Cindy Sheehan Will Tie Herself to White House Fence Until Troops Come Home

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Mon, 24 Oct 2005 21:53:00 -0700 (PDT)

Cindy Sheehan Will Tie Herself to White House Fence Until

Troops Come Home

 

 

Iraq war foes ready for 2,000th military death

 

Reuters

 

Oct 23, 2005 — By Deborah Zabarenko

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Cindy Sheehan, the military mother who made her

son's death in Iraq a rallying point for the anti-war movement, plans

to tie herself to the White House fence to protest the milestone of

2,000 U.S. military deaths in Iraq.

 

" I'm going to go to Washington, D.C. and I'm going to give a speech at

the White House, and after I do, I'm going to tie myself to the fence

and refuse to leave until they agree to bring our troops home, "

Sheehan said in a telephone interview last week as the milestone

approached. " And I'll probably get arrested, and when I get out, I'll

go back and do the same thing, " she said.

 

The death toll among U.S. military forces since the March 2003

invasion stood at 1,996 on Sunday.

 

The milestone's approach prompted plans for hundreds of other

demonstrations across the United States, but for Sheehan, each

military death in the Iraqi war has been a tragedy.

 

" To me, every single member since Number One has been tragic and

needless and unnecessary, " she said. " My son was somewhere around 615,

and I've been working so hard for peace since my son was killed and

now almost 1,400 more soldiers have been killed since Casey died. "

 

Army Specialist Casey Sheehan was killed in Iraq on April 4, 2004.

 

Beyond Sheehan's plans, a candlelight vigil is planned at the White

House to mourn the 2,000-death milestone. Hundreds of other

demonstrations are scheduled for the day after the milestone number is

reached.

 

" I hope that this milestone marks the point when the American people

realize the U.S. military is not going to stop the violence in Iraq,

and they instead start demanding a political solution to this

problem, " Sean O'Neill, a U.S. Marine who served in Iraq, said in a

statement.

 

'HUMAN COST OF A LIE'

 

The American Friends Service Committee was helping coordinate

activists to protest the Iraq war.

 

" On the day after the 2,000th reported U.S. military death in Iraq,

people will gather in communities across the U.S. to say that the

countries pro-peace majority wants Congress to stop the deaths by

stopping the dollars that are funding the war, " a coalition of

anti-war groups said online at www.afsc.org.