Military families join in war protest.

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Registered: 03-18-2000
Military families join in war protest.
Mon, 03-15-2004 - 8:26am

Relatives of U.S. troops killed in Iraq take part in an antiwar march to the gates of Dover Air Force Base with veterans, pacifists and church groups.


http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/nation/8188403.htm



Sue Niederer sought her son's permission before taking part in a protest against the war in Iraq.Her son, Seth Dvorin, was a soldier killed last month about 30 miles south of Baghdad. But Niederer can't quite believe that her 24-year-old boy is gone. She still talks to him.


''I asked his permission to do this,'' said Niederer, a resident of Pennington, N.J., as she stood outside Dover Air Force Base, clutching a poster-size picture of her son in his dress uniform. 'I said, `If you don't want me to do this, flatten my tires.' He wants me to do this.''


Niederer was one of about 600 demonstrators Sunday who marched to the gates of the base to protest the war and to complain about restricted access to installations, like Dover, where the bodies of those killed in Iraq are returned.


The protest attracted various groups opposed to the war: veterans, pacifists and church groups that were bused in from Philadelphia, Baltimore and other northeastern cities. But it was the military families -- traveling from around the country -- that were the centerpiece of a 3.5-mile march from a local meeting house to the massive military base.


NAMES OF SOLDIERS


Forbidden to enter the complex, the marchers crammed a sliver of lawn at a busy intersection outside the base and listened as some members of Military Families Speak Out read the names of U.S. troops -- now numbering 564 -- who have been killed since the war began last March.


''Bush lies, and who dies?'' said Fernando Suárez del Solar of San Diego. ``My son, Jesús Suárez del Solar Navarro, March 27.''


''I'm very disillusioned with the American government,'' del Solar said before the march. ``For it to get involved in an illegal war and to play with the emotions of the American people with 9/11 for politics is wrong.''


Several family members said it's also wrong for the Pentagon to prevent people from witnessing the return of the remains of soldiers killed in Iraq to American soil.


COVERAGE BLOCKED


The media have been barred from covering the arrival of remains at Dover, which has the military's largest mortuary, since 1991. Before the Iraq war began last March, the Pentagon expanded the coverage ban to its installations worldwide.


Critics contend that the Bush administration did that to keep pictures of flag-draped coffins being unloaded from planes from possibly undermining public support for the war.


Pentagon officials say the decision was made out of concern for families who lost relatives in the war.


But some families have complained that they also have been denied access and deprived of the chance to witness a solemn and formal military homecoming ceremony.


Al and Pat McLaine of Columbia, Md., hope they never have to visit Dover or any other base for that reason. But the McLaines worry. They have had up to six relatives -- including their son Joe and his wife Mary -- in Iraq or somewhere in the Persian Gulf at one time.


`IMPOSSIBLE WAR'


''We've got family members in it, but we're not for it,'' Al McLaine said of the war. ''What Bush calls the war on terrorism is an impossible war because terrorism is a tactic,'' said McLaine, who joined Military Families Speak Out with his wife. ``You will not end terrorism by invading a country.''


Asked what his Army captain son thinks about his views, McLaine said he and his son don't discuss the politics of war much. ''Our son is proud as can be about us, and he's behind us 100 percent,'' he said. ``And we're very proud of him.''

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