protesters and cops respect each other & a Vet for peace speaks his mind

When asked for a statement from one of the four Iraq war protesters pictured above one of them told me simply "I love America"

The police pictured above seemed annoyed over having been preped to deal with a rioting mob which never showed up.
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Jim R. has been on the front lines in Iraq and in the peace marches of California. He has believed in both–the need to derail the presidency of Saddam Hussein, the need to stop U.S. military intervention in the Middle East.

He is not, in his own opinion, a man of contradictions, but rather an Army veteran who has traveled a common and yet complicated path. As a combat engineer with the U.S. Army's 24th infantry division, he helped blow up civilian infrastructure in Iraq during Desert Storm.

Now, at 35, he protests the war in Iraq. He spoke at last week's anti-war rally on campus. He heads up a local chapter of the national organization Veterans for Peace, which is comprised of like-minded people who have made the same extraordinary journey from war zones to peace marches.

Jim enlisted in May 1990, drawn by the U.S. Army's college fund and his own family's legacy. On his mother's side, almost all the men have done military service.

Then, in August, Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait and the administration of former President George Bush Sr. intervened to push out Hussein's military. Jim recalls that his unit was encouraged to destroy not only Iraq's military bases but Iraqi infrastructure as well. U.S. military leaders reasoned that it would force Hussein to later spend large sums on re-building, he says. "We blew up freeway overpasses and power lines and ammunition supply bases, and it got to where we were shooting at buildings we passed," Jim recalls.