The fact of the war in Iraq remains death. And that should be an occasion

of mourning. The fact is that the war and the ensuing occupation was the

result of lies.

The Dover - DC Trail of Mourning & Truth ended on March 15 at the White

House where the deaths being mourned,  the war being protested, and the

lies on which the deaths and the war rested, all began.

The idea for an act of nonviolent resistance in anticipation of the first

anniversary of last spring's bombardment and invasion of Iraq  began to

germinate among a few people from Baltimore, Washington, DC, and

Philadelphia, last Fall. The idea being to take to  Washington, DC and to

the White House the fact of the unacknowledged toll of this war and

military occupation. Hundreds of U.S. troops have died, thousands of

Iraqis (not even accounted for as a matter of policy)  "In war truth is

the first casualty" and in this war, the lies proceeded the war and

continue. So we knew where the trail ends, but where to begin. Where do

the bodies come home, at least the U.S. bodies, not in caskets or coffins

but in "transfer tubes"?

The Dover Air Force Base is located 50 miles south of Philadelphia just

outside of Dover, DE. It is where all U.S. troops killed in action are

returned in anonymity. Since the end of the Vietnam War (the last

televised war) the press has been banned from the  Base. Families of the

dead, also barred from the Base, must wait on the military delivery plan

of their loved ones.

Since the Vietnam War military veterans have in increasing numbers spoken

out about U.S. war policies. Veterans for Peace is a vital part of the

peace movement landscape. Something phenomenal, however,  has developed

since last spring invasion of Iraq and that is families of troops in

Iraq, including families who have lost loved ones, are speaking out

against the war and military occupation from a wonderful association of

support called Military Families Speak Out [MFSO]. MFSO was the moral

authority to begin the Trail of Mourning & Truth at the Dover Air Force

Base and around them the first steps in the trail were taken.

At noon on March 14, people began arriving at the Camden, Delaware

Friends Meeting   for The Dover to DC Memorial Procession: a Trail of

Mourning & Truth. A Muslim Iman and a Native American Elder dedicated the

opening procession with prayers for the dead and for peace and the 3.5

mile walk of several hundred people began to the Dover Air Force Base

surrounded by reporters, cameras, and TV crews.

At the gates to the Dover Air Force Base,  a service, lead by Nancy

Lessin of MFSO and I,began with Jane Bright speaking of her son, killed

in Iraq, bagpipes played, and one by one mothers and fathers read the

names of their sons and daughters, and  of Iraqis, killed in Iraq.

Fernando Suarez, who was in Iraq as part of a peace delegation last

winter, read the first names: "Bush lied and who died? My son, Jesus!" 

Congressperson from New York and chair of the Congressional Black Caucus,

Charles Rangel, was joined by a number of speakers that included Michael

Hoffman from Bucks County and a Marine veteran of last spring's invasion.

 The service concluded with a litany (e.g.: "For all the deaths that have

been justified by turning the love of God or country into fanatical

arrogance, militarism, and empire"; "May our plea for peace be heard,

from here at the Dover Air Force Base to Washington, DC and everywhere

war is contemplated and bombs are built, that our mourning will make

fertile the soil of our future and nourish the seeds of peace.") with the

response of "We mourn, speaking truth to lies, for the sake of peace."

From the Dover Air Force Base, caravan proceeded to Baltimore for supper

and overnight lodging.

Day Two of the Trail began with an early morning drive from Baltimore to

the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC where many of the

U.S. troops wounded of Iraq are treated. Speakers in front of Walter Reed

included: Bob McIlvaine, from 9/11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows and

who lost his son in the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center; Ellen

Barfield and John Grant of Veterans for Peace, both of whom have made

trips to Iraq before and after last spring's invasion; and Pat Gunn, a

U.S. Navy Veteran from Lansdowne, PA, a USO volunteer at the Phila.

International Airport, and the mother of a son seriously wounded in Iraq.

Following  a Litany of Healing & Peace by Rev. Frederick Boyle of

Titusville, NJ, who was part of a Christian Peacemaking Team in Iraq a

month before last spring's bombardment and subsequently defied a federal

order that he reveal how much money he spent on the trip, the Trail of

Mourning & Truth took to foot, walking 6 miles across Washington, DC to

LaFayette Park across from the White House which, with security

construction surrounding it, looks more like a fortress than "the

people's house" described by Thomas Jefferson.

From  LaFayette Park, the names of U.S. and Iraqi war dead were broadcast

and placed in a coffin to be delivered to the White House. The Hundreds

of people gathered in LaFayette Park fell in behind the coffin as we

began to negotiate our way out of the Park which was no easy feat with

the numerous TV crews and photographers that had surrounded the coffin.

Chanting "Mourn the Dead, End the War", we arrived at the one narrow and

heavily guarded sidewalk from which one can approach the White House.

There, we were met by uniformed  secret service police who announced that

only those with ID passes could proceed any further.

Ellen Barfield from Veterans for Peace and I then proceeded to speak with

the secret service police, who were shortly re-inforced by District

police with night sticks drawn. We demanded that we be allowed to pass

and deliver the names of the war dead to the White House. When asked if

we had passes to proceed, I said: "the names of the war dead - U.S. and

Iraqi - are our passes." But we did not pass, so we waited and waited.

After an hour, sitting before the police, with TV cameras and sound

microphones overhead, we announced that the voice of democracy, along

with the fact of the war, had been barred from the White House just as

democracy was sacrificed daily for the sake of  Bush's war  We returned

to LaFayette Park, carrying the coffin with the names of the war dead

inside.

"Bush lied and who (or what) died?"_____. You can fill in the blank.

Bob Smith, staff, Brandywine Peace Community