Area marks anniversary with quiet protests, tearful tributes

In solemn, small observances, Boston-area residents marked the fourth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq yesterday with what seemed to be battle fatigue.

Opponents of the war protested silently, while some families and comrades of slain soldiers offered tear-filled tributes.

On a day when President Bush asked for patience, saying that success in Iraq "will take months, not days or weeks," a handful of people stood in front of the State House for nearly four hours to read the names of all US military fatalities so far in the war.

"I just wanted to show my respect for the families of all 3,200 soldiers who have sacrificed their lives," said Boston City Councilor Charles Yancey, who helped read the names and ages of the dead on a cold, gray afternoon on Beacon Hill.

"I think it's just important to get involved," said Ashley Thompson, 21, a junior at Emerson College, who listened quietly during the reading. "A lot of people say they're opposed to the war, but when push comes to shove, they don't get involved."

At dusk, more than 100 protesters braved snow and gusty winds to span the Longfellow Bridge between Boston and Cambridge for a candlelight and flashlight vigil.

Many held signs, including placards that read, "Bring Our Troops Home," "Kill one person and it's murder. Kill thousands, and it's foreign policy," and "War is terrorism with a bigger budget."

"This is our chance to say something about this foolish war. If I had a son, I wouldn't want my son to go," said Kris Field, 66, of the Back Bay.

Emily Dahmen, 37, of Beacon Hill, held a large cardboard dove. "Considering the crazy weather, I think this is a pretty good turnout," said Dahmen, who organized the flashlight and candle vigil.

The vigil was one of dozens of small protests scheduled in Massachusetts and one of 1,100 across the country, activists said. "It's an effort to have a peaceful statement to end this war," said Diane Hendrix of Somerville, an organizer with MoveOn.org.

Vigils were also planned last night in Andover, Brookline, Plymouth, Falmouth, Hyannis, Newton, and several other communities.

On the North Shore, the human cost of the war was put in stark relief in a small classroom at St. John's Prep in Danvers. There, nine grieving relatives of Captain Jennifer J. Harris, a helicopter pilot from Swampscott who died last month when her aircraft was shot down, gathered for a video link to watch a memorial service at Camp Pendleton, Calif., for Harris and three others.

Harris's parents, Raymond and Rosalie, and two of her grandparents watched in silence as the videolink connected them with the service. Harris, 28, a Naval Academy graduate who is the only Massachusetts servicewoman to die in the war, was praised by fellow Marines as a warm, considerate, intelligent pilot who was devoted to her dangerous mission of evacuating casualties from the battlefield.

"She was so good because she cared so much," said one Marine in a eulogy. As a photograph of Harris was displayed on the screen, her father dabbed at his eyes and touched his wife's arm.

Democratic members of Congress from Massachusetts blasted Bush's speech, in which he said that his plan to send 21,500 additional US troops to secure Baghdad and Iraq's troubled Anbar province "will need more time to take effect," especially because fewer than half of the reinforcements have arrived.

"Patience is not a strategy," Senator John F. Kerry said in a statement.

Outgoing US Representative Martin T. Meehan, a Lowell Democrat who last month returned from a fact-finding tour of Iraq, said in a statement that the president's escalation strategy is "deeply flawed" and will lead to a greater loss of life and "billions more dollars wasted."

In New Hampshire, state lawmakers spent the anniversary debating a resolution that disapproves of Bush's decision to send more troops to Iraq. "We're in a civil war trying to referee," state Representative Paul McEachern, a Portsmouth Democrat, said during a sparsely attended public hearing yesterday.

State Representative Bob Haefner, a Republican from Hudson who opposed the resolution, said generals, not politicians, should make battlefield decisions. "Soldiers want a clear mission, and then they don't want their hands tied," he told the House committee, which is scheduled to vote today.

In Washington, D.C., an antiwar group called Military Families Speak Out urged Congress to cut off funding for the war.

Nancy Lessin, a Boston resident and cofounder of the group, said unless Congress acted, more American and Iraqi lives would be needlessly lost.

"We commemorated a date we hoped never to see, the fourth anniversary, in a war that never should have happened," she said.

David Abel and Raja Mishra of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Material from the Associated Press also was used. Brian MacQuarrie can be reached at macquarrie@globe.com