MADISON, Wis. -- Protestors gathered in downtown Madison on Saturday to rally for peace.

Area peace groups met at Library Mall on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus and marched to state Capitol building to demonstrate their opposition to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Attendees said they hoped to rally support for their goal of an end to deployment of Wisconsin National Guard troops, WISC-TV reported.

Barnaby Urich-Rintz of the Madison Area Peace Coalition, said that their opposition is focused on the war, not those fighting overseas.

"We're not opposed to families or the troops themselves. We're opposed to the deployment. We don't think they should be going. We think these wars are illegal. We want them home, safe and alive," he said.

The rally also marked Saturday's anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Riverside Church Address in which he declared his opposition to the Vietnam war.