[Peace-discuss] soldiers' families lead anti-war protests

[Ricky Baldwin]

[I wouldn't expect to see this item mentioned in much
of the US press.  I hope I'm wrong. - RB]

The Guardian (London)

October 25, 2003

SECTION: Guardian Foreign Pages, Pg. 21

LENGTH: 335 words

HEADLINE: Dissent on the home front: families of US
soldiers in Iraq lead anti-war protests: Troops'
relatives speak out as death toll rises and morale
falls

BYLINE: Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington

BODY:
News of the death of Jane Bright's son, Evan, arrived
with the US military's greatest triumph in Iraq since
the fall of Baghdad. In Mosul, the 101st Airborne
cornered and killed Saddam Hussein's sons, Uday and
Qusay. Outside town, a US patrol came under attack,
and Ms Bright's son, an infantryman, was killed along
with two other soldiers. 

That was on July 24. Her anger has not abated. "There
are some terrible things going on there," she says.

Yesterday, other American families waited for official
confirmation of death, after reports arrived of one
soldier from the 101st Airborne killed near Mosul and
two members of the 4th Infantry Division killed in a
mortar attack near Samara. This brought to 108 the
number of US troops to die under hostile fire since
May 1, when President George W Bush declared an end to
major combat.

The growing toll and reports of poor conditions and
low morale among troops have produced an undercurrent
of dissent among US military families. The Guardian
has found that 75% of the 478 troops removed from the
Iraqi theatre because of mental health issues have
been reservists.

In researching this story, we received more than 70
emails and phone calls from relatives of US forces
overseas. All but two were negative - about the
treatment of soldiers, the reasons for the Iraq war,
the pain of family separation and the insensitivity of
the military bureaucracy.

The criticisms - a breach of military culture - is
viewed with concern at the Pentagon, which sent a team
to Iraq this week to investigate 13 cases of suicide
in recent months. It has also promised better
treatment of sick soldiers, and has vowed to expand
the programme of 15-day furloughs introduced last
month - despite the failure of about 30 soldiers to
catch their flights back to Iraq. But many on the home
front remain furious, and today's anti-war protests in
Washington and others US cities will kick off with
candlelight vigils by families of soldiers serving in Iraq.

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