Holding anti-war signs and banners, students and Ames community members lined Lincoln Way on Sunday to protest the war in Iraq.

The peace march, which drew nearly 250 participants, culminated in a rally that included musical performances and statements from members of various organizations opposed to the war in the parking lot of Lincoln Center, at the intersection of Lincoln Way and Grand Avenue.

The event was part of a nationwide series of protests last weekend that coincided with the second anniversary of the invasion of Iraq by the United States and its allies.

“Justice and peace require that the troops come home today,” said Paul Nelson, a member of the Alliance for Global Justice and a speaker at the event.

“For every dollar that’s going for the war, it’s a dollar not going to people in need.”

Nelson said because of the war, social and family-oriented government programs have received cuts in funding.

He said the cost of the war is estimated to be about $2,000 per U.S. household.

“If there were reasons for it, it’d be fine, but there’s not,” said Jesse Dinsdale, an Ames resident and veteran of the Iraq war. “This is a pointless war.”

He said the war is not justified because Iraq was not a threat to the United States. The war was not waged out of humanitarian concern for the Iraqi people, Dinsdale said.

He said when he first returned to the United States after serving in Iraq, he did not know why people were protesting.

“What you are told here and what we’re told over there are two completely different things,” Dinsdale said.

He said protesting the war is also a demonstration of support for the troops.

“I’m against war but I’m for the soldiers,” he said.

Sana Akili, chairwoman of the Ames Interfaith Council, said she opposes the war in Iraq because there was not a valid reason for it. She said the aftermath of the war has affected the people of Iraq, not the regime of deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

Akili, lecturer of marketing, said she also opposes the war because it has created divisions between faiths.

“It is seen as sort of a crusade,” she said.

“Even now, the Christians in Iraq are being targeted.”

There was a historical peace between faiths that existed before the war, Akili said.

“I don’t understand why the Iraq war would be unjustified when we went over there and we stopped Saddam from killing thousands of his own people,” said Joe Knepper, president of the ISU College Republicans.

There were many reasons the United States went to war, Knepper said, even without the discovery of weapons of mass destruction.

“By going over there, all these other countries see that Iraq has their own freedom, and democracy is working over there,” he said. “They want their militant rulers to back off, and they want to control their own governments.”

The event was organized by several campus and community organizations, including the Alliance for Global Justice, the Ames Interfaith Council, Time for Peace, Amnesty International, YWCA of Ames and the Ames High Progressive Club.