Peace activists protest Iraq war

SEATTLE – A crowd estimated at between 100 to 300 people turned out in downtown Seattle to remember the U.S. military men and women who have died in Iraq as well as the undetermined number of Iraqis who have been killed since the American-led invasion of that nation.

As of last week, 69 military men and women with family roots in Washington state had died in Iraq.

“Peace is still the best troop support,” read a picket sign.

Matt Winter, 26, of Seattle, who served in Navy aviation ordnance in Iraq, stood with other members of Iraq Veterans Against the War.

“I was OK with Operation Enduring Freedom,” the name for the war in Afghanistan, Winter told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. “I thought I was doing something to keep my family safe.”

“But when they mixed and created reasons to move the fight to Iraq,” he said he saw no justification for the March 2003 invasion.

Tom Brookhart, of Renton, who has spent nearly 30 years as an anti-war activist, told the Seattle Times that he wasn’t disappointed in the turnout on Monday, a day after the American death toll in Iraq reached 3,000. Organizers had hoped for a crowd of 3,000. He blamed bad weather, the New Year’s holiday and the short notice for keeping people from coming out.

Brookhart doesn’t see a quick end coming to the deaths in Iraq.

“President Bush is intent on increasing the war and not decreasing it,” he said.

Felix Kang, of Seattle, was among a group of protesters dressed in orange jumpsuits and black face masks.

“I’m dressed as a torture victim,” Kang said, referring to Iraqi prisoners who allegedly have been mistreated while incarcerated.

Erina Malarkey, 23, of Seattle, who works in communications with a waterfront business, said it was important to be an activist.

“You have people on a daily basis saying the war is wrong and that they are morally opposed to it, but not doing anything,” she said. “Grumbling to co-workers isn’t enough. Now more than ever it is important not to be apathetic.”