In memoriam

A row of citizens holding anti-war signs lined West 11th Street Wednesday evening and received honks of support and peace signs from passing drivers. More than 200 people participated in a candlelight vigil in front of the Capitol's south gates to commemorate and protest the Iraq war at the beginning of its sixth year.

Jim Turpin stood in front of two caskets, one covered with the U.S. flag and a pair of military combat boots, and the other with the Iraqi flag and pairs of women's and infants' shoes. Turpin said he has traveled as far as Washington, D.C., to protest the war.

"We want to honor these people today and let people know that these are real people that have lost their lives," Turpin said.

MoveOn, a civic activist group, hosted the annual vigil, and some participants said they had attended all five years.

More than 29,000 U.S. soldiers have been wounded, and the war cost is at $500 billion, according to The Associated Press. The U.S. military death toll is nearing 4,000, and 370 of the soldiers killed were from Texas.

Participants listened to testimonies from citizens, veterans and family members of soldiers affected by the Iraq conflict, which began on March 19, 2003.

Elizabeth Skerpan-Wheeler is the ex-wife of a soldier in the Army who was deployed to Iraq in 2006. She said her ex-husband protested the war in 2003 and that when he returned from combat in July 2007, she no longer recognized him, and the couple divorced soon thereafter. She said he will be deployed to Afghanistan next year.

"There will be broken homes, children without fathers or mothers, not because they're dead or physically disabled, but because they've lost their souls," Skerpan-Wheeler said.

She said she came out to remember the person her husband once was.

"It was the last thing I could do for him," she said.

Cynthia Thomas' husband, Tim Thomas, is currently serving his third deployment to Iraq despite sustaining a laundry list of injuries after a vehicle rollover during his second deployment in 2005. Tim Thomas suffered fractures in his back and pelvis, collapsed lungs and a separated shoulder and pelvis, as well as post-traumatic stress disorder and memory loss, among other injuries, his wife said.

Before Tim was deployed in August 2007, doctors told his commander that if under enemy fire, he wouldn't be able to save himself since he cannot move in the same way he could before and cannot carry the weight of his safety gear or M-16. Cynthia said her husband could have been medically discharged, but he did not want to risk his near retirement.

Her husband has been active duty and reservist since 1982 and served in Operation Desert Storm. He was originally meant to serve his third deployment in Kuwait as a liaison for his company but was sent to Iraq because of his experience.

"We are stationed at Fort Hood, and the stories coming back from the soldiers, they're just horrible," Cynthia said. "What the government is saying they're doing, they're not doing, and of course they're not telling the true story of what's going on, and it was basically based on lies."

She expects her husband to return between August and December.

President Bush on Wednesday said he understood the debate on whether the war was worth fighting for, whether it is worth winning and whether the U.S. can win. He said the U.S. can and must win the war and that removing Saddam Hussein was the right decision.

"The battle in Iraq has been longer and harder and more costly than we anticipated, but it is a fight we must win," Bush said.