By Virginia de Leon / Staff writer

Beneath the steady drumbeat for war, a movement for peace has emerged.

Thousands of people throughout the country are seeking ways to protest a possible attack on Iraq.

National polls have shown that most Americans oppose unilateral U.S. military action in Iraq. Without United Nations approval and support from other countries, only a third of the public favors war.

People protesting military action argue that war isn't necessary to keep Iraq from threatening the rest of the world. They also say war will only bring more suffering to the Iraqi people, who have faced shortages of food and medicine since the last Persian Gulf War in 1991.

The current peace movement is broader and less in-your-face than the one that sprouted during the Vietnam War in the 1960s.

Organizing through the Internet, peace activists have mobilized a diverse population: college students and professors, religious congregations and minority groups, high school teens, retired folks and veterans who fought in Vietnam and other wars.

These are people like Aileen Taylor of Chewelah, who has never been political in the past and now finds herself swept up by the need to speak out against war.

"I can't imagine being an Iraqi woman waiting for the bombs to hit," said Taylor, 53. "What is her crime?"

During the remembrance for Martin Luther King Jr., many invoked the civil rights leader's legacy of nonviolent resistance.

"I believe that if Dr. King were with us today, he would be skeptical of this military solution we are being led to believe is the only viable option," 17-year-old Blake Walker told other students at Lewis and Clark High School in Spokane.

"I believe that we owe it to his memory, to ourselves, to our country and most importantly, to our world, to do everything possible to prevent war," he said.

About 1,000 people huddled in the cold at Spokane's Riverfront Park, waving "No War" placards, singing peace songs and chanting "One, two, three, four! We don't want your corporate war!"

The coordinated demonstrations were replicated in San Francisco, Portland and across the nation, as well as in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. The largest turnout was in Washington, D.C., where more than 200,000 people converged on the National Mall.

In the most recent wave of protests, on Feb. 15, anti-war protesters in London attracted 750,000 people, while nearly 1 million demonstrated in Rome. In Spokane, up to 2,000 people marched for peace.

The rallies are the most visible signs that a peace movement is afoot. Less obvious, however, are the quieter everyday actions that people are making to oppose the nation's preparations for war.

Mike Schwartz, 21, plans to fast for six days, drinking only water, if the United States attacks Iraq.

Al Mangan, who is 80 years old and a veteran of World War II and the Korean War, is prepared to get arrested for the cause.

Others are wearing "No War" T-Shirts, driving less to help reduce American reliance on foreign oil, or simply saying a prayer for peace.

As a politics professor and director of the Peace Studies Program at Whitworth College, John Yoder's response to a potential war is to provide students with as much information as possible.

Last fall, he brought a retired Presbyterian couple who had worked in Iran to talk to his classes. Students not only learned about the Muslim world, he said, but were able "to make a personal link by realizing that people in the Middle East have many of the same concerns and issues that we do."

"It becomes more difficult to think about attacking people using military means when you think about them as human beings," Yoder said.

At the Spokane Friends Church, Pastor Deborah Suess is providing training for young people who are considering becoming conscientious objectors should a military draft ever be instituted.

"We work for peace and justice not because of results, but because it's the right thing to do," Suess said. "We have to live the kind of life that takes away the causes of war. That means living humbly, lovingly, forthrightly and working for justice."