Today I went to the anti-war rally in New York City with two friends, Angus & CK. We couldn’t get anywhere near the epicentre of the rally (1st Avenue north of 49th Street); the whole east side of New York was effectively shut down by a huge, diverse and peaceful crowd of peace protestors who braved bitterly cold conditions to make themselves heard (today’s highest temp in NYC was -5°C, or 22°F).

We got as close as 53rd St and 3rd Avenue, which was supposed to be an access route, but the police aggressively threw up a barricade right in front of us, supposedly because of some disturbance involving mounted police at 53rd St & 2nd Ave.

It was clear that the police massively underestimated the turnout; CNN’s website is currently estimating about 200,000 people attended, but it seemed like MUCH more to me — the police were totally overwhelmed, and responded by trampling through the crowds with riot police on horses (something I haven’t seen since the Poll Tax riots of 1989 in London).

Ignore the scaremongering U.S. media — opposition within the United States itself to the U.S.-led war on Iraq is huge. Today was a good day.

P.S. Message to Tony Blair: I am disgusted by you.