WASHINGTON, 17 March 2004 — Some 200 protesters, including families of soldiers killed in Iraq, gathered Monday in front of the White House to demand an end to the US occupation of Iraq.
The peaceful protest outside President George W. Bush’s residence came five days before the one-year anniversary of the US-led war, which began March 20, 2003.
Drums rolled after each demonstrator took a turn reading into a microphone the names of soldiers and Iraqi civilians killed in the conflict. Then, the readers laid the list of names in a black-and-white coffin.
The protestors quoted Vice President Dick Cheney’s claim that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, the chief rationale for the US invasion. “Honor the dead and end the war,” the protestors chanted as they approached a police cordon in front of the White House.
“Come one, let’s show some accountability,” one demonstrator shouted.
“I lost my brother in Iraq in January. He was 33,” John Walker said.
“This war is unjustified. ... If it had been justified, I would not be here,” he said.
The White House protest came a day after several hundred relatives of dead soldiers protested at an Air Force base in Dover, Delaware, the landing spot for military airplanes carrying the bodies of troops killed in Iraq.
Deaths on the weekend in Iraq rose to 274 the number of US soldiers killed in action since Bush declared major hostilities over on May 1.
