By Staff
Staff and Wire reports
FAYETTEVILLE— Hundreds of protesters gathered in Fayetteville Saturday afternoon to protest the war in Iraq and five Beaufort County women were among them.
Beaufort County residents Barbara Lawrence, Josie Hookway, Billie Mann, Emily Keech and Pat Seibert braved the wind’s chill and temperatures in the 40s, setting out in Keech’s van to attend the rally more than two hours away.
Called the Fayetteville Peace March &Rally, the annual event coincided with demonstrations in Washington, D.C., and around the country. The anniversary of the start of the war is Tuesday.
The downtown Fayetteville crowd was much larger in past years, drawing around 3,000 people in 2005. But the gathering near the home of the Fort Bragg Army post did resemble that of years with live music, brightly colored signs, and slogan-filled anti-war speakers, according to the Associated Press.
The recent scandal over lax care at Walter Reed Army Hospital and a now Democrat-controlled Congress brought more politics into the usual call to bring the troops home.
Military veterans also made their frustrations known.
The demonstration was especially personal for Griffin Allen, 11, of Fayetteville, who attended with her grandmother. Allen carried a fluorescent pink sign that read, simply, ‘‘Bring my Dad home now.’’
The Beaufort County women said they do not have anti-military sentiments.