Dozens of members of Harford County-based Just 4 Peace called for the U.S. to immediately withdrawal from Iraq during a demonstration in front of the Bel Air Courthouse on Friday night.

“I think most Americans are not in favor of this war,” said Johns Hopkins University sociology professor Joel Andreas, who was invited to speak during the demonstration. “I think it is critical that U.S. troops leave Iraq now.”

Andreas speculated that most Americans haven’t pressured the Bush administration because they don’t feel they can effect change or believe an immediate withdrawal of U.S. forces would throw the Middle Eastern nation into civil war. To the latter, Andreas said that civil war already exists in Iraq.

“We can’t worry about a bloodbath in Iraq because there already is one,” Andreas said.

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After Andreas addressed the crowd, Just 4 Peace organizer Susan Androsky read the names of all of the U.S. servicemen and women who had died since September. “We love the soldiers but hate the war,” Androsky said.

The peace of the demonstration was then momentarily interrupted by a glass bottle shattering in the midst of the protesters. Suspecting someone in a passing car had thrown it, the tension in the group was palpable. But the tension quickly turned to relief and laughter when the group realized the bottle had just been accidentally knocked over.

Though some cars drove by and sounded their horns in support, one man yelled at the group, telling them to “Go home,” as he drove by.

“Sept. 11 had nothing to do with Iraq,” Cockeysville resident Judy Pentz said. “So why are we there?” She said that every day the U.S. stays in Iraq, more hatred for America spreads among the Iraqi people.

Andreas agreed, saying the reasons for the continued U.S. presence were based on the Bush administration’s desire to “win” the war, maintain U.S. bases in Iraq, keep access to Iraqi oil and save face.

mplum@baltimoreexaminer.com