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Additional troops to Iraq will be protested at rally

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By Thomas Geyer | Thursday, January 11, 2007 12:57 AM CST | () comments

President Bush’s decision to send additional troops to Iraq has elicited a response from the national organization MoveOn.org, whose Quad-City members will hold a rally today to protest the escalation and demand representatives in Washington cut the White House’s purse strings.

MoveOn member Rachel Griffiths said the local rally will coincide with hundreds of rallies nationwide protesting Bush’s plan for Iraq.

“His proposal to send more troops to Iraq is another example of just how out of touch he is with the situation in Iraq,” Griffiths said. “This is a rally to stop the escalation. We have to make it clear to our representatives that we are against any more troops going to Iraq.”

Local peace activist Caroline Vernon, of Davenport, who will attend the rally, said Bush seems to be “blatantly disregarding” the American people’s wish to find a way out of Iraq.

“In my opinion, we want to get out of there, get our troops home,” Vernon said. “We’d like to see a peacekeeping force from the United Nations or other Arab countries do this. We don’t want to leave them high and dry. But we’re just feeding this war machine that is taking money from our social fabric, from programs that lend much to our quality of life.”

Thomas Geyer can be contacted at (563) 383-2328 or tgeyer@qctimes.com.

If you go

The rally will be from 4 to 6 p.m. today at the corner of 53rd Street and Corporate Row Drive, Davenport. For more information, contact Rachel Griffiths at (309) 721-3204.