Escalation of Violence in Iraq Leads to Renewed Calls for U.S. Withdrawal

Interview with Charlie Richardson, Military Families Speak Out co-founder, conducted by Scott Harris

As the U.S. commemorated the nation's war dead on Memorial Day May 29, the killing in Iraq continued with the deaths of 31 Iraqis in bombings and shootings, an American soldier and two crewmen working for CBS News, with dozens of others injured. The roadside bombing which claimed the lives of the news crew also critically wounded CBS correspondent Kimberly Dozier. Escalating bloodshed in Iraq comes as the public is getting new details of what appears to be the execution of 24 Iraqi civilians -- men, women and children -- at the hands of U.S. Marines last November in the western city of Haditha.

While the costs of war are the focus of official attention on one day a year in the U.S., anxiety and heartache are something that the families of both Iraqis and Americans killed or injured in the conflict must live with on a daily basis. Thus far, more than 2,400 U.S. servicemen and women have died with tens of thousands injured. Estimates of Iraqi civilians killed in the war range from nearly 40,000 to over 100,000.

In the fall of 2002, Nancy Lessin and her husband Charlie Richardson attended an anti-war rally in Washington, D.C. Their son was a Marine who would soon be deployed to Iraq. They met another military family opposed to the war and co-founded the group Military Families Speak Out to give voice to the families who would bear the brunt of U.S. policy in the Middle East. Since then, nearly 3,000 families have joined. Between The Lines' Scott Harris spoke with Military Families Speak Out co-founder Charlie Richardson, who looks at the conduct of the war and the efforts of many with loved ones in the military to end the conflict.

Call Military Families Speak Out. at 617-983-0710 or visit their website at www.mfso.org

Related links:

* Bring Them Home Now at www.bringthemhomenow.org

* United for Peace and Justice at www.unitedforpeace.org

* Veterans for Peace at www.veteransforpeace.org

* War Resisters League at www.warresisters.org

* American Friends Service Committee at www.AFSC.org

* Iraq Veterans Against the War at www.ivaw.org

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