SLC Protests 4-Year Anniversary of Iraq War

By Tracy Medley, 3-20-07

	Caption: Protesters gathered outside the County Building August 2006

Several gathered in downtown Salt Lake City Monday to mourn the 4-year anniversary of the war in Iraq. Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson spoke to a crowd outside of the City County Building, repeating the same sentiments he expressed last August when he articulated his opposition to the war in Iraq and demanded President Bush’s resignation. Anderson spoke to a crowd of about 600 anti-war protestors. That’s according to the Deseret Morning News.

Despite local criticism, Utahn demonstrators are actually in lock step with the majority of Americans when it comes to discontentment with this war. According to The Salt Lake Tribune recent polling suggests that the majority of Americans are in favor of withdrawing American troops from Iraq within a year. Even within Utah support for the president’s handling of the war is on the decline. The Tribune conducted a poll in January that showed only 41 percent of Utahns agreed with the president’s course of action since the war’s conception four years ago.

Tom Goldsmith who is the minister at the First Unitarian Church in Salt Lake City reiterated that fact to the crown Monday. “Today we stand proudly with a majority of Americans who want- actually who demand – we bring our troops home now.”

While Anderson was the “rock star” of the event, it was Iraq war vet Larry Cannon who brought a sobering dose of reality. Cannon, who according to The Tribune served in Iraq in both 2004 and 2005, told a harrowing story of the day he and fellow soldiers opened fire on a vehicle they believed to be carrying explosives. What they found as they approached the car was an innocent Iraqi family attempting to flee the city. Cannon had to remove a dead baby from its mother’s arms and held another woman in his own arms until she died. According to the D-News Cannon told the crowd, “People argue that terrible things happen in war. Believe me, I know. What I don’t know is why we have to learn this terrible lesson over and over again.”