Anti-war protesters have set up a demonstration in downtown Des Moines near the hotels where the nation’s governors are staying during their four-day convention. The protesters have arranged two-hundred-30 pairs of combat boots in an outdoor display to represent each of the two-hundred-30 National Guard soldiers who’ve been killed in the war on terror. Pierrette Wolfe of Clinton, one of the protesters, has a 40-year-old son who’s a career member of the Guard. She believes her son will eventually be called to active duty in Iraq. Right now, he’s in Iowa City, training Guard members who work in ambulance crews that she says “will go over and mop up the carnage.” Wolfe says she’s “O.K.” with what her son’s doing, but she worries that it’s just a matter of time before he is sent to Iraq. Wolfe accuses President Bush of using “trumped up” evidence of weapons of mass destruction to go into Iraq. “We had no legal right to go in there and invade a country,” Wolfe says. “There’s no way that you can bring democracy through the barrel of a gun.” The chairman of the Iowa Republican Party says President Bush is doing the right thing by pursuing the terrorists and toppling Saddam Hussein’s regime. The combat boots will be on display in downtown Des Moines ’til seven tonight (Friday) and then from nine A.M. to six p.m. tomorrow.
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