Protesting five years of war:

Walkout urges removal

of American troops

from Iraq
By Scott Nicholson
nicholson@wataugademocrat.com

A number of community and university organizations staged a “walkout” Thursday to promote peace and support the end of the Iraq War.

Several hundred people, most of them students, gathered on the mall at Appalachian State University at 1:30 p.m., the designated time of the walkout.

A number of speakers delivered statistics on the war’s impact, with American military deaths reportedly nearing the 4,000 mark and the number of Iraqi casualties estimated in the hundreds of thousands.

Doug Hay, who helped organize the event, said, “I’m tired of standing back and watching it happen. It’s time to voice my opinion. Hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent on a war the majority of our country doesn’t support.”

Hay said American and Iraqi lives were being lost every week and media coverage of the war had faded. He said the fifth anniversary of the war, which was March 20, was a good time to bring it back to the public’s attention.

“The reason we’re out here today is because it’s too easy for people to forget,” he said.

Hay said he originally wished to remain anonymous for the record, but decided to stand by his opinion as he was encouraging others to do.

He was one of a number of speakers, many of them students, who broadcast from a podium while the crowd shared in bread, soup, and desserts supplied by the student group “Food Not Bombs.” Other groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, United Students Against Sweat Shops and the Campus Antiwar Network, staged events as part of “A Week of Solidarity,” featuring gatherings, protests and panel discussions.

Amanda Edgell, one of those wearing a black armband with the number “4,000” on it to denote American troop deaths, said, “This is a way to remember American soldiers who have lost their lives. We support them but not the war.”

A man who identified himself only as “Robert” attached antiwar signs to trees on the mall. He said the number of participants was inspiring, but said the antiwar movement was just “another form of change that needs to come about” as part of peace and social justice. “It’s all moving in the right direction,” he said.

“It’s a good cause to contribute and raise awareness. We need to end it (the war) somehow,” Tim Izlar said. “He [President George W. Bush] went in there without an exit strategy and we need an exit strategy.”

Only a handful of students, most of them organizers, were on the mall until the designated 1:30 gathering time, battling the fierce wind to erect flags and sandwich boards bearing antiwar slogans.

Then the mall became crowded as speakers took turns urging unity and asking people to look at their own actions, while non-students like Democrat Roy Carter, a candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives, also addressed the crowd.

Gregory Reck, chairman of the ASU Department of Anthropology, asked the crowd what they had been doing during “the criminal war.”

He challenged people to take personal responsibility and action toward peace, and said the walk-out was symbolic but also needed more effort after it.

“Must there be a lifetime of walking?” he asked. “Another world is really possible and I hope this is just the start of it.”

Not everyone attended to join the protest. Mac McBee said he was “definitely against the war,” but seemed reluctant to cast his lot with the protestors.

“I’m seeing what they can do,” McBee said from the edge of the crowd. “There was a serious lack of organization. This campus is supposed to be liberal, but only about a half a percent of the campus is out here.”

Jason Hauser also came as self-described social critic, curious about what he called a “social mobilization effort.”

He described the staged protest as a “product” of the antiwar faction and said while such events can generate social change, he seemed a little disappointed by the event.

“I’m definitely against the war,” he said. “If this is the product they were going for, they certainly achieved it.”

“They should proofread their flyers,” McBee added.

President Bush marked the fifth anniversary of the war by saying the troops must remain, while critics of the war blasted Bush for a lack of the “weapons of mass destruction” cited as the impetus for the invasion.

Critics also pointed to a recent Pentagon study that found no connection between deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and the al Qaeda terrorist organization blamed for the attacks on 9/11.

“The answers are clear to me,” Bush said Wednesday while acknowledging debate was understandable. “Removing Saddam Hussein from power was the right decision, and this is a fight America can and must win.”