By Kelly Dougherty, Executive Director Iraq Veterans Against the War

I had been home from Iraq for less than six months when I met a small group of fellow veterans at the Veterans for Peace convention in Boston in July of 2004. It was there that we announced the formation of Iraq Veterans Against the War, a group of post-9/11 veterans who called for an immediate withdrawal of all occupying forces from Iraq. I began speaking publicly about my opposition to the war and the necessity of bringing our troops home. I was often told that the people of Iraq would be worse off if we left and that we just needed to wait and things would get better. At that time, less than one thousand U.S. service men and women had been killed in the fighting and violence of Iraq. Today, as I watch people around me prepare for New Year’s parties and celebrations, I want to remind everyone that we will also ring in 2007 by mourning the 3,000th U.S. service member killed in Iraq.

We are nearing the fourth year of the unnecessary, destructive war in Iraq, and things in that country deteriorate by the day. In a country of 25 million, violence, chaos, and a lack of essential services such as electricity, fuel, and clean water continue to be an everyday reality. The “Cradle of Civilization” has been reduced to rubble by the U.S. invasion and occupation. As I write this I can’t help but think that if I were to write a statement or attend a vigil every time one thousand Iraqis were killed, I’d have cramps in my hands from typing and my fingers would be burnt and wax-covered from the melted nubs of spent candles. The most recent estimate of Iraqi deaths, from the Lancet Medical Journal, was a numbing 655,000 children, women, and men.

While the number 3,000 may seem small when compared to over half a million, it represents actual women and men who have been forever taken from our lives and communities here in the United States. I was a soldier in Iraq for a year, and when I hear, day after day, of the increasing U.S. death toll, it makes my heart break. The men and women fighting, killing, and dying in Iraq are much the same as I am. They are my friends, neighbors, and loved ones. I think about the young man who I sat next to on the plane as I was going home for Christmas. He was on leave from Iraq, and would soon be returning to the front lines. He had already lost 12 men from his unit and I realized how uncertain his own future was. On the airplane, going home to his family, he seemed safe, but in less than two weeks he would be back in Iraq, possibly never to return. I also think of my veteran friends who have returned from the fighting. Some of them are physically wounded, but even more are emotionally traumatized by the violence and atrocities that they were party and witness to as a part of this illegal, immoral war. And although they came home outwardly healthy, they will never be the same and they are still fighting just to survive.

As we begin the New Year, I urge everyone to think of the men, women, and children on all sides who have lost their lives due to a war that never should have happened. And while we mourn their loss, we must continue to fight for the many thousands more who are still living, for the veterans, the troops, and for the Iraqis. The death toll will continue to rise until we force our elected representatives to stop funding this war, and demand that our troops come home now and are taken care of when they get here. For more information on ways you can commemorate the grim milestone of the 3,000th U.S. troop killed in Iraq, please visit www.unitedforpeace.org, or www.mfso.org.