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03/19/2005:

"Soldiers' families to hold anti-war rally at Ft. Bragg"

Military families and veterans are helping organize a major anti-war rally outside Fort Bragg in North Carolina that could draw several thousand people Saturday, the second anniversary of the Iraq war.

Groups such as Iraq Veterans Against The War and Gold Star Families for Peace, whose members have lost relatives in Iraq, will play a prominent role.

"We figured if we formed and used our grief in a positive way that could be very powerful," says Cindy Sheehan, a member of Gold Star Families For Peace from Vacaville, Calif., near San Francisco.

Sheehan says U.S. soldiers in Iraq need to come home, but she knows her son will not be among them. Casey Sheehan, a 24-year-old Army specialist, was killed in April during an ambush in the Sadr City section of Baghdad.

Groups like Gold Star Families For Peace, made up of 60 families, and Iraq Veterans Against the War, with nearly 200 members, were formed within the last nine months. The members were brought together by grief and opposition to the Iraq conflict. More than 1,500 U.S. service members have died in Iraq.

These new groups are one component of a national anti-war effort, says Andrew Pearson of the North Carolina Peace and Justice Coalition, one of the march's organizers. Since the November elections, there has been "a strategic reorientation for the anti-war movement. And a lot of it coming from the direction of leadership of military families and veterans," he says.
Full Article: usatoday.com