Local antiwar activists decry 4,000th US death in Iraq
By Globe Staff
Local antiwar activists are responding with outrage to the news today that the overall US death toll in Iraq has surpassed 4,000, saying it underlines the need for the United States to withdraw its troops.
"It’s long past time to bring them home now," said Joseph Gerson, director of New England programs at the American Friends Service Committee in Cambridge.
"It was inevitable, but it doesn’t make it any easier to know that it’s happened," said Catherine Melina, 51, of Cambridge, an activist whose son is serving in the Army in Baghdad. "I think Americans need to speak up loud and clear to their elected officials and tell them this is not what we want."
The news of the 4,000th death came just a few days after the fifth anniversary of the war in Iraq.
The Associated Press said its count of the deaths was based on US military reports and included eight civilian Department of Defense workers. Tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians have also been killed, the AP has tallied.
President Bush says that his strategy of a troop surge is working, pointing to a decline in violence in the country.
He said last week in a news conference on the war anniversary that there is an "understandable debate" over whether the war was worth fighting and whether it can be won.
But he said, "The answers are clear to me: Removing Saddam Hussein from power was the right decision -- and this is a fight America can and must win."
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