Iraq war foes ready for 2,000th military death

By Deborah Zabarenko

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Cindy Sheehan, the military mother
who made her son’s death in Iraq a rallying point for the
anti-war movement, plans to tie herself to the White House
fence to protest the milestone of 2,000 U.S. military deaths in
Iraq.

“I’m going to go to Washington, D.C. and I’m going to give
a speech at the White House, and after I do, I’m going to tie
myself to the fence and refuse to leave until they agree to
bring our troops home,” Sheehan said in a telephone interview
last week as the milestone approached.

“And I’ll probably get arrested, and when I get out, I’ll
go back and do the same thing,” she said.

The death toll among U.S. military forces since the March
2003 invasion stood at 1,996 on Sunday.

The milestone’s approach prompted plans for hundreds of
other demonstrations across the United States, but for Sheehan,
each military death in the Iraqi war has been a tragedy.

“To me, every single member since Number One has been
tragic and needless and unnecessary,” she said. “My son was
somewhere around 615, and I’ve been working so hard for peace
since my son was killed and now almost 1,400 more soldiers have
been killed since Casey died.”

Army Specialist Casey Sheehan was killed in Iraq on April
4, 2004.

Beyond Sheehan’s plans, a candlelight vigil is planned at
the White House to mourn the 2,000-death milestone. Hundreds of
other demonstrations are scheduled for the day after the
milestone number is reached.

“I hope that this milestone marks the point when the
American people realize the U.S. military is not going to stop
the violence in Iraq, and they instead start demanding a
political solution to this problem,” Sean O’Neill, a U.S.
Marine who served in Iraq, said in a statement.

‘HUMAN COST OF A LIE’

The American Friends Service Committee was helping
coordinate activists to protest the Iraq war.

“On the day after the 2,000th reported U.S. military death
in Iraq, people will gather in communities across the U.S. to
say that the countries pro-peace majority wants Congress to
stop the deaths by stopping the dollars that are funding the
war,” a coalition of anti-war groups said online at
www.afsc.org.

“The clock has stopped ticking for 2,000 Americans in Iraq,
and once again there is a media craze, another reason for
people to pay closer attention to the human cost of a lie, but
for how long this time?” said Camilo Mejia, an Iraq combat
veteran who served a year in prison for refusing to return to
the war in Iraq.

“Perhaps it’s time for the American public to realize that
each death counts, American, Iraqi or otherwise,” Mejia said in
a statement.

Another anti-war group, Peace Action, called on Congress to
pull troops out of Iraq.

“Bush’s insistence on continued military occupation feeds
the insurgency. Congress must now take the leadership role in
bringing our troops home,” said Kevin M. Martin, executive
director of Peace Action.

At the White House, demonstrators plan a quiet vigil.

“We ask that people do not bring signs or posters, just
candles and perhaps pictures of soldiers,” the notice for this
event read. “No megaphones or speeches. Quiet mourning, prayer
and song. No opportunities to offend or exclude.”

An early October survey by the Pew Research Center for the
People & the Press of U.S. attitudes toward the war in Iraq
found only 9 percent of respondents thought the war was going
very well; by contrast, 22 percent thought it was going not at
all well.

Half of all respondents said the United States made the
wrong decision in using military force against Iraq; 44 percent
said it was the right decision. The survey had an error margin
of plus or minus 3 percentage points.