Peaceful warriors

Daylight's last rays slice through the warm air. People scurry from work to their cars. Rush hour traffic zooms back and forth. And this evening, like every Wednesday evening, a cluster of roughly two dozen people stand on a street corner holding posters. Although the people vary in age and sex and carry different signs, they are united in a common cause: to protest war in Iraq.\nEach Wednesday from 5-6 p.m., a group of Bloomington community members gather at the intersection of Kirkwood Avenue and Walnut Street to protest an U.S. military offensive toward Iraq.\nThe Brown and Monroe County chapters of Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, the Bloomington Peace Action Coalition, Congregations for Peace and the Unitarian Universalist Church Peace and Justice Task Force have participated in the protest since August.\nBarbara Carlson, a minister at the Unitarian Universalist Church, holds a poster with a young girl on it that says, "The human face of war: seek peace." \nMost of the protestors said they simply hold to the belief that war is not the answer and communication can solve conflict. \n"If human beings are to survive on this planet, we need to learn to resolve our conflicts by sitting down and talking things out," Carlson said.\nBut not all community members agree. William Thompson, an IU international politics professor, said there are compelling reasons for intervention.\n"War is justified," Thompson said. "A case could be made for intervening to eliminate a threat for nuclear, chemical or bacteriological warfare."\nIraq's possible possession of nuclear arms is a main reason for supporting war, he said.\n"There is a case that weaponry is in Iraq and strong evidence that it could be used," Thompson said.\nThe protests are the group's way of communicating its message to the public, Carlson said. They also write letters to Indiana Senators and make phone calls to the President.\nOne man holds a sign that says, "Honk for peace." Although many cars do beep their horns, whether they honk in agreement with the protestors' message or because they want the protestors to leave is uncertain. A passerby shouted out his car window as he drove by, "Go home you f------ hippies!" \nBloomington resident Iain Robertson carries a "No war in Iraq" sign, and his cinder-colored schnauzer named Annie -- short for "Anarchist" -- wears a burlap sash proclaiming "Dogs for peace." \nRobertson said he believes that instead of war, the government should work to lift the economic sanctions the United Nations imposed on Iraq when its army invaded Kuwait in 1990.\n"I think it would be much better to lift sanctions," Robertson said. "We're harming the population and not the people we want to." \nRobertson said U.S. citizens do not even know whether Iraq has weapons of mass destruction.\nRobertson is not completely against war, but he said the Iraq conflict shouldn't require intervention.\n"There are circumstances that require force, but those are few and far between," he said. "It's not genocide. If there was genocide, then I'd say 'Yes, it's OK to go in there.'"\nTimothy Baer, a Bloomington resident, said he has fought toward the anti-Iraqi intervention cause the past four to five years. Like Robertson, he is also passionately against the economic embargo. He said it has caused water contamination because chlorine is not allowed to enter the country. \nBaer labels himself entirely anti-war and said every war perpetuates another one. \nHe said the Iraqi conflict is about money and oil.\n"We need to not be driven by money," Baer said.\nIU graduate student Sarah Combellick-Bidney stands by, nodding her head in agreement with Baer. \n"War will do a lot of damage, and it will not solve problems in Iraq," Combellick-Bidney said. "I'm here to criticize my government because that's what makes democracy."\nSura Gail Tala, a Unitarian Universalist Church member, is accompanied this evening, as always, by her loyal llama, Stir-fry, who wears a turquoise cape adorned with a black and white peace sign. Tala said she has been an ardent anti-war demonstrator since 1969, when she traveled to Washington, D.C. to help organize Vietnam War protests.\n"If we took all the money we spend on war and all the food we pay farmers not to grow, and bought our enemies living necessities, they'd be our friends," Tala said.