By Andy Sullivan WASHINGTON, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Anti-war activists plan to mount thousands of protests and a multimillion dollar advertising campaign to block President George W. Bush's plan to send more U.S. troops to Iraq, organizers said on Thursday. Angered by what they described as Bush's defiance of a public that has turned against the Iraq war, activists said they plan to take to the airwaves, the Internet and the streets to pressure Congress to deny funding for the planned troop increase. "Last night's speech is clearly fueling a surge of anti-war sentiment and activism," said Tom Andrews, a former Maine congressman who now heads the anti-war group Win Without War. Activists have scheduled 1,000 protests for Thursday night in all 50 U.S. states, ahead of a Jan. 27 march around the U.S. Capitol that organizers expect to draw hundreds of thousands of participants. The liberal grass-roots organization MoveOn plans to fund television ads criticizing Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, a backer of the troop increase and likely presidential candidate, in Iowa and New Hampshire, where the first contests of the 2008 presidential race will take place. The group will also fund anti-war bus advertisements in Washington, executive director Eli Pariser said. Organizers said the entire campaign will initially cost $7 million to $9 million. Separately, another anti-war group, International ANSWER, plans an anti-war march to the Pentagon on March 17. An ABC News-Washington Post poll taken after Bush's Wednesday night speech found that 61 percent of Americans oppose his plan to send 21,500 extra troops to Iraq, while 36 percent support it. Public disgust with a war that has killed more than 3,000 Americans and tens of thousands of Iraqis helped Democrats win control of Congress in November's elections. Democratic leaders plan nonbinding votes opposing the troop increase, but appear reluctant to cut off funding for the plan. Anti-war activists said they would lobby Democrats to take that step with thousands of phone calls, e-mails and letters to the editor. "Members of Congress may not always be able to see the light, but they can always feel the heat," Andrews said.
