Raul?Protesters honor Iraq casualties, demand end to war
Associated Press
DOVER, Del. - Peace activists and anti-war protesters from around the country gathered Sunday near the nation's largest military mortuary to honor U.S. troops killed and wounded in Iraq and demand an end to the war.
More than 250 demonstrators, singing songs and carrying signs reading "War is Not the Answer" and "Support Our Troops, Bring Them Home" gathered at the Camden Friends Meeting house and marched in a 3 1/2-mile procession to Dover Air Force Base.
The Dover base is home to the nation's largest military mortuary, where the bodies of more than 550 U.S. soldiers who died in Iraq have been processed and prepared for return to their families.
Six more U.S. soldiers were killed by roadside bombs in Iraq over the weekend.
Outside the base, demonstrators read the names of the dead, prayed, tolled a bell in their memory and decried the Bush administration's invasion of Iraq.
Among those participating in the demonstration, which marked this week's one-year anniversary of the war, were military veterans and members of families who have lost loved ones.
Lila Lipscomb of Flint, Mich., mourned her son, Michael Pedersen, 27, a member of the 3rd Infantry Division killed in April when a Black Hawk helicopter crashed during a fire fight.
"For his 28th birthday, the only thing I could give him was a headstone," Lipscomb said, weeping.
Some of the protesters criticized President Bush for declining to attend any of the funerals for the dead and, continuing the practice of previous administrations, not allowing the public or media to witness the arrival of remains at the Dover mortuary.
"We need to stop hiding the deaths of our young; we need to be open about their deaths; we need to be open about the casualties," said Jane Bright of West Hills, Calif., whose 24-year-old son, Evan Ashcraft, a sergeant in the 101st Airborne Division, was killed in combat in July.
Bright accused Bush and members of his administration of being "war criminals" and said the pre-emptive invasion of Iraq was unjustified.
"I believe Bush needed a war, and he got one, in order to maintain high ratings with the American public," she said. "He's responsible for the deaths of thousands of Iraqis and almost 600 coalition troops."
David Cline, 57, of Jersey City, N.J., a combat veteran of Vietnam, said Bush is trying to hide the true cost of a war "based on his lies."
"One of things about the Vietnam War is that it took from 1963 to 1971, when the Pentagon Papers were released, to show that the whole construct of the war was based on lies," said Cline, a member of Vietnam Veterans Against the War and president of Veterans for Peace. "In this war, it's taken from March until now; there's no weapons of mass destruction. So in a sense, this war is Vietnam on speed."
"The Bush administration wants us to forget about the cost of this whole adventure, this whole folly," Cline added. "It's unacceptable."
Joining the demonstrators was U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., who introduced a resolution in Congress last week that would, while respecting a family's request for privacy, allow members of military families, the media and the public to witness the arrival of U.S. remains from Iraq and Afghanistan at military installations here and overseas.
Rangel contrasted the secrecy with which the bodies of U.S. troops arrive in Dover with the ceremony here attending the return of the body of Commerce Secretary Ron Brown, who died in a 1996 airplane crash in Croatia.
"The other people who are not the Ron Browns, they, too, deserve the homecomings. They deserve the flags. ... They should not be coming home in the middle of the night when people can't thank them for serving their country," Rangel said.
Rangel predicted that the demonstration would mark the beginning of a "groundswell" of opposition against the war.
"Let us make no mistake about it, Saddam Hussein was on President Bush's hit list long before nine-one-one," he said. "Saddam Hussein was not connected with nine-one-one. ... There have been no weapons of mass destruction found. There's been no connection with Al-Qaida."
Air Force security guards and state and local police kept an eye on the demonstrators.
While the protesters took turns criticizing the war, Raul Deming, 44, of Takoma Park, Md., waged a one-man counter-protest across the street, shouting into a microphone to make himself heard.
Deming said the demonstrators were being misled by left-wing activists, and by putting pressure on politicians in the U.S., they were encouraging the Iraqi insurgents attacking American troops.
"These people, by doing this, are giving an invitation to kill more soldiers," said Deming, who engaged in a shouting match with Sue Niederer of Pennington, N.J.
Niederer's 24-year-old son, Seth Dvorin, a member of the 101st Airborne Division, was killed in Iraq last month while trying to disarm a roadside bomb.
"He doesn't know what he's talking about," Niederer said of Deming. "This is a group that is telling the truth about what's going on."
At the end of the demonstration, Niederer, Lipscomb and Fernando Suarez del Solar of San Diego, Calif., strode up to the gate of the Air Force base and held up signs in silent protest. Suarez del Solar gently fingered and kissed the dog tags of his dead son, Marine Lance Cpl. Jesus Suarez del Solar, 20, killed a year ago when he stepped on an unexploded American bomb.
Turned away by security guards, the three protesters then embraced and wept.
Demonstrators were scheduled to continue the protest Monday in Washington, D.C., with rallies outside Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where many of the wounded are hospitalized, and the White House.
