WASHINGTON – As tens of thousands of demonstrators packed the National Mall on Saturday to oppose the Bush administration’s handling of the Iraq war, one Iowa stepmother took the stage to tell her story.

Brenda Hervey of Sioux City said it was important for her to make the drive to the nation’s capital to voice her opposition against the war.

“The most supportive thing Congress can do now for my stepson, our troops and the people of Iraq is to stop funding this war,” said Hervey, who spoke on behalf of the anti-war group Military Families Speak Out.

Hervey’s stepson, Michael Hervey, was injured when an IED (improvised explosive device) detonated and sprayed shrapnel that seriously injured his lower right leg in November 2006. After three emergency surgeries in Iraq, he continues to recover at an Army facility in Germany and could be sent back to fight.

“I know that although Michael is safe in [Germany], I know that 130,000 other troops are not,” Hervey said.

Stories like Hervey’s were shared throughout the demonstration as dozens of anti-war speakers – including veterans, advocates and politicians – rallied the masses before marching around the U.S. Capitol building on an unseasonably warm afternoon.

Sponsored by the anti-war group United for Peace and Justice, the demonstration came as President Bush plans to send more than 21,000 additional soldiers to Iraq.

Organizers had hoped more than 100,000 people would come, but police, who no longer offer official estimates, said privately fewer than 100,000 people turned out, according to the Associated Press.

After more than 3,000 soldiers have died in Iraq since the 2003 invasion, some say that lawmakers should reduce its spending on operations there.

“Congress has the responsibility now to bring an end to this horror, to cut off the funds, to bring our troops home, to close the bases, to remove occupation,” said Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, who also is running for president.

“Let us move forward and create peace.”

David Cline, president of Veterans for Peace and Vietnam War veteran, compared the current situation in Iraq with operations during the Vietnam War more than 30 years ago.

“We’ve seen this cycle before and that’s why many of us opposed this war before it even started,” he said.

Rev. Jesse Jackson, president of the RainbowPUSH Coalition, said the war’s burden has worn hard on the American people.

“We’ve lost lives and money and honor and the American public has said ‘no,'” he said.

Actors Sean Penn, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins and Jane Fonda also rallied the protesters, who came from nearly every state to demonstrate.

Many made the trip across the country via bus or carpool.

Ashley Eberle, a senior in history at Western Illinois University in Macomb, took a three-hour train ride to Chicago, then rode 13 hours in a bus to make it to the march. She said that thousands of protesters marching on Capitol Hill “sends the message to Congress that people support the end of the war.”

Karl Bultsma, a 23-year-old production worker at Tyson Foods in Waterloo, said he missed a day of work and spent 21 hours on a charter bus with other demonstrators from eastern Iowa to protest.

Bultsma’s anti-war message was pretty straightforward.

“This is an illegal war,” Bultsma said. “We have no right to be there.”