Island war protesters launch a countersurge

Published 5:00 am Saturday, January 13, 2007

The rally was among many held nationwide.

A surge of cold wind and ice wasn’t enough to keep a hearty group of islanders from protesting that other now-famous ‘surge.’

About 20 peace activists gathered at the corner of Winslow Way and State Route 305 Thursday night to protest the announcement Wednesday that President George W. Bush would send an additional 21,500 troops to Iraq.

“I’m against this war and I’ve been against it for years,” said Pat Chandler, as cars slipped along the ice on Winslow Way in temperatures threatening to dip below 20 degrees. “There’s people risking their lives in Iraq for this war we had no business taking on. I think the least I can do is get my fingers cold.”

Chandler held a sign calling the troop boost an “escalation,” which runs counter to the President’s preferred “surge.”

Now endlessly argued on blogs and cable TV, the semantic debate was of little interest for 12-year old Elizabeth Bonghi.

“Families are being bombed everyday,” she said, standing with a lit candle near her mother Melissa and younger brother Jasper. “I don’t think it’s right, the killing we’re doing.”

For Melissa, adding troops simply repeats and bolsters a failed strategy.

“It’s kind of like a kid you spank once and find it doesn’t work,” she said. “Does that mean you spank them harder? Let’s try another method.”

The Thursday protest was one of more than 500 nationwide, according to Sharon Winn, who passed out signs as heavily bundled protesters joined in.

Donald Fox, who huddled in a thick coat along the highway, called the war “a blunder” that will funnel Iraq’s oil into the hands of American companies.

“It wasn’t about WMDs,” he said. “I believe it was about oil.”

Fox pointed to recent reports of a plan in the new Iraqi government to allow U.S. and British oil companies to draw as much as 75 percent of the Iraq’s oil profits.

Protester Thom McDonald said that adding more than 20,000 troops proves that the President is out-of-touch with the desires of most Americans.

“Mr. Bush clearly didn’t get the message we sent in the November election,” he said, referring to the widespread rebuke of Bush’s fellow Republicans amid much debate about the Iraq War.

The Grow Avenue resident also cited a Washington Post/ABC poll showing that only 17 percent of Americans support sending more troops to Iraq.

“The Middle East is ready to explode and Bush is going to light the fuze,” McDonald said. “We need to stop this madman.”

While similar protests have sometimes attracted counter-demonstrations across the street by those who support the Bush administration’s Iraq policies, there was no apparent demonstration within the first half-hour of the anti-war group’s appearance.