Statewide anti-war rally features comparisons of Vietnam, Iraq

TERRE HAUTE -- Pfc. Robert Lore was just walking by the End the War rally at the courthouse Saturday in full military dress when someone asked him why the United States is in Iraq.\n"I'm asking the same question," he said.\nImmediately, one of the protesters asked him to speak. However, he was unable to because the protest was already running long. He would have been the last of the speakers that included protest organizers from all around the state and military families who used a bullhorn to address the protesters. \nThe rally was part of an annual statewide anti-war protest that gives groups a chance to gather at one place and coordinate their efforts.\nLore was in full military dress because he had been at an awards ceremony for his brother who is also a soldier. He didn't know about the rally until he walked by it, he said.\nHe is against the war in Iraq, but he said that doesn't mean he won't do his duty as a soldier.\n"I joined the army to protect the nation at whatever cost," he said. "I'll go over there and fight to the death, but I don't agree with whatever (Bush) is doing."\nAlthough he spent all of 2004 in Iraq walking around neighborhoods waiting for the insurgents to attack, speaking in front of the crowd "scares me to death," he said.\nThe other speakers who were interrupted continuously by cheers, clapping and horns from the busy street just feet away didn't have the same problem. \nTheir main message was that the American public was lied to leading up to the war in Iraq and that no more soldiers should die in Iraq.\nNick Egnatz, the organizer of the Northwest Indiana Coalition against the Iraq War, compared the experiences of soldiers in Iraq to his own in Vietnam.\nWhile fighting in the Vietnam War, he supported it, he said. It wasn't until he got home that his views changed.\nHe started to listen to the protesters and realized they were correct, he said.\n"Let's not be hard on our troops who are doing their duty and being lied to just as I was," he said \nUsually the statewide rally is in Indianapolis, but this year the statewide anti-war organization Indiana Peace and Justice Network decided to hold the rally in Terre Haute to give a different set of people the chance to hear and see the anti-war message, said Cathy McGuire, the main organizer for Terre Haute Stop War on Iraq.\n"If enough of us show how we feel, we can make a difference," McGuire said.\nThe rally brought together many groups from around the state that hold weekly or monthly anti-war rallies. \nBloomington, Highland, Ind., and Terre Haute have weekly rallies, and Lafayette, Ind., has a monthly rally. \nAs in Bloomington, much of the anti-war activism in Lafayette is from adults and not students, said Brandon Wallace, a graduate student at Purdue University and member of the Lafayette Area Peace Coalition. \nPurdue has a very conservative student body and most of the people who come to the rallies are professors and members of other progressive organizations, he said.\nMany cars drove by the protest and honked their horns in support, and some people drove by and yelled "Go home" or "Get a job," to which the crowd responded, "We are" or "We do."\nPeople yelling comments at the protesters did not upset Egnatz.\n"What is upsetting is when someone drives by and ignores us," he said.