Protests on 5th anniversary of Iraq war
By JOHN CHRISTOFFERSEN, Associated Press Writer 17 minutes ago
Octogenarian Jim Barron has hearing aids and a pacemaker. The prostate cancer survivor received a cortisone shot this month to ease the pain from an old shoulder injury.
“It got to the point where I couldn’t lift a glass of water,” Barron said.
Despite his aches, Barron planned to risk arrest Wednesday, the fifth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, which has claimed the lives of nearly 4,000 U.S. troops. He’s part of a nationwide peace movement using the anniversary to protest with nonviolent civil disobedience.
Anti-war protests were scheduled in Washington, D.C., where demonstrators vowed to block the entrance to the Internal Revenue Service and to disrupt the offices of lobbyists who represent military contractors and oil companies profiting from the war.
College students from New Jersey to North Dakota planned walkouts, while students at the University of Minnesota vowed to shut down military recruiting offices on campus. Barron geared up to participate in a protest in Hartford, Conn.
“This is the first time coordinated direct actions of civil disobedience are happening,” said Barbra Bearden, communications manager for the group Peace Action. “People who have never done this kind of action are stepping up and deciding now is the time to do it.”
The Iraq war has been unpopular both abroad and in the United States, although an Associated Press-Ipsos poll in December showed that growing numbers think the U.S. is making progress and will eventually be able to claim some success in Iraq.
The findings, a rarity in the relentlessly unpopular war, came amid diminishing U.S. and Iraqi casualties and the start of modest troop withdrawals. Still, majorities remain upset about the conflict and convinced the invasion was a mistake, and the issue still splits the country deeply along party lines.
Activists cite frustration that the war has dragged on for so long and hope the more dramatic actions will galvanize others to protest.
“If you are determined and your cause is right, the American people will eventually come around,” Barron said.
Though he has participated in demonstrations for decades, Barron has never risked a trip to jail. He opposed the war from the beginning and has written letters of protest to Congress, but his feelings intensified while hearing the names of the war dead read each week in his church.
The final straw, he said, was reading an article about U.S. soldiers who suffered permanent brain damage in Iraq.
“I’m tired of being a futile old man not able to have any participation in this decision,” Barron said. “I’m 80 years old. I’m still alive. I want people to say, ..If he’s not afraid to do it, what am I doing being so silent?’”
Barron, who ran a kitchen remodeling business with his wife before he retired in 1995, said he helped organize efforts to integrate restaurants in Richmond, Va., during the 1960s. He saw police drag college students from lunch counters, and said authorities stood and watched as the students were attacked on sidewalks.
But the attacks only encouraged more protesters to engage in civil disobedience, he said.
“I saw the effectiveness of civil disobedience,” Barron said. “Those kids paid a helluva penalty, but they got the good people of Richmond awakened. This chemistry needs to happen again.”
Planning to join Barron on Wednesday were his minister, the Rev. Kathleen McTigue, and others from his Unitarian church in New Haven. McTigue said she was surprised when Barron told her he wanted to join the action, but he assured her he was up it.
“I’m very proud of him,” McTigue said. “I find him very inspirational.”
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Michael Guest, a well-respected and committed public servant, had risen to a top position in the Foreign Service. The first openly gay American to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate as an overseas Ambassador, Guest left his prestigious post – and the career he loved – because of the State Department’s second-class treatment of his partner. 
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