have planned an ongoing demonstration, that’s what people want. . . . The phone has been ringing every five minutes or less, with people wanting to know what they can do to protest the action. Protests will continue here and across the nation . . . until we end the war.”

Marion Pack, executive director of Alliance for Survival, the county’s oldest anti-war organization, said her group will join in protests in Santa Ana and elsewhere in the county.

“The alliance’s position is to not support a war as a solution to any problems,” she said. “It’s barbaric. It’s time we moved beyond it.”

Times staff writers Henry Chu, Gebe Martinez and George Frank contributed to this report.