Two presidential candidates, Dennis Kucinich and Cynthia McKinney, joined thousands of protesters at the gates of Fort Benning on Sunday, calling for the U.S. government to close the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation.

Kucinich, an Ohio congressman seeking the Democratic nomination, said if he is elected, one of his first acts would be to close the institute formerly known as the School of the Americas.

"We are here to speak not only to Georgia and Fort Benning, but we are here to speak to the world that we reject war as an instrument of foreign policy," Kucinich said to loud applause from the crowd gathered along Fort Benning Road.

More than 11,000 people -- though police and organizers disagreed on the exact number -- gathered for the 18th annual SOA Watch protest. Fort Benning officials report than 11 protesters were arrested by federal marshals for crossing onto the post illegally. Columbus Police reported that four protesters were arrested at the Fort Benning Road site for obstructing an officer -- misdemeanor charges.

Kucinich was joined on the stage by McKinney, a Green Party presidential candidate and former Georgia congresswoman who was defeated in 2006. After Kucinich's three-minute speech, he invited McKinney to join him and the two locked hands and raised their arms to the crowd.

"Cynthia McKinney is my sister," Kucinich said afterward. "I have great affection for her."

McKinney, who is now attending the University of California-Berkley working on a doctorate in African-American studies, said she and Kucinich "have a philosophical union."

The flawed governmental thinking that produced the training school for soldiers and police in Latin American and Central American countries is similar "to the type of thinking that led us to war in Iraq," Kucinich said.

The main theme of Kucinich's presidential campaign has been to immediately end the Iraq War. That message played well among the SOA Watch protesters, some of whom were wearing buttons and T-shirts that disagreed with the war and foreign policy established by the Bush Administration.

Kucinich and SOA Watch founder the Rev. Roy Bourgeois led the protesters to the Fort Benning main gate, placing wooden crosses on the chain-link fence. Military officials watched from a hillside and a small platform that was elevated just behind the post's three gates. Just before the procession started, Fort Benning commander Maj. Gen. Walt Wojdakowski, in civilian clothes, was on the platform with two uniformed soldiers.

The protest has been on a November weekend since 1990. It marks the anniversary of the Nov. 16, 1989, slayings of six priests, their housekeeper and her teenaged daughter in El Salvador. Eighteen of the 26 soldiers involved had attended the School of the Americas, SOA Watch organizers say.

There was some disagreement about how many people attended the protest. The Columbus Police Department put the figure at 11,238 just after noon. There were officers at the Fort Benning Road entrance to the protest who were hand counting those who came onto the protest site.

SOA Watch chief organizer Eric LeCompte put the crowd between 24,000 and 25,000 people, more than twice the police number and more than the 22,000 estimated a year ago. LeCompte took exception to the police estimate.

"That's a low number," LeCompte said. "That's a tactic police use all over the country."

Police Chief Ricky Boren said his department's number is accurate because officers were using counters to register everyone who entered.

"We counted all of the individuals who came through the gate," Boren said.

One thing the SOA Watch organizers and police could agree on was the age of the protesters is getting younger.

"There is no question we are seeing a younger crowd," Boren said.

There were students from at least 70 high schools from across the country and many of the nation's major universities, LeCompte said.

"I would have to say that it is very clear there has been growth in college students and people in their 20s," LeCompte said.

Some were even younger than that.

Molly Frier, an 8-year-old third-grader from Savannah, Ga., was marching in the procession to the gate, where thousands of protesters left wooden crosses with names of those they say were victims of human rights violations. The little girl was with her sister Lucy, 10, and their aunt, Laura Veal of Nashville.

The youngest girl held up a cardboard sign that read, "Our school is nicer than your school."

Veal said it is important to bring the children into the protest.

"It's good for them to learn civil disobedience and non-violence," Veal said. "They need to express their opinions. They definitely have opinions."

Not all of the young protesters were that young. Alli Kennedy is a freshman at Fairfield University in Connecticut.

"I heard about this in high school through a social justice class," said Kennedy, a native of Indianapolis. "It is awesome. I am really glad I came."

Bourgeois, 68, said he was struck by the youthfulness of the protesters.

"That is what has given me such joy -- to see that a majority of the people here are high school and college students," Bourgeois said. "We are passing the baton to the future peacemakers. And we need them. We are working for hope and I see that in our youth."

© 2007 Ledger-Enquirer and wire service sources.

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