Christine Stuart photo
More than 50 peace activists braved the freezing rain at the West Hartford Veterans Memorial Monday to mark the death of the 3,000th U.S. soldier.“It’s a sad thing to have to do on New Years day,” Kathy Hucks, a member of West Hartford Citizens for Peace and Justice said. But, “perhaps it is the only way to begin 2007, by refusing to forget and reminding those who would like to forget,” she said.Flo Woodiel, another member of West Hartford Citizens for Peace and Justice, said when it comes to the war in Iraq, “it’s time to hold our legislator’s feet to the fire.”
Many voters viewed the 2006 mid-term election as a referendum on support for the war in Iraq. As a result of Republican President George W. Bush’s Iraq policy Democrats were able to regain control of Congress. “This is what the election was about. We want an end to the war,” Woodiel said. She said she believes more than 60 percent of the American public want the troops to come home and the war to end.According to the Web site, www.icasualties.org December has been the deadliest month for US forces in the past two years, with 113 fatalities. According to www.iraqibodyount.org, more than 52,000 Iraqi civilians have died in the almost four-year-old war.A banner with the names of Connecticut’s 23 military casualties was strung alongside a random sampling of Iraqi civilians. “It’s important for us not to forget,” Hucks said. Hucks referenced the Web site: www.iraqbodycount.org that aims to identify Iraqi fatalities by name and give each the weight it deserves.