Local man on mission of peace bound for Iraq

ESCONDIDO, CA – An Escondido man who lost his only son during the invasion of Iraq is leading a delegation of U.S. military families there this weekend despite warnings from the Pentagon not to go because of escalating violence.

Fernando Suarez del Solar said yesterday that nothing would stop him from going to Iraq and spreading his message of peace.

If any of the 10 delegates traveling to Iraq are hurt, Suarez del Solar said, he will hold the Bush administration and Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the senior U.S. military commander in Iraq, accountable.

"The people of Iraq are not our enemies," said Suarez del Solar, whose son, Marine Lance Cpl. Jesus Suarez del Solar, 20, was killed March 27.

"The most important part of this mission is to show the people of Iraq that we also cry because of this war," he said in Spanish. "We mourn for our dead the same way they mourn for their dead."

Members of the delegation will leave Saturday from various locations across the United States and arrive Monday in Iraq. The five-man, five-woman delegation, which is scheduled to return Dec. 9, consists of parents and wives of U.S. troops, a Persian Gulf War veteran and two Vietnam veterans, one of whom has a 22-year-old daughter serving in Iraq.

Fernando Suarez del Solar said the delegates learned yesterday that the Pentagon couldn't guarantee their safety or help them with their mission. Besides taking more than 2,000 letters, cards and drawings from American youths to give to children in Iraq, the group is demanding the immediate return of all U.S. troops.

"They know we're against the occupation," he said of U.S. military officials. "They're afraid we're going to see things they don't want us to see."

Earlier this month, U.S. Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Los Angeles, wrote a letter on the delegation's behalf to L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. administrator of Iraq and head of the occupation authority, asking "for access to civilian and military installations." The letter, which was signed by six other members of Congress, also requested that Bremer and Sanchez meet with the group.

"The response, unfortunately, was that military forces in Iraq will not be able to comply with the wishes of Mr. Suarez and his travel companions," said Steve Haro, Becerra's press secretary and communications director. "They were also encouraged not to make the trip because of the current hostilities in the region."

The group is relying instead on Global Exchange and the International Occupation Watch Center, the two main sponsors of the trip. Global Exchange is a San Francisco-based human-rights group that sponsors educational trips to such countries as Afghanistan. The Watch Center was created in July by international peace groups to monitor and report on the war in Iraq.

Carol Jahnkow, executive director of the Peace Resource Center of San Diego, which helped Suarez del Solar pay for his trip, said the message of peace is so strong that people are willing to put themselves at risk.

"It takes incredible courage for people like Fernando to go to Iraq," Jahnkow said. "If you look at the news every day and see the reports of activity of U.S. soldiers, there's a tremendous popular uprising against the U.S. presence. Anyone going to Iraq at this point has to understand they are in physical jeopardy just as innocent bystanders."

Suarez del Solar said members of the group have considered the dangers and discussed the growing tensions in the region, but no one is backing out.

When he told his wife, Rosa, that he was going to Iraq, he said he promised her that he would take a cross and bury it near the spot where his son died. Suarez del Solar said he plans to bring back two handfuls of dirt to put on his son's grave, and that underneath the dirt is a seed of peace.

While I can understand the depth of grief of a parent losing a son to a war, it seems to me that Suarez has gone off the deep edge and has now found a cottage industry for himself in being a "peace activist." And now he's the leader of some ersatz, ad hoc "delegation?"

(And don't even get me started on how he paraded his son's body through Escondido on a circular route of almost twenty miles from the mortuary to the cemetary, past the high school, past the church, etc., etc., for the funeral, and how many times he's appeared on national television as the "grieving father" of the fallen Marine since then.)

We got a communist here. Tremendous popular uprising??!?! WHAT?!? Not only is that not true, I'd reckon that Mr. Jahnkow KNOWS that he's lying. BEsides, how the hell can you support the "resistance" when it is composed of Saddamites and Islamists?

But it just proves that these people are all about defeating America and self-hatred NOT about "peace" or any such nonsense.

Personally, I wouldn't care if the entire delegation is wiped out. Would serve them right for dishonoring the men and women over there and trying to make the deaths of Americans a vain sacrifice.

Update

Our dear Medea at work again

Families Going On Iraq Peace Mission

Associated Press
November 28, 2003

SAN DIEGO - Michael Lopercio is going to Iraq to hear how ordinary Iraqis feel about the war. Anabelle Valencia hopes to see her son and daughter, who are in the Army. Fernando Suarez del Solar wants to touch the earth where his son was killed.

Each will leave their hometowns on Saturday, forming a small delegation with other relatives of servicemen to bring a message of friendship for the people of Baghdad. They also bring with them doubts about the United States' involvement in Iraq and the Bush administration's handling of the war.

"A mission of peace, that is what we are trying to do," said Suarez del Solar, whose son, Marine Lance Cpl. Jesus Suarez del Solar, was killed in Iraq eight months ago. "The idea is that the people of Iraq understand that we are not their enemies, that we are also suffering in this war."

The group of 10 includes two wives of soldiers based at Fort Bragg, N.C., and four veterans of the Vietnam and Gulf wars, two of whom have children deployed in Iraq. They have raised donations to pay for the trip, and though no special government permission was needed, 25 members of Congress wrote letters of support.

"I have been very confused about what is going on," said Lopercio, whose son, Anthony, is an Army fueling specialist. "You hear lots of conflicting, crossed messages from the administration and the news reports."

Lopercio, 51, said he wants to talk to "average, everyday Iraqis. ... How they feel will ultimately dictate our success or failure there."

The journey - which will have the group meet in Amsterdam, fly to Jordan, and then drive into Iraq - was inspired by 48-year-old Suarez del Solar.

He became an anti-war activist after his 20-year-old son died on March 27 when he stepped on an unexploded U.S. cluster bomblet south of Baghdad.

Suarez del Solar's efforts caught the attention of Medea Benjamin, director of the San Francisco group Global Exchange. Over the past two months, they've linked other parents and family members willing to travel to Iraq.

"What we have in common is that we think that the Bush administration has got us into quite a mess in Iraq and we want to help find a solution that will both be positive for the U.S. troops and the Iraqis," Benjamin said.

Suarez del Solar plans to take dirt from the site where his son died and use it to plant a tree near the Marine's grave in Escondido.

Lopercio said his oldest son, 23, joined the Army shortly before the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

"He's got two years left in the service and I'm visualizing that he may spend two years in the most dangerous place on Earth," Lopercio said. "It just doesn't match up with the recruiting poster, does it?"

The greatest challenge in organizing the trip, Benjamin said, was a sense that U.S. soldiers were being punished by commanders if their family members wanted to join them but expressed opposition to the war.

In Baghdad, coalition spokesman Sgt. Danny Martin said he had not heard of such repercussions.

While Martin expressed concern about the safety of the delegation, and for all people in Iraq, he said their effort would be appreciated.

"Any assistance in keeping the entire nation stable and peaceful and secure is more than welcome," he said.

The group is to return Dec. 9, and members hope late to meet with U.N. officials in New York.

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Is he in the 101st Airborne division as well?

Update

Families Going On Iraq Peace Mission