Two separate local events were planned to mark the death of the 3,000th American soldier in Iraq: a Squirrel Hill vigil and an Oakland picket and march.
“It seems like, we turn around, we’ve lost another two or three people,” laments Scilla Wahrhaftig, head of the state office of the American Friends Service Committee, which organized the vigil on the steps of Sixth Presbyterian Church at Forbes and Murray avenues. As of Dec. 29, 2,996 American troops had died in the Iraq War; each event was planned for the day after the 3,000th such war death.
Diane Santoriello of Penn Hills, whose son, 1st Lt. Neil Santoriello, was the 930th American soldier to die in Iraq, was set to speak at the 5:30 p.m. vigil. She has been collecting 3,000 Christmas bulbs, symbolizing the number of American war dead, to display alongside a list of their names posted on doors by Wahrhaftig.
A reading by poet Samuel Hazo had also been set. Then the group had planned to march briefly up Forbes — one of more than 200 groups around the country scheduled to make similar demonstrations on that day, organized by the national office of the Quaker organization.
Just down Forbes in Oakland, Pittsburgh Organizing Group had planned its 45th picket of the neighborhood’s military recruiting center for 6 p.m. on the day after the 3,000th war death as well.
“We want people to recognize the 3,000th death — and recognize it’s not just the 3,000th American soldier that has died,” said POG’s Ryan Williams of Bloomfield. Iraqi civilian deaths, estimated to be anywhere from 50,000 to 650,000, ought to be recognized as well, he said. The group had planned to march as well near the picket site.
POG’s anti-war pickets have long targeted local military recruiting centers. Williams is not disturbed by Pentagon announcements in December that all four service branches had met or exceeded their most recent recruitment goals.
“I actually feel counter-recruitment is being really effective,” Williams says. “Of course they’re going to say they met their quota. But you’ve got to look at how they met their quota” — by lowering entry standards and upping age limits.
The group’s message this time, he added, would be that, “while this [3,000th] death isn’t more important than the first death or the death before this, or any Iraqi death, it is a milestone. This war is already lost.”
This article appears in Jan 4-10, 2007.
This is so sad, I wish I was Queen of the world, then I would throw all the guns into the sun like Superman…… Saddam is dead and yet we continue to kill and kill and kill and kill. As sorry as I am to read your words Marty, I am grateful that you write them.
people really don’t recognize the the devastation that is takong place over there. Our brother, our friend was taken from us. He was the 3,003 soldier to be killed. i strongly believe in your cause and wish more people would be involved in this. Too many good men and women are losong their lives to these people who hate and always will hate us no matter what we do. This is what they want to see americans die! And we are letting them acheive that, by having our loved ones who are, may I say, so courageous to defend our country, over there.
As sad as all the dead soldiers are, and the sadness of the families, I find the Horror of the survivors even more frightening.
Once again this country has managed to destroy the lifes of a generation. And we are still coping with the damaged survivors of Vietnam.
There ar over 35000 soldiers that have survived severe injuries and have to cope with the mental and physical damage of their participation in this insanity. There life exspectancy is at least another 60 years. And just like the forgotten Vietnam vets, there governments promise of medical care will not be fullfilled.
And what about the Iraqi civilians that are “collaterl Damage???