Vigils mark 2,000th US death in Iraq

Rejecting the military's assertion that the 2,000th US military casualty in Iraq was an artificial milestone, hundreds of antiwar protesters turned out for dozens of vigils across the state yesterday to commemorate the losses and to call for the removal of US troops from the region.

On Boston Common, 50 marchers carried mock tombstones with the names of US and Iraqi dead.

They used chapped hands to shield candles and listened to a speech by Carlos Arredondo of Randolph, whose son, Alex, 20, became the 968th US military casualty in Iraq when he was shot in the head in June 2004.

''We did a wonderful job helping the Iraqi people," said Arredondo, who clutched his son's military-issue boots as he talked. ''But enough is enough."

The vigils yesterday were organized by the American Friends Service Committee and the activist group MoveOn.org. Similar ones were held across the country.

They appeared to have drawn smaller crowds than an effort in mid-August.

That protest was called in solidarity with Cindy Sheehan, a mother of four from California who camped outside President Bush's ranch in Texas demanding that he say why her soldier son had to die.

Adopting a theme of ''not one more death, not one more dollar," protesters called for the speedy return of US troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.

For some, the message was personal. Lorraine Doyle, 63, of Cambridge, said she worries constantly about her 31-year-old son, who has been driving a Humvee in Afghanistan for four months. ''He calls every day at 3:30 a.m. to check in," she said. ''It's never too late to hear that voice."

In Gloucester, two dozen people brought candles and American flags to a gathering where the names of all 30 Massachusetts military personnel killed in Iraq were read.

A protester, Sally Takekawa, also brought along a bit of good news: Her son, 32-year-old Peter Johnson of Rockport, is due back from Iraq today. While overjoyed, Takekawa said her happiness was tempered by the fact that more military parents were not sharing it.

''I'm so happy, but it's very bittersweet," she said of the war. ''It's time for the troops to come home."

Asked what she thought of the occasion of the 2,000th US casualty in Iraq, she said: ''It makes me weep. I think mothers weep the most at war."

In Framingham, more than 30 people lined Edgell Road near Route 9, holding signs and candles. Martha Cook brought her son Alex and her daughter Madeline, and together they held signs that read ''How Many More?" Cook said that someone had just driven by moments before and yelled expletives at them, scaring her 9-year-old daughter. ''I told her, you have to stand up for what you believe in," she said.

Cook said she thought the number 2,000 was significant, but that it wasn't necessarily the point of the vigil.

''I think the number one was significant as well," she said. ''I just wonder how many more people are going to have to die. I have a 12-year-old son, is he going to be number 5,000?"

About 45 people held a peace vigil on the shore of Hingham Harbor to observe the occasion, as a bracing wind whipped off the water, extinguishing candles and flapping signs protesting the war. On Boston Common, Eileen McCluskey, 48 years old, said she believed that the sacrifice of being wet was worth it and that the protests are starting to have an effect. ''I have to believe that," the Watertown woman said. ''I'm freezing."

Lisa Kocian and Peter Schworm of the Globe staff and Globe correspondent Erika Lovley contributed to this report.