[Peace-discuss] AWARE in News-Gazette

[Jan & Durl Kruse]

Support call for more protests of Iraq war

Saturday July 21, 2007

I support Ed Rawdin's call in his recent letter to bring back anti-war  
protests. The human cost of the war in Iraq continues to grow.

Nearly 3,600 U.S. troops have died since our unwarranted invasion of  
Iraq in March 2003. Six hundred have died since the troop surge.  
Conservative estimates of Iraqi civilian and military deaths since our  
invasion are at an alarming 71,000. The financial costs of the war are  
equally staggering – $135 billion in this fiscal year alone.

Iraqis share our desire to bring our troops home. In a poll conducted  
by the BBC and other news organizations this past spring, only 22  
percent of Iraqis support the presence of coalition troops in Iraq.  
This figure is down from 32 percent in 2005.

Twenty-one percent of those polled said the presence of U.S. forces in  
Iraq improves security. Sixty-nine percent believe security is worse as  
a result of our presence.

I encourage Rawdin and others to join the anti-war demonstrations  
coordinated by the local organization AWARE (Anti-War, Anti-Racism  
Effort) on the first Saturday of each month from 2 to 4 p.m. on the  
corner of Neil and Main streets in downtown Champaign.

Many youths and adults attend these monthly demonstrations. Many more  
indicate their support for our efforts by "honking for peace" as they  
drive by.

Each of us can voice our opposition to the war in Iraq by contacting  
our elected officials and by standing with others in protest to say,  
"We want our troops to come home. End the war now."

PEGGY PATTEN

Urbana
  Find this article at:
   
http://www.news-gazette.com/news/opinions/letters/2007/07/21/ 
support_call_for_more_protests_of_iraq
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