By Nicholas Riccardi and DeeDee Correll / Los Angeles Times
About 50 members of Iraq Veterans Against the War lead 4,000 protesters on a march that ends five hours later outside the Pepsi Center when their request to meet with a liaison is granted.
DENVER -- About 50 Iraq war veterans led a boisterous crowd of about 4,000 protesters to the gates of the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday evening, demanding to speak at the podium inside.
The four-mile march began at the site of a concert by leftist rock group Rage Against the Machine. It ended five hours later, after the Obama campaign resolved a tense standoff outside the Pepsi Center by agreeing to meet with representatives of the group, Iraq Veterans Against the War.
The marchers said they wanted to hold Obama to his promise to end the Iraq war and called for him to pull troops out immediately. The Democratic presidential candidate has instead vowed to bring all combat troops home within 16 months of taking office.
"We're here to hold the Democrat Party accountable," said Jason Hurd, one of the veterans at the front of the procession. "We voted them in to end this war. They've not done that. . . . We want our brothers and sisters to come home now, not later. Now."
The veterans march was the largest demonstration so far in what otherwise has proven to be a generally subdued week; injuries were reported, but no arrests were made.
Marchers demanded to be allowed to read a letter to the convention from the podium.
"They are running a campaign based on an anti-war platform," said former Marine Lance Cpl. Jeff Key. "We want to send one veteran to read [our] letter from the podium."
As armored vehicles filled with riot police pulled up and onlookers began to crowd the marchers, the police said Key and another veteran could go inside the convention perimeter. They emerged and said the Obama campaign's veterans liaison, Phil Carter, had agreed to meet with them.
The crowd cheered and broke into the protest chant the Obama campaign has adopted: "Yes, we can!" And then the veterans marched off into the night.
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