Decatur protest
January 22, 2007 at 4:33 pm by Web Editor in News
Shanell Thomas of Atlanta served 11 months, three weeks and two days in Iraq.
Her mother Denise remembers those numbers, because she lived through the stages in agony, waiting for her daughter to come home.
A military police officer, Shanell Thomas went house to house in Baghdad during her tour of duty. Deemed non-deployable by two Army doctors on her return stateside, Thomas is nonetheless in line to go back to the war zone, according to her mother.
But not if Denise Thomas can help it.
"Send my daughter back to Iraq? Over my dead body," the sign in Denise’s hands read where she stood in front of Your DeKalb Farmers Market in Decatur on Saturday. Horns blared as drivers made the turn into the market past Thomas and other Georgia Peace and Justice Coalition protestors.
"What I really thought is we were bluffing," the Army mom said of the initial congressional resolution giving President Bush the authority to go to war in Iraq. "I thought there was no way we were going to war. I thought we were threatening the use of force to get Saddam in line, but I didn’t think we’d actually go in the way we did. I knew it was going to go nowhere once we went in."
There was a single drum pounding among the protestors, but there wasn’t much else they needed to do to prompt the Philip Glass-like repetition of beeps from cars and the occasional blast of a truck horn.
"The people have spoken," said Ted Brodek of Atlanta, a retired college teacher and union organizer. "It’s time to realize this war is a disaster and will continue to be a disaster without a change of policy. …Realistically I don’t think this war is going to end as long as Bush is in office. They may de-escalate it a bit… But the first task of the next president will be to get out and formally retract the Bush doctrine of pre-emptive war."
Brodek said the fundamental flaw with Bush’s war strategy is that it emboldens other countries to shirk international law and launch unilateral attacks.
"The next president needs to demonstrate that America is committed to the framework of international law," Brodek said, "and he or she needs to indicate that we will not act on a unilateral basis except under the strictest conditions."
An older crowd, most of the farm market protestors remembered Vietnam.
"I think we should withdraw as soon as possible," said Elizabeth Knowlton. "We’ve already created a civil war. I don’t think our staying there helps. It’s more of the same. It’s Vietnam all over again."
"You’re seeing more and more soldiers coming back wounded or dead," concurred Earl Johnson of Stone Mountain, who was in the service and stationed in Korea from 1970-71.
Johnson said he travels around the country as part of his job. Whenever he sees an antiwar protest he pulls over and joins the crowd. A southeast Texas native, he said he talks to a lot of good ol’ boys and often finds himself in the minority on the war question but argues anyway. "If I can make one person think, it’s worth it," he said.
Bob Goodman, one of the protest’s chief organizers on Saturday, and an opponent of the war from the beginning, said people must keep the pressure on lawmakers.
"What I want to see them do is not appropriate any more money for additional troops," Goodman said of the U.S. Congress. "I think it will happen at some point during the coming year. If Bush takes on these militias it’s going to be a bloodbath. I believe if they really look at this plan and what it means, it will put some spine in these lawmakers."
Another cascade of horn honks sounded from passing cars.
"Opposition to the war has grown steadily over the last three years," Goodman said. "The tide has obviously turned. The election of Nov. 7 has changed the dynamic in Congress. I have no doubt we’re going to get the troops out of there."
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