Americans have expressed dismay recently over the global outpouring of anti-U.S. sentiments as the country prepares for a possible attack on Iraq. On Tuesday, those sentiments were echoed on streets across America.

The anti-war demonstrations weren't huge, but the vocal minority was determined to be heard above the daily rhetoric of war.

"It looks like the anti-war movement is waking up," said one protester in Chicago. "Americans who haven't protested for decades are back."

In New York, about half of the 200 protesters demonstrating outside the U.S. mission to the United Nations were arrested for disorderly conduct, including clergy members.

In Sacramento, Calif., nine were taken into custody for blocking the entrance to a federal courthouse.

In Washington, several people were arrested after protesters converged on two military recruiting stations shouting "Hell no, we won't go." Another 300 people marched to a park near the White House.

Second World War veteran Ray Kaepplinger echoed the criticism of U.S. President George Bush during a protest in Chicago by about 40 people outside a federal office building. About 20 others were arrested in the lobby for criminal trespass.

Kaepplinger, 84, said he had "been through the plume of hell in New Guinea'' and didn't want to see another war erupt. "As far as I'm concerned, President George II is as bad as Saddam Hussein."

The group United for Peace said about 120 vigils, acts of civil disobedience and marches were planned in 37 states.

About 100 celebrities also gathered Tuesday to highlight a letter sent to Bush urging him to avoid military action. The letter says war with Iraq will increase the likelihood of terrorist attacks "and undermine our moral standing in the world."

"This notion of pre-emptive war is setting a precedent ... and we must ask ourselves, where does this end?'' said Tony Shalhoub, star of the ABC detective show Monk. "Where is the next pre-emptive strike?"

Long-time activist Martin Sheen, who plays the U.S. president on NBC's The West Wing, said he believes Bush has a personal motive to invade Iraq.

Bush's father drove Iraqi forces out of Kuwait during the Gulf War in 1991 but did not topple Hussein's regime. Two years later, Iraq was suspected of being behind a botched assassination attempt on Bush during a visit to Kuwait.

"I think he'd like to hand his father Saddam Hussein's head and win his approval for what happened after the Gulf War," Sheen said. "That's my own personal opinion -- I don't know if that's true. I hope it's not, but I suspect it is."

Other anti-war supporters have suggested that America's real goal in Iraq is the country's massive oil fields. Some have gone as far to suggest the U.S. would use control of Iraqi oil to break the OPEC oil cartel, which could wreak havoc to the economy of Saudi Arabia, currently the world's largest producer.

U.S. relations with Saudi Arabia have soured since Sept. 11, compounded recently by reports that some members of the Saudi Royal family may have inadvertently channeled money to the al Qaeda terrorist network.

The protests also took place on the day former U.S. president Jimmy Carter accepted his Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo. Carter says a pre-emptive war could be catastrophic.

"War may sometimes be a necessary evil. But no matter how necessary, it is always an evil, never a good. We will not learn to live together in peace by killing each other's children."

With reports from CTV's Kathy Tomlinson and The Associated Press