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Petition from Veterans Rejected at White House
(Veterans Against The Iraq War, March 26, 2003)
Taking a petition to Washington signed by more than 2,000 veterans opposed to a preemptive war in Iraq is one thing. Getting someone to accept it is much more difficult. . . . �We cannot accept anything,� said a police officer at the White House. �Put it in the mail.� . . . As bombs exploded in Baghdad and battles erupted across Iraq, more than 400 military veterans and family members demonstrated Sunday in the nation�s capital demanding the safe return of our troops. Months of effort to collect signatures on an internet petition and deliver the message to the Bush administration and Congress seemed undone by the abrupt military assault launched just days before.
Gathering on the Ellipse by the south lawn of the White House, the marchers sent a five-person delegation to deliver the Veterans Against Iraq War petition to President Bush. Two Vietnam veterans, a Gulf War vet, and a woman veteran, accompanied by Daniel Ellsberg of Pentagon Papers fame, approached the security fence and spoke to a police officer on duty in front of a gate. . . . �We would like to deliver this petition to the president,� Stewart Nusbaumer, a Marine veteran who lost a leg in Vietnam, said, leaning on a cane. The lone officer gently but firmly declined to accept the red folder containing the petition with 49 pages of signatures. . . . �Is there anyone here who can accept it?� a television cameraman interjected. �No, we cannot accept anything,� the officer replied. �If you want to, you can mail it.� . . . Among the forest of signs: �I served in Vietnam, my son served in the Persian Gulf, Bush serves the oil industry.� Another one said: �Our son is a Marine, don�t send him to war for oil.� A third said: �We are patriots, we served, did you?�

posted by Lorenzo 12:27 PM