A dozen anti-war activists set up camp on the National Mall Monday, diligently laying hay over the grass muddied by recent rains.

The group called Peace of the Action   plans to be there for a week, protesting the ongoing wars and aiming to revive the anti-war momentum that existed under the previous administration.

On March 20, the campers plan to join other activists in front of the White House to mark the seventh anniversary of the Iraq war. They hope to rally Democrats against the ongoing wars and persuade President Obama to bring troops home.

But they were off to a slow start. They had to resolve permit issues and wait until after Sunday’s St. Patrick’s Day parade to set up their tents. At 2 p.m., when their first speaker was scheduled to take the stage, volunteers were unrolling carpets and plugging in speakers.

The group's leader, anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan, was marking tents as "First Amendment" to signal to park police that the gear was part of the rally and not an effort to illegally camp on the Mall.

Delays aside, Sheehan said she was excited by the turnout. She has wanted to camp outside the White House since holding a similar protest outside President Bush's Crawford ranch in 2005.

A new president hasn’t changed much for her, except that the focus has shifted from Iraq to Afghanistan.

"Barack Obama is the third term of Bush," she said. "We want government to know that we're the ones in charge not them."

-- Ambreen Ali, Congress.org